Linux-Advocacy Digest #916, Volume #25 Sun, 2 Apr 00 19:13:16 EDT
Contents:
Re: 10 things with Linux I wish I knew before i jumped (Matthias Warkus)
Win2000 kicks ass (chewing_gum)
Re: Windows 2000: nothing worse (George Marengo)
Re: Linux bugs!!! (Marada C. Shradrakaii)
Re: Misleading advertisement about linux and redhat !!! (Shadow Hunter)
Re: Misleading advertisement about linux and redhat !!! ("Robert Moir")
Re: Linux bugs!!! (Mig Mig)
Re: 10 things with Linux I wish I knew before i jumped ("Phillip")
Re: Misleading advertisement about linux and redhat !!! (Opinionated)
Re: Introduction to Linux article for commentary ("Tim Haynes")
Re: 10 things with Linux I wish I knew before i jumped (Kurt)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Matthias Warkus)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: Re: 10 things with Linux I wish I knew before i jumped
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2000 20:05:16 +0200
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
It was the Sun, 2 Apr 2000 12:31:50 -0400...
...and Rich Cloutier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > Also, I think you can create a swap file that resides on an ext2
> > > filesystem. Didn't look like something worth trying.
> >
> > However, this makes it possible to have a daemon running that creates
> > and adds swap space on-the-fly if your swap is filling up. Kind of
> > neat, but I don't know whether anyone does that.
> >
>
> This is new then. I last partitioned my drives with kernel 36 in RH5.2. Or
> else I just missed it. Anyway, I know that Windows runs faster when there is
> a dedicated swap file, so I would assume that a dedicated swap partition
> that doesn't go through the file system would also be faster.
Of course. And it's the beauty of Linux that swap space is a fungible
resource to the kernel, you can have as many swap partitions and swap
files as you want and it all becomes one large swap area.
mawa
--
Kalorienzähler!
Katzenkrauler!
Kettenbriefweiterschicker!
Kirschenentkerner!
------------------------------
From: chewing_gum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Win2000 kicks ass
Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2000 20:44:02 +0100
Hi there
Had this installed for a month now. Superb, no hangs, no crashes..
....beautiful piece of software. Well done Bill.
Linux for the desktop? Never.
cheers
bob
------------------------------
From: George Marengo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: Windows 2000: nothing worse
Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2000 19:44:58 GMT
On Sun, 2 Apr 2000 00:25:44 -0600, "Erik Funkenbusch" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>Jim Richardson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
>news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
>> >Hardly. WinCE mightn't be as popular as PalmOS, but devices using it are
>> >certainly selling well. WinCE hasn't been around for that long either,
>> >whereas NT was around on several platforms for many years.
>>
>> Selling so well, that IBM just stopped making Wince boxes. Still making
>> their palm clone though.
>
>IBM just came out with a new Workpad that is CE based. The Workpad z50.
Is this "new" Workpad z50 something other than the product they
introduced nearly a year ago? (note the date of the article)
http://www.zdnet.com/products/stories/reviews/0,4161,2257047,00.html
>This thing sells faster than IBM can produce it.
Are you sure that it's the CE-based z50 that you're talking about?
Given that PalmOS-based handhelds hold have around 80%+
of the PDA market, and IBM's CE-based z50 sells for $999, if they
really do sell faster than IBM can make them, that says more about
IBMs ability to manufacture it than it does about their popularity.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Marada C. Shradrakaii)
Subject: Re: Linux bugs!!!
Date: 02 Apr 2000 19:50:56 GMT
>Has X gotten to the point that it never hangs? I believe that some messages
>on
>the news claim the contrary. Does anybody have code that demonstrates the
>"phenomenon" ?
It hadn't as of about a year ago-- I found that using XF86_SVGA with my S3
Virge and running Xawtv made it dangerous to switch virtual consoles--
sometimes X wouldn't return.
--
Marada Coeurfuege Shra'drakaii
members.xoom.com/marada Colony name not needed in address.
DC2.Dw Gm L280c W+ T90k Sks,wl Cma-,wbk Bsu#/fl A+++ Fr++ Nu M/ O H++ $+ Fo++
R++ Ac+ J-- S-- U? I++ V+ Q++[thoughtspeech] Tc++
------------------------------
From: Shadow Hunter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Misleading advertisement about linux and redhat !!!
Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2000 16:12:58 -0400
Redhat is an operating system! It's a Linux OS, not Windows. I guess
general Windows users consider Linux not to be a real OS? It's kind of
like Ford owner's not thinking that Chevy's are real cars? The Redhat
Distribution is proprietary, however, the Linux Kernel is not.
Remember, all Linux distributions run on the same kernel.
Shadow Hunter
On Sun, 02 Apr 2000 12:16:52 +0500, Syed Farhan Ali
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I live in Karachi, Pakistan. Today (Sun April 2, 2000) an advertisement
>appeared on page no.5 of 'Dawn', a local english news paper
>(http://dawn.com) . I think the news gives out the wrong message as to
>what linux really is. The text of the advert. is as follows:
>
>"....
>Introduces
>redhat
>
>... the only authorised distrobuters of redhat Inc. for linux, is proud
>to introduce this high-tech power operating system in pakistan for the
>first time.
>
>redhat is a powerful, extremely stable, next generation operating system
>that provides a high performance computing environment for both server
>and desktop PCs
>..."
>
>IMHO this advert. depicts redhat as an operating system, which it is
>not. It also gives the imperession that redhat linux is a proprietery
>software.
>
>If my perceptions are wrong, then I apologise the advertisers.... and if
>my perceptions are right then I urge the community to take appropriate
>action.
>
>Thanks
>Farhan Ali
------------------------------
From: "Robert Moir" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Misleading advertisement about linux and redhat !!!
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2000 21:28:27 +0100
"Shadow Hunter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
>
> Redhat is an operating system! It's a Linux OS, not Windows. I guess
> general Windows users consider Linux not to be a real OS? It's kind of
> like Ford owner's not thinking that Chevy's are real cars? The Redhat
> Distribution is proprietary, however, the Linux Kernel is not.
> Remember, all Linux distributions run on the same kernel.
Wow, you see paranoid or dumb windows users behind everything? I could be
wrong, but I got the impression the poster was mentionning the fact that
they seemed to imply that redhat = linux and linux = redhat. I'm sure a
debian or corel rep would agree that was misleading.
------------------------------
From: Mig Mig <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Linux bugs!!!
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2000 21:45:51 +0200
Jim Dabell wrote:
> Mig Mig wrote:
> >
> > Jim Dabell wrote:
> > > Mig Mig wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Cihl wrote:
> > > > > This is a follow-up of the thread "Nice link" which was started by me :-)
> > > > > I wish to propose the following challenge for everyone:
> > > > >
> > > > > Find a way, ANY way of crashing the entire Linux operating system while
> > > > > operating as a non-root user! Please post anything you can find in this
> > > > > thread. I'm sure many people will be interested!
> > > >
> > > > Thats rather easy by reading the kernel mailing list.. i remneber one crash
> > > > caused by a user writting direct to video-memory
> > >
> > > And exactly how could a normal user do that? You need special
> > > permissions to write directly to video ram.
> >
> > Try search the kernel archives.. im sure Alan Cox discussed the problem in
> > around may-june 1999
>
> Sorry, can't find it. Still, if it was discussed that long ago, it's
> bound to have been fixed by now. Oh hold on, are you talking about
> sending bad data to /dev/3Dfx? That's an artifact of how the Voodoo 1
> chip and Glide work, AFAIK, and can't be worked around without
> significant performance loss.
>
> In any case:
>
> a) It's an external driver
> b) root can restrict it to "trusted" people
> c) there's no way of exploiting it unless you can execute code on the
> computer.
Well if you can hang the machine then i think its a problem. But youre
probably right about the fix by now.
> Let's compare that to MS:
>
> a) The aux/con drivers are built into all DOS derivatives, with no way
> of disabling them.
> b) Anybody on the machine can access them
> c) You can exploit them with a simple web page or email
>
> Genuine question: have MS fixed the bug yet?
No i dont think so.. and this one was first lifted i think one year ago
------------------------------
From: "Phillip" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: Re: 10 things with Linux I wish I knew before i jumped
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2000 00:05:20 +0200
JOE
> What are the 10 things about Linux you wish you knew before you got a
> copy and started installing?
Newbie helping newbie, here we go!:
Stuff you NEED to know:
1st of all:
If Linux is successfull doing something you wanted it to do - it WON'T tell
you!
(unless you said that comand to do otherwise)
2nd of all:
If something goes wrong - Linux will tell you clearly what the problem is -
so LISTEN to it
"general fault error" is just plain Windows crap.
If- i.e.-you get a "permission denied" then there's a problem with your
permission, AND NOTHING ELSE! (up to where the process came, that is)
locate (name) - show every place in the dir-tree where (name) is found
(good for finding howtos) (usr/doc/howto with
SuSE)
man (progname) - shows you the manual of that program
grep (aka get regular expression) - mmmm... I'll gues you should type "man
grep"
to get a picture of grep and it's many uses :-)
find (xxx) - "man find" ;-)
the howtos (docs that explain how to achive certain goals - i.e. setting up
your x-window system)
apropos (xxx) - lists each entry of all man pages that think of themselves
to be
related to xxx (manpage subject crossindex
finder)
mc - midnight commander, northon commander clone for Linux - VERY usefull in
the begining.
Generel stuff you NEED to know:
BEWARE: ObnOxiOuS capitalization (cap-sensitive also - yeah, dig it!)
directory like this (no kiding!):
/usr/etc/x11r6/lib/x11/etc/lib/bin
For short: arange any set of up to aprox. 20 three-letter abreavations you
can think of, in any order you fancy, and it will most likely be a existing
directory on you linux installation. :-)
Or a nother funny linux game: type the name of a program and add your name
or maybe the 1st verses of genesis or what you fancy as parameter and see
what happens. :-) (don't do it, that's just a joke!)
> Modem - which one
just as the best with 'doze - a good external one
ditch your winmodems!!!
> funny names for everything, usually start with k
stuff related to kde often starts with "k"
the good ol' comandlinestuff sound more like this:
skjalhflk.slkajf.diu.tar.gz
"awk" for intance is named after the three first letters of the cracks who
programmed it.
"sed" is a seldom "real" proggi-name - it means Stream EDitor.
> KDE, Gnome, Debian, GPL etc - do I really need to know all this - I just
> want it to not crash
gnome and kde are desktop enviroments (drag and drop and stuff like that)
wms (window managers, next lower level to destops, gives you just the optics
and no drag and drop for instance if you do't have a desktop installed) -
check out enlightenment wm!
xsever - (next lower level-does all the highres graphics and window stuff)
commandline inteface - you have to use it!
Want no crashing at all? Go commandline!
> Root & User - Oh, I'm both, maybe.
shure! root to setup things, user to use. one wrong move as root and you
format your HDD acidentally!
> Soundcard - it don't like me anymore
Sound(xxx) howto, "locate howto", etc...
> Mouse - got one of those wheel mouse...
IMwheel. "man imwheel", good luck!
> Dual Boot - just in case
lilo
> Samba - gotta talk to tne PCs
"man samba"
and so on...
Phillip
------------------------------
From: Opinionated <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Misleading advertisement about linux and redhat !!!
Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2000 16:26:45 -0500
Shadow Hunter wrote:
> Redhat is an operating system!
Wrong! Redhat is a company that distributes the Linux Operating System
(kernel with programs). RedHat is not the name of any Operating System.
> It's a Linux OS, not Windows. I guess
> general Windows users consider Linux not to be a real OS? It's kind of
> like Ford owner's not thinking that Chevy's are real cars? The Redhat
> Distribution is proprietary, however, the Linux Kernel is not.
Wrong! The Redhat linux distro is >NOT< proprietary....only some of the
software in their distro is proprietary, for which they have given a license
to be used in their distribution. The vast majority of software on the
RedHat distro is GPL'd software that has been developed other places than
Redhat, and that software can be downloaded straight from the program's
maintainers (The Linux kernel is only one of these programs). All Redhat
has done is to sell a distro that combines all of these programs onto a CD
(with some work to integrate these programs together), and you are really
only paying for the manual, CDs, and some support from Redhat when you buy
their package. You can also buy a RedHat Distro for $1.99 paying only for
the CDs from cheapbytes. What you cannot do is to copy RedHat's distro to a
CD and then make people believe that your copy came straight from RedHat.
You can, however, resell the CD (minus the Redhat proprietary programs) and
say that this is a distro based on RedHat (very similiar to Mandrake's
implementation).
> Remember, all Linux distributions run on the same kernel.
All Linux distros run on a Linux kernel, but the version of the kernel may
not be the same from distro to distro. The Linux kernel could be vastly
different from version to version as well.
> Shadow Hunter
------------------------------
Crossposted-To: alt.linux,alt.os.linux,uk.comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: Introduction to Linux article for commentary
From: "Tim Haynes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: "Tim Haynes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2000 21:45:30 GMT
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Those who are trying to find a place for open source software are
> wrong. Free software is clearly anti-capitalist. The suceess of Linux
> abnd other open source projects cleasrly shows that capitalism is
> doomed, it show that thousands of people can work together on a product
> as free people outside of opressive corporate enviroment and create a
> great product distributed for free. Sopom , not only software but other
> products like cars will be made in anarchist collectives, there will
> be no money, no private property. no monsters like Microsoft.
<FX: checks Date:> Yep, you posted it on Saturday. Still, you posted it
after midday so it's merely a troll, not a looflirpa.
~Tim
--
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| All our roads are waiting / To be revealed | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Kurt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: Re: 10 things with Linux I wish I knew before i jumped
Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2000 18:16:27 -0400
> > >
>
> [lazy reply to previous poster's comment]
>
> Disk space is cheap enough; I would think that the surest way to crash your
> system is to have it run out of memory. My PII with 128 Megs of RAM still
> uses swap space with KDE, Netscape, a term window or two, KFM, and a couple
> of chat programs running.
>
Yea, but I'm pretty sure that with 128 MB of ram, it doesn't absolutely
need to use that swap space (hell, I only have 161 MB ram + swap).
That's just how the kernel decided it wanted to use the available
memory. A buddy of mine seemed dissapointed when he upgraded to 256 MB
and was still using swap space.
- Kurt
------------------------------
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End of Linux-Advocacy Digest
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