LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: john@vodka.lynx.net.au
  To  : nickelodeon@heaps.fully.cx
  Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 10:23:34 +0930 (CST)

Re: Truths.gy

> Observe and learn, penguin people.  The Linux Operating System is taking a
> similar turn.  There are god-knows-how-many programmers out there, all
> developing their own little parts of the OS, not communicating with each
> other to any great degree, and ignoring and rehashing and recreating
> standards faster than anyone can keep up.  A bit like Microsoft's
> programmers.  Good, eh?

	(I thought you had gone mad in the first few paragraph). 
	Redhat in particular, is beginning to turn to the dark side. They seem
	unwilling to extend themselves to be part of any standards 
	movements (do they intend to go for the Unix98 certification?)
	The number of distributions, too, is becoming unweildy, as fly-by-night
	groups brand their own linux install process, spreading out of date, 
	buggy, or insecure utilities across the world.

	(Interesting apropos regarding the perpetual reinvention of the wheel, 
	when will *anyone* settle for a fscking method for encrypting 
	network traffic? We have SSL, IPSEC, IPv6, and a bunch of other 
	pseudo-proprietry protocols floating around the place... :P )

	The solution, ironically, might be (yet another) linux distro: once that
	conforms in as many ways as possible to  recognised standards...

> BSD, on the other hand, has a ridiculous red-tape-ified system, where only a
> few privileged humans can modify the source-code, and things have to be
> checked, and approved, and rah rah rah.  What a load of complete bollocks.
> And you can't run Linux software on BSD anyway, so don't bother with it.  I
> don't think you can even make it connect to the internet.  It's a huge waste
> of time.

	Uhhh, you can run linux binaries on a BSD system... (Not completely 
	the same thing...)
	BSD, however, allows redistribution of binaries. That's why so many 
	big companies (Network Associates, Nokie, etc), use the BSD kernel for
	the basis of high-end firewalls and the like.
	(Oh, and brainiac, BSD included the first TCP/IP stack. Just cause 
	you're too stupid to get the damn thing configured, doesn't mean it 
	doesn't work. The BSD networking code pisses all over linux.
	Oh, and what's being used to power the latest Apples?)

> Now.  Modems.  All this talk about external modems and how wonderful they
> are is making me -sick-.  Who the hell wants to see little red lights
> flashing at them the whole bloody time?  And they're much slower than

	Actually, it's when you can can see which little red LEDs are NOT 
	flashing that external modems are a plus.
	
> internal modems, because you plug them into the serial port, whereas
> internal modems plug -directly- into the motherboard, giving the CPU, with
> its huge bandwidth, direct access to the telephone line.  Why is there a
> question?  I'm puzzled and amused by the naivety of some of you people.

	Until we start getting fibre into our houses, the speed of the phone 
	line means that it really doesn't matter which is 'faster...

> One other point I'd like to make before signing off - security.  Windows NT
> security is eons ahead of Linux's security, for lots and lots and lots of
> reasons.

	My ghod. You were serious about NT? You've never ever programed under 
	NT, at any level, have you? 
	When MS ever decides to document  the internals of its security 
	software, and it becomes as well known and explored as unix,
	then we can properly judge this.
	All the people that spend their lives reverse engineering NT DLLs
	seem to say the complete opposite as you. Apparently once you
	pull it to pieces, there's really not much there... :(

	Perhaps you'd care to expand on your lastpoint. What does NT have that
	Linux doesn't??

> I want Administrator access, but I don't have the password.  What do I do?
> God knows.  It's too hard.  There's no "crack the password" button and no
> file called "c:\windows\Administrator Password.pwd" so argh!

	gee. There's a file called \winnt\system32\config\SAM instead.
	And there's NTFS an driver for Linux. What's your point here?

> Linux?  hah.  I just reset the server, enter single-user mode, and I have
> complete control over my system with Administrator (or root or whatever you
> twats want to call the Administrator user) privileges.  I can even change
> the Administrator password by typing a few simple commands.

	Ha! I boot with my off-the-web disk, and replace the administrator hash.
	Then I reboot and do whatever I want. 

> Bah.
> 
> I think I've made all the points I need to for tonight.

	yes.
	1. Nick is trolling for a flame, or has no idea.
 
Jb

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