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Free Talk Live => The Polling Pit => Topic started by: Alex Libman 14 on June 29, 2009, 03:36:45 AM

Title: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman 14 on June 29, 2009, 03:36:45 AM
Let the battle begin.   8)
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: digitalfour on June 29, 2009, 10:07:56 AM
What's your favorite entertaining podcast about Linux?
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: NuroSlam on June 29, 2009, 12:06:20 PM
What's your favorite entertaining podcast about Linux?

Got three I listen to regularly

gutsy geeks
floss
linux in the ham shack
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: BobRobertson on June 29, 2009, 12:25:09 PM
Ubuntu is Debian based.

Funny that there's no selection for just Debian, Slackware, RedHat. All "based".
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: KJM on June 29, 2009, 01:23:37 PM
Quote
Which Unix-like OS / Linux distro do you prefer?

For what use?

Server: BSD - FreeBSD
Desktop: GNU/Linux - Debian
Portable/Backup: GNU/Linux - Puppy
Learning: GNU/Linux - LFS
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman 14 on June 29, 2009, 01:35:36 PM
Ubuntu is Debian based.

Yes, it's true that the Ubuntu family had split off from the Debian family, but the two are no longer 100% binary compatible.  The same arguably applies to SUSE and Puppy, which borrowed from Slackware.  Etc.  The purpose of this poll is to group the major UNIX OS's / distro's into categories so that the results are interesting.  Putting Ubuntu and Debian into one mega-option would make it less so.


Funny that there's no selection for just Debian, Slackware, RedHat. All "based".

It seems pretty obvious that the core distro (ex. RedHat Enterprise Linux) is included along with the derived distros mentioned in the example list (ex. Fedora and CentOS), as well as other derived distros not mentioned due to lack of space (ex. Oracle Enterprise Linux, Red Flag, YellowDog, Berry, etc).


For what use?

I agree that different distro's are best suited for different situations, but you can still have a favorite.  If your Honda Odyssey rates as 9/10 in satisfying your family hauling needs and your Porsche 911 GT1 rates 8/10 in satisfying your sports-car needs, I guess the minivan is the winner.  :roll:
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Evil Muppet on June 29, 2009, 01:40:27 PM
I got OpenSUSE on my desk top.  works pretty good for the most part.  Was thinking of putting Ubuntu on my laptop
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Jetfire on June 29, 2009, 02:18:09 PM
try linux mint
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: digitalfour on June 29, 2009, 02:20:33 PM
try linux mint

I couldn't get it to boot up right on my old laptop.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: BobRobertson on June 29, 2009, 02:39:21 PM
I'm quite happy with Debian, since I find it difficult to compare the HUGE software repositories with anything else. I'll admit that I'm not a newbie, that I have no worries about using command lines or compiling my own drivers, but there is little need to do that with any release in the last several years.

RedHat has some very nice install/recovery features that are geared toward servers, little surprise there since that is their focus and forte'.

I tried to install OpenSolaris in VirtualBox, just to give it a try since the last time I tried to install Solaris-x86 was in 1995 with no luck what so ever (wouldn't even finish booting). Sure enough, the same thing happened with OpenSolaris. I think it's because I didn't dedicate enough RAM to it in VB, if/when I get a Tower Of Power with more than my present 512MB of RAM I'll try again.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Sam Gunn (since nobody got Admiral Naismith) on June 30, 2009, 04:55:30 AM
I used to think it was Redhat, now I think it's Kubuntu.

Vista Ultimate 64 is what I use though.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman 14 on July 08, 2009, 06:57:58 PM
Kubuntu is not the best KDE experience right out of the box; SUSE and PCLinuxOS (http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/3016) are probably the best.  And you don't know how fast KDE can be until you learn to roll your own with Gentoo / Sabayon.  Most core KDE developers use Gentoo themselves.  It's a German thing.  :roll:
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: NuroSlam on July 09, 2009, 04:56:15 AM
Kubuntu is not the best KDE experience right out of the box; SUSE and PCLinuxOS (http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/3016) are probably the best.  And you don't know how fast KDE can be until you learn to roll your own with Gentoo / Sabayon.  Most core KDE developers use Gentoo themselves.  It's a German thing.  :roll:


I thought you were done with "linux" so why do you give a rats ass?
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman 14 on July 09, 2009, 05:33:03 PM
I'm a walking contradiction.  (http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-confused003.gif) (http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php)

Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Hideaki769 on July 09, 2009, 05:51:55 PM
I prefer windows over linux cuz my desktop has the latest parts and I constantly upgrade. However linux doesnt have workable and reliable drivers for a while. I'm a huge gamer so thats an issue. I'll talk smack on linux but I'll admit there are other devices I have and other situations I would rather choose linux over windows.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman 14 on July 09, 2009, 06:59:12 PM
Hmm, looks like Ubuntu is winning big time...

No wonder I've recently acquired a mental association between Linux and The Goode Family (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goode_Family)...  (http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-laughing011.gif) (http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php)


I prefer windows over linux cuz my desktop has the latest parts and I constantly upgrade. However linux doesnt have workable and reliable drivers for a while. I'm a huge gamer so thats an issue. I'll talk smack on linux but I'll admit there are other devices I have and other situations I would rather choose linux over windows.

Yeah, getting GC89 (http://erikstambaugh.com/gprshowto.html) and even ATI drivers working right in Linux is always a pain, but that's not the reason why I've ended my long relationship with the Linux desktop a few months ago.  With Windows 7 and Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft's offerings just got better.  When installing Win7 RC from scratch, virtually every device on my laptop was detected and worked right off the bat.  I still use UNIX on the server-side though.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman 14 on July 15, 2009, 11:27:03 AM
BTW...

Anyone have any opinions on the recently-announced Google Chrome OS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_OS)?
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Harry Tuttle on July 15, 2009, 02:22:04 PM
BTW...

Anyone have any opinions on the recently-announced Google Chrome OS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_OS)?

Can't wait to play with it. My opinions on software/hardware are always based on my own experience.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Sam Gunn (since nobody got Admiral Naismith) on July 15, 2009, 02:39:25 PM
BTW...

Anyone have any opinions on the recently-announced Google Chrome OS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_OS)?

Can't wait to play with it. My opinions on software/hardware are always based on my own experience.
I can't wait to play with it either, but I'm betting I'll prefer to stick with Vista because it's actually on my hard drive instead of on the internet.

I don't like the idea of terminals/servers.  I prefer to keep all of my data on my own system, and release the parts of it that I want to share.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: BobRobertson on July 15, 2009, 04:31:53 PM
Anyone have any opinions on the recently-announced Google Chrome OS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_OS)?

As has been said before, "blogware". I'll believe it when I see it.

I don't like the idea of terminals/servers.  I prefer to keep all of my data on my own system, and release the parts of it that I want to share.

I agree. When I am not connected to the 'Net, I want everything I have to work. Net applications are exactly that, 'Net dependent.

As inept as Bill Gates is, his commitment to "thick clients" was correct, for the consumer market.

Thin terminals and good servers are an excellent solution to the small/large office environment, where applications are standardized, and it makes a great deal of business sense to have working files centralized for ease of backup. It also means that a failure of a system on someone's desk can be fixed by simple replacement, and the user has lost nothing.

If Google asked my opinion, which you can be sure they didn't, I'd tell them to make a really good "GoogleOS Theme" for KDE or GNOME or XFCE, and customize an install disk, but put it in front of a full-blown distribution like Debian.

(yes, pretty much like Ubuntu did, but NOT tracking Sid!)

That way people could have GoogleOS quick and pretty, but if they "got under the hood" they would find only more functionality and usability, not a limited shell of Google-only applications and nothing else.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Kevin Freeheart on July 15, 2009, 05:14:11 PM
I'm in a state of flux right now. I was a former Debian fan, but moved to Ubuntu because they seemed to actually be outpacing Debian in terms of Debian core stuff (i.e. the "alternative" installer, based on d-i, actually got ext4 support from Ubuntu before Debian included it.)

I got a new laptop several months ago, and Ubuntu Intrepid worked well, minus crappy results from the fglrx driver and freezing. I was excited for Jaunty but... Jaunty killed my wifi. Sitting about 5 feet from my AP, Jaunty detects my network at about 30%. From my coffee table in the next room, not networks.

Karmic fixed wifi range, but causes disconnects... IF NetworkManager works... it doesn't always.

I've been finding OpenSuse 11.1 and 11.2 to be decent. I have complaints there too. I encrypt my filesystems - OpenSuse 11.1 requires some hacking to do that with it's clunky partitioner. 11.1 also doesn't support ext4 for /. 11.2 still doesn't support encryption of /, but it does support ext4. 11.2 is unreleased, however, and there's a constant prompt to add repos which gets annoying.

For servers, I prefer Debian, mainly because I know it well and I consider that to be more important than having a very tight OS like OpenBSD.

I'm running an Ubuntu Jaunty system right now at work. I installed Jaunty, added the KDE 4.3 RC PPA from Kubuntu and then installed. It's pretty good but the wifi issue and shitty performance from fglrx make it not an option on my home laptop.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: BobRobertson on July 15, 2009, 06:15:58 PM
Karmic fixed wifi range, but causes disconnects... IF NetworkManager works... it doesn't always.

I've been happy with WICD. http://wicd.sourceforge.net/
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Kevin Freeheart on July 16, 2009, 04:04:41 PM
Quote
I've been happy with WICD

Yeah. Karmic doesn't yet have working fglrx either though. Once that's in there, or radeonhd or radeon can play videos decently, I'll be on it likely.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: bad_cab on August 22, 2009, 03:26:13 AM
What's your favorite entertaining podcast about Linux?

Got three I listen to regularly

gutsy geeks
floss
linux in the ham shack

computer action show (goggle Jupiter broadcasting)
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: BobRobertson on August 22, 2009, 06:50:35 PM
Karmic doesn't yet have working fglrx either though. Once that's in there, or radeonhd or radeon can play videos decently, I'll be on it likely.

I recently "upgraded" my system to one with the ATI onboard that requires the fglrx driver. What crap! As you say, video is flaky. I'm disgusted. I'm ready to go get a cheap second-hand Nvidia card, at least I've had excellent experience with them.

It's not like I've got huge gaming requirements, but I want Google Earth to scroll smoothly.

fglrx wouldn't compile for me, but Debian had them prepackaged. That's the whole reason for having "distributions", isn't it?
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman 15 on August 28, 2009, 09:56:48 AM
Slackware 13 is out (http://www.slackware.com/announce/13.0.php), m'yay!

Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Kevin Freeheart on August 28, 2009, 07:20:27 PM
Quote
fglrx wouldn't compile for me, but Debian had them prepackaged. That's the whole reason for having "distributions", isn't it?

Yes, though the fglrx driver supposedly has the ability to built itself into a Suse or Fedora RPM or a Debian or Ubuntu .deb. It's always filed in my experience with .deb.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: freeAgent on September 01, 2009, 12:26:36 AM
OpenSUSE is what I always use when I want to use Linux.  Ubuntu is also good, but I prefer KDE.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Sam Gunn (since nobody got Admiral Naismith) on September 01, 2009, 02:25:14 AM
OpenSUSE is what I always use when I want to use Linux.  Ubuntu is also good, but I prefer KDE.
Kubuntu
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: freeAgent on September 01, 2009, 08:18:15 AM
OpenSUSE is what I always use when I want to use Linux.  Ubuntu is also good, but I prefer KDE.
Kubuntu

It didn't seem to get as much support as Ubuntu/OpenSUSE.  It's like the ugly stepchild of Ubuntu-land.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman 15 on September 01, 2009, 10:29:25 AM
OpenSUSE is what I always use when I want to use Linux.  Ubuntu is also good, but I prefer KDE.
Kubuntu
It didn't seem to get as much support as Ubuntu/OpenSUSE.  It's like the ugly stepchild of Ubuntu-land.

Kubuntu is good because it is built on Ubuntu and its great package management system, but it's not the most solid / best KDE distro (http://www.google.com/search?q=best+kde+distro+2009) by far.

The best KDE performance I've had was with Gentoo.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: BobRobertson on September 01, 2009, 05:08:54 PM
Kubuntu is good because it is built on Ubuntu and its great package management system

Try a Debian install some time. Lenny (Stable) has KDE3.5, the next release, Squeeze, will use KDE4.x.

Ubuntu tries to schedule a 6-month release out of Debian Unstable, but there's a reason that Unstable is named Sid:

"Sid breaks all his toys."
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: freeAgent on September 01, 2009, 08:49:52 PM
OpenSUSE is what I always use when I want to use Linux.  Ubuntu is also good, but I prefer KDE.
Kubuntu
It didn't seem to get as much support as Ubuntu/OpenSUSE.  It's like the ugly stepchild of Ubuntu-land.

Kubuntu is good because it is built on Ubuntu and its great package management system, but it's not the most solid / best KDE distro (http://www.google.com/search?q=best+kde+distro+2009) by far.

The best KDE performance I've had was with Gentoo.


Which is why I use OpenSUSE...when I use Linux on my own machines.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Kevin Freeheart on September 04, 2009, 09:06:03 PM
Quote
Kubuntu is good because it is built on Ubuntu and its great package management system, but it's not the most solid / best KDE distro by far.

Since 11.1, OpenSUSE has has a new dependency resolver, zypper. It's still immature and a little rough around the edges. The upcoming release, 11.2 is slated to fix a lot of the issues I saw on 11.2. I've been a Debian fanboy for years, but OpenSUSE might equal Debian's package management on pure technical merit.

OpenSUSE is also shifting to a more modular approach with their repos, so users can construct out of modules (KDE 4 is a module, Kernel is a module, Wine is a module, Virtualbox is a module) of various builds (super-stable, current, testing) to get each component in the exact stage of development/disrepair they need. Perhaps you want a rock steady kernel because everything "just works" but you want the latest and greatest KDE 4 release, you can do it.

Once zypper is polished and the modular repos hit, I would state with confidence that OpenSuse is the best Linux distro unless you're a Gentoo ricer zealot.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman 15 on September 05, 2009, 04:34:34 AM
I tried OpenSUSE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSUSE) briefly a number of times, most recently 11.1, and didn't like it.  Yast (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yet_another_Setup_Tool) still feels like some unlinuxy leap into mediocrity, and package management / installation was way still slower than with Ubuntu (i.e. minutes to calculate dependencies), and fragmented between several methods - yast was too frustrating, zypper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZYpp) command line was OK but slow, for some things I had to use CNR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNR_%28software%29), and for some reason I also had to use smart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Package_Manager) as well.  I didn't try it for long, and I might not be recalling some things accurately, but what I remember is a general frustration in setting up all the software I typically want on a Linux box - something which on Ubuntu only requires adding 3-4 repositories and running a batch of apt-get commands.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Kevin Freeheart on September 05, 2009, 04:12:04 PM
Yast isnt' required, you can use typical configuration options (text files, GUI editors). That said, many things in Yast I actually like. By any chance, were you using Gnome? I'm personally not all that excited about Suse's default Gnome desktop.

Quote
and package management / installation was way still slower than with Ubuntu (i.e. minutes to calculate dependencies)

Sounds more like Fedora than Suse in my experience. sudo zypper up is fast. Now, I will admit that DOWNLOADING of packages is slow. This is one of the "immaturities" I meant, it downloads, installs, downloads, installs. It takes forever and fails if your net dies. This IS being corrected in 11.2.

Quote
for some things I had to use CNR, and for some reason I also had to use smart as well.

I can't imagine a reason in hell you'd "need" to use those, unless they were the ONLY way to install something. That's a case you'd not find on Suse, and wouldn't be solved by other distros. Unless you're blindly following tutorials... but that's not a "must". zypper has replaced all other package management in Suse. zypper is even modularized and handles the Yast package installation.

Quote
I didn't try it for long, and I might not be recalling some things accurately, but what I remember is a general frustration in setting up all the software I typically want on a Linux box

All of the things you listed I've experience with the 10.x line, but not 11.1. With Suse's one-click installs, I can't think of a SIMPLER way. Literally, the OpenSUse website has buttons like "Click to install KDE 4". One click, root or sudo password and it's on it's way. Repos added, refreshed, downloaded and installed.

Don't take this as a bash against Ubuntu. I have been a dpkg fanboy for YEARS and it's still probably the best package manager for any distro that's currently had a stable release. It beats zypper on 11.1 but I think it might equal zypper on 11.2 and surpass it by 12.0.

Quote
something which on Ubuntu only requires adding 3-4 repositories and running a batch of apt-get commands.

I should also note that after Karmic, Ubuntu will be re-organizing their repos. Those "main universe multiverse restricted" might require you to be more specific, but the details are still being hammered out. And to REALLY make use of Ubuntu, the PPA repositories are there (Chromium Browser 64-bit, for instance).
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman 15 on September 05, 2009, 04:42:38 PM
Yeah, I mostly used zypper for command line.  I did use KDE when I tried 11.1.  I understand that fewer universities keep SUSE package mirrors than Ubuntu, thus the slower downloads, but I specifically remember dependency resolution logic feeling very slow.  (BTW, strangely enough, the fastest Linux package downloads I've had were with Sabayon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabayon_Linux), from their main server in Italy, always 1.0 - 1.9 megs a second on cable!)  Yeah, I was blindly following tutorials in some cases, but you'd never encounter this issue blindly following any Ubuntu HOWTO's.  I've also had some CNR experiences that errored out.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: NHArticleTen on September 28, 2009, 04:08:27 PM
been goofing around with PCLinuxOS-GNOME

http://linuxgator.org/index.html

they claim it's good enough to make "distro-hoppers" stop hopping...lol

enjoy!

.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Kevin Freeheart on October 04, 2009, 06:19:38 PM
Karmic has reached beta, and it's been pretty good for me. :) It's replaced Windows 7 on my laptop and so far I'm happy.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman 15 on October 04, 2009, 07:15:35 PM
There's no Kernel but Linux and Sabily (http://www.sabily.org/) is its distro.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: saitoh on November 11, 2009, 07:26:15 PM
Sidux if you know your way around linux.

The ultimate linux OS. Debian based, and always bleeding edge. Ubuntu releases in cycles (every 6 months) so you'll only be using the latest software for ~ a month. Sidux has rolling releases, so you can always have the latest and greatest anytime.

I've used all linux OS's, and liked debian based ones best, but ubuntu was too dated because of it's release cycle. Mint is AWESOME but again is based on ubuntu's release cycle.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: BobRobertson on November 11, 2009, 07:46:24 PM
Sidux if you know your way around linux.

I just used Debian Sid. Install a minimal Stable, change the pointers in /etc/apt/sources.list to point to "sid", and apt-get dist-upgrade.

But seriously, that was 12 years until Lenny, the present Debian Stable. Lenny has been wonderful.

That, and Lenny has the last of KDE 3.5.9, and I am not thrilled with going on to KDE4.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: freeAgent on November 11, 2009, 08:12:08 PM
OpenSUSE 11.2 is out tomorrow :)
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: AL the Inconspicuous on November 11, 2009, 10:48:29 PM
I'm not planning on trying any Linux distro / release until Chrome OS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_OS) gets stable, but I've been thinking about a "100% permissive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permissive_free_software_licence)" server setup lately...

I gave up on OpenBSD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenBSD) a while ago, because they've really let performance slip in favor of grotesque security fanaticism, but I've lately been rethinking that position.  Everything else in computing is a commodity: you can always buy more CPU, memory, developer hours, etc... but security is priceless!  Imagine you're flying your spaceship out of this solar system and the government thugs send a probe after you - it attaches itself to your ship, cuts its way inside, connects to its wiring, and starts looking for a way to turn off your life support!  In that specific situation, you're not going to care about CPU cycles, you're gonna wish your life support microprocessors were running OpenBSD!  :lol:

They have the funniest geek culture of any OS I've ever seen!  (Gentoo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentoo_Linux) comes second.)  Check out their release songs & comics page (http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html) - amazing amount of spunk for a UNIX system / distro that ranks below FreeBSD, OpenSolaris, and 30 Linux distros on the DistroWatch popularity list (http://distrowatch.com/stats.php?section=popularity) for this month, in spite of putting out 4.6 Release (http://www.openbsd.org/46.html) just in time for my birthday (Oct 19th)...  Spunk - I like!  :roll:
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: AL the Inconspicuous on November 12, 2009, 11:17:07 PM
Hmm, along the lines of what I've said above about security at times being priceless, a matter of life and death...

From Slashdot -- Keeping Pacemakers Safe From Hackers (http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/11/12/1559253/Keeping-Pacemakers-Safe-From-Hackers?art_pos=4) --

Quote
Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETH_Zurich) and the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_national_de_recherche_en_informatique_et_en_automatique) have now developed a scheme for protecting implantable medical devices against wireless attacks (http://www.technologyreview.in/computing/23923/).  The approach relies on using ultrasound (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasound) waves to determine the exact distance between a medical device and the wireless reader attempting to communicate with it.

It's of course a stretch for now, but it's fully conceivable that future bodily implants will roughly resemble modern-day computers, which can be hacked or DoS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack)'ed in a number of ways...
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Harry Tuttle on November 13, 2009, 02:34:55 AM
It's of course a stretch for now, but it's fully conceivable that future bodily implants will roughly resemble modern-day computers, which can be hacked or DoS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack)'ed in a number of ways...

Shit! That means one day I may have a pacemaker and some jerkwad company will be phishing to tell me that my battery could be ready to give out, and I should call them immediately for a replacement.  :x
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: AL the Inconspicuous on December 22, 2009, 01:19:53 AM
So I've spent the past couple of days reviewing the state of various BSD-licensed OS'es in an attempt to dump the communist virus (http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=28400) [2] (http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=28047.msg579179#msg579179) [3] (http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=28728.msg578692#msg578692) that calls itself GNU/Linux.  I've been particularly happy with DragonFly BSD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DragonFly_BSD) for a whole list of philosophical and technical reasons, thinking I've finally found a base for my AnCap OS, but then the brains behind this fork has to screw this up by posting this socialist drivel (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1451590&cid=30173908) on Slashdot...  What a letdown...  :cry:

If I can't agree with any OS philosophically, I might as well continue pirating Windows...  :cry:


:cry:
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: BobRobertson on December 22, 2009, 09:42:40 AM
If I can't agree with any OS philosophically, I might as well continue pirating Windows...  :cry:

Don't you mean the philosophies and politics of the authors, rather than the OS?

Far as I can tell, an OS is just software.

Quote
:cry:

There there, AL, it's ok. By using GPL or BSD code there's no "statement" being made. At least by using unlicensed Microsoft code you're overtly violating their corpratist soul-crushing strangehold. Maybe even depriving Bill Gates of a few fractions of a cent.

...while maintaining demand for their products and their market share.

Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: AL the Inconspicuous on December 22, 2009, 04:03:24 PM
I'm not giving up on all BSD's just because of one Slashdot post by one programmer, but I was very disappointed because Matthew Dillon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Dillon_(computer_scientist)) is essentially the brains behind DragonFly BSD, and its innovative distributed FS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAMMER) and other innovations that could have helped BSD catch up to and even exceed Linux.  I am now more likely to use FreeBSD instead of DragonFly though...  But I have to be honest - it's much worse than Linux.  :x

Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: AL the Inconspicuous on December 23, 2009, 01:55:37 PM
This non-technical video on FreeBSD clustering mentions some cool facts: The Matrix movie was rendered on FreeBSD!

[youtube=425,350]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bAsYz5pVwyc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bAsYz5pVwyc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]


Unfortunately it also confirms my observation that government loves BSD...  :cry:
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: AL the Inconspicuous on February 09, 2010, 04:03:47 PM
I'm in trouble on UbunuForums.org again, this time on a "I don't think Linux has 1% market share (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1401575)" thread that alleges all common desktop OS usage statistics are manipulated by a vast Microsoft conspiracy.  My last post:


Quote
The moderators of this forum insist on removing this post I've previously made on this thread, most likely due to the small part of it highlighted in red below:

Quote
You have to define your market share criteria more specifically - per CPU, per desktop user, etc. Linux definitely has the lion's share of the supercomputing market, the server market, and it's doing well in some embedded / NetBook market segments as well.

The only market segment where the >1% Linux market share is debatable is the most visible one - desktop users. I think that if you do a study that adjusts for people trying Linux very briefly before going back to Windows and socialist government organizations where Microsoft isn't a politically-viable option then Linux desktop still falls short of 1%.

Also, here's a funny story: I was running OpenBSD for a while, and a couple of Web-sites gave me trouble before I changed my Firefox user-agent string to pretend it's Linux, and then I never set it back... A lot of Solaris, *BSD, AIX, etc users run Linux browser binaries, which will fool a lot of casual studies. I think many studies just assume that anything that isn't Microsoft / Mac and smells Unixy is Linux, and that would also include the various bots crawling the Internet, many proxy users, etc.

It is perfectly relevant and essential objection to the Linux usage market share statistics - if the government imposes a certain alternative by force then it isn't a market!  Was Chairman Mao's "Little Red Book" really the best-selling book of the 20th century?  Of course not, the Chinese government just printed it ad nauseum and forced everyone to carry it!  The same would apply to communist countries where Linux's main competitors can't do business, but whose users are nonetheless counted as part of that ~1%.  A discussion that fails to address this issue doesn't even begin to approach the realm of truth!

You can have your political spin, or you can have the credibility that I lend to this forum.  You cannot have both.

Well, at least they're only deleting an offending post and penalizing me gradually, with plenty of warnings, unlike the swift action the FreeBSD Forum idiots took (http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=28400.msg582991#msg582991)* (http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=28728.msg582903#msg582903) when I dared to speak ill of calls for government intervention in the Oracle / Sun deal - deleting every post I've ever made and banning me for life!  :x

Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman on May 19, 2010, 04:34:45 AM
OpenBSD 4.7 (http://www.openbsd.org/47.html) release day, woo hoo!

Remember when I called Theo de Raadt a "Randian hero" (http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=28400.45)?  Went straight to his head:

(http://www.openbsd.org/images/Superfish.jpg) (http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html#47)

:lol:
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman on July 11, 2010, 12:31:51 PM
Seriously, does anyone else find this coincidence (my e-mails (http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=28400.45) and the OpenBSD 4.7 artwork / song (http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html#47)) in any way peculiar, or is it just me?  :lol:

Of course there's nothing "heroic" about failing to run Chromium (http://sightly.net/peter/openbsd/chromium/) (the one thing that brings the permissive FLOSS stack into the 21st century) in a decent manner - slowdowns and crashes galore!  I've briefly returned to my biggest love in the UNIX world, Gentoo Linux (http://www.gentoo.org/), which is also the fastest and awesomest thing under the sun, perhaps just to remind myself how well this computer could run, but, alas - licensing issues must keep us apart...  I've also tried Haiku OS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku_(operating_system)) Alpha 2 - it shows a lot of promise, but I needs a real operating system, not a GUI toy.

So now I'm back running FreeBSD (http://www.freebsd.org/) (9-current (http://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/CURRENT/relnotes/index.html)).  I still don't like its community though - way too many commies...  But if there is to be a "libertarian operating system" fork someday, FreeBSD is the most likely base for it.  (FreeLSD?  :lol:)  The anti-copyleft movement is gradually starting to pick up some steam (but more on that on my "Software Freedom Scale (http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=28400.new)" thread).

In the meantime, the above poll results are downright disgusting!  How could so many libertarians be using the favorite OS / distro of socialist dictators and tree-hugging butt-wipes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goode_Family)!?  Go try Free/PC-BSD (http://www.pcbsd.org/)!

(http://www.pcbsd.org/files/graphics/flyer.jpg) (http://www.pcbsd.org/)
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: BobRobertson on July 11, 2010, 01:29:34 PM
or is it just me?

It's just you. Really.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman on July 11, 2010, 02:18:39 PM
Great - there's nothing I love more than avoiding the company of idiots.  :lol:
Title: Windows is your Friend!!
Post by: Stoker on July 11, 2010, 02:40:28 PM
(http://i877.photobucket.com/albums/ab338/JaggedSteel1/Windows_Is_Your_Friend.jpg)

What is wrong with Windows? I mean, it's not like Bill's dad was a CIA operative who arranged to have Windows be adopted by Government agencies, thereby making it the standard for worldwide use, or that it has intentional "backdoors" built into it to ensure that everything you do can be secretly monitored or that Black Ops can be funded by stealing from thousands of different accounts because they have all online bank passwords. Maybe Bill gets a bad Rap- it's not like he attends Satanic Rituals at Bohemian Grove or discusses the destruction of America at Bilderberg Conferences, or uses his ill gotten wealth to institute Eugenics programs in Africa, which are experiments for use on us or anything....
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman on July 11, 2010, 03:28:04 PM
Moved - I have a separate thread for debunking Microsoft hatred here (http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=28047.msg604733#msg604733).  ;)
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Texas Maverick on August 04, 2010, 08:15:44 PM
I use a Gentoo based meta-distro that does not have an official name. :D  I decided that there were some packages that I wanted marked stable that have not been stabled in the official portage tree. So, I created my own portage tree on github forming two branches, one for the official Gentoo portage and the other for my updates to the tree.  I use a bash script to update both branches once a day.
Title: Re: Best Unix OS / BSD / Linux distro
Post by: Alex Libman on August 04, 2010, 08:38:45 PM
Awesome!  Are you going to use any (other) Funtoo (http://www.funtoo.org/en/funtoo/about/) components like Metro (http://www.funtoo.org/en/metro/tutorial/)?