so i need to get me arse in gear and prepare for the WAN party i’m organizing/running for the ##club-ubuntu crew on freenode (see also: club-ubuntu.org and launchpad.net/~club-ubuntu for more info on them).

(see https://lists.launchpad.net/club-ubuntu/msg00014.html for a list of games, summary, etc. Note: it isn’t in that email, but we also added armagetronAD to the rotation list).

still on the to-do:

-configure/test armagetronAD
-configure/test cube2/sauerbraten
-enable/test voting on urban terror

it’s open to anyone who wants to play! i encourage you to stop by and check it out. connection details are in the topic for the ##club-games channel on freenode.

all the games are free in cost at the very least, and most are fully open-source as well. all have linux ports, all have windows ports as well, and most have mac ports also.

for those of you linux newbies, i’m copying over some comments i made on Lifehacker.com for the benefit of you guys.

(sorry for the messy formatting. maybe i’ll clean it up some other time. VERY text-heavy, but has a LOT of good info in it.)

_______________________________________________

“How about security, firewall and antivirus? I don’t know anything about how that works on Linux, other than that it’s said to be a safer, more stable system etc.”

(someone replied)

Security wise, Linux is more secure (debatable) because there are not a bunch of people targeting the system (debatable, too). Either way, your security needs are covered via system updates, where you only need to keep an eye for security updates. Thats it. The firewall (a must in most environments) can be installed for free via a simple update, and so is the anti virus (Kaspersky makes one, but haven’t tried it yet).

(my reply)  :

security: like (above) said, it’s secure out-of-the-box. when a security hole is found, it’s fixed ASAP- no matter what the possible threat level (a model M$ could learn from; they “prioritize” their threats. takes on average about a week for a very serious security hole to be addressed whereas more minor exploits may never be addressed).

another reason it’s more secure is not necessarily because it’s less targeted but rather the inherent design of the system- it runs in “layers” (the windowing/graphics system is separate from the system kernel” whereas in windows, it’s all intergrown together (in other words, a security exploit present in the windowing/graphics system can potentially provide a route for a hacker to set up a rootkit).
also, aside from layering, linux has right from the beginning been focused on multi-user security/functionality. it’s been designed ground-up with this in mind. multi-user protocol hasn’t really been implemented in windows since NT, and it does a shady job at best implementing (such as the default user running with administrator rights? uh. what?).

firewall: there isn’t exactly a “firewall” as you’re probably familiar with it. rather, the system default is unless specified, a port is not active. you just need to edit a config file to allow/disallow custom ports to listen in (but usually you can also configure this in the service’s configuration itself. like MANY things in linux, there’s multiple ways to do things)

antivirus: there are AV scanners for linux (and IDS as well). clamav and avg free come to mind. however, these are usually not needed at all- it’s a myth that there’s no such thing as a linux virus. i think seven or so have been developed. however, as i mentioned above in reference to multi-user and layering, the virii can’t propogate and infect the rest of the computer and thus, won’t propogate and thus, you don’t contract them. in order to successfully infect a linux machine, you’d have to know WHERE to get a specific virus, and execute it from the commandline (which is something most users aren’t comfortable with anyways). so ironically, the MORE you know about linux, the easier it is to infect a linux install. not the other way around, as with windows.

________________________________________________

“The more I look at this, the more I think that the gOS is for low-income users who cannot afford anything else, and would already be shopping at WalMart. But the article suggests that this would work for a basic machine for grandparents and kids. I agree with you that this would not work. Facebook and Google are already slow on a normal system. This idea is strictly for low-income families and this article stinks of marketing propaganda.”

(my response)

facebook and google are slow on which system? linux and windows handle threading differently. 512mb is PLENTY enough RAM for surfing the ‘net, no matter what site, because the enlightenment window manager (the thing that uses up the most RAM) still uses much less RAM than WinXP windowing (i have a workstation that only has 128 and it still works just fine). or even Aqua windowing on Mac, i’d venture. there’s also the swap partition which, although slower transfer than RAM, still helps a good deal with caching of internet sites, caching libraries, etc. in this way, you can browse the internet quite comfortably on a system with only 64mb of RAM with damnsmall Linux. don’t expect miracles, but as far as checking e-mail and news sites and just generally surfing the web, it’s enough.

don’t expect to run Half-Life 2 with the res and detail turned all the way up on this baby, but if you run an internet cafe, this is the perfect machine.

you can shove 4gb RAM in a box and it still won’t make your internet faster. the box itself just needs to be fast enough to HANDLE the browsing. and this hardware certainly does. not many people still use dial-up but those that do are, i’m sure, aware that their internet is going to be slow and will simply be patient. broadband is NOT that expensive, and i say that as a full-time student.

and don’t accuse an article of propaganda in this case without having a deep understanding of technology across the board; it’s like calling the kettle black. would you trust a schizophrenic derelict on a streetcorner at midnight to give you cancer prevention advice? i wouldn’t. in the same vein, you need to really understand the way both OS (as well as network protocol, etc.) work before criticizing and making assumptions. if you are interested in learning more, i’ll be glad to point you towards excellent educational resources.

not trying to be a jerk or anything, i just want to make sure you have your facts straight. linux suffers enough FUD, mudslinging, and propaganda from Micro$oft; we don’t need any more.

__________________________________________________

(in reference to software management)

when you install software in windows (and yeah, macs), you download an installer/binary from the project’s website (or torrent it, or run it from CD, whatever). you then run that file which usually installs the software (sometimes it’s a standalone binary or “executable”).

with linux, you have something called “repositories”- these are servers or clusters of servers hosting software (both binaries AND source code, usually)- it is also possible to put repositories on CD/DVD/local server (although HIGHLY not recommended due to slower access to updates, decreased security, etc.).
when you want to install something, you use an interface (called a “packaging tool”) either with or without a GUI front end (in ubuntu and DEB-based distros, aptitude/apt-get is the frontend to repository access and synaptic is one of the GUI frontends to aptitude). usually in repositories, there are THOUSANDS upon thousands of software, libraries (”dll files” for you windows users), etc. ALL which have been rigorously tested and tested again for security holes, memory leaks, etc. and then tested again, and so on so forth (and depending on which branch you choose- for example, stable vs. testing- you can have certain tradeoffs. more recent cutting-edge releases at the expense of stability, and vice versa).

(there are, of course, exceptions- sometimes a smalltime project isn’t in repositories yet, or refuse to be included in repositories, etc. in this case, they usually have a pre-compiled binary you can run, an “installer”(which utilizes the distro’s packaging tool), or the source code (and compiling from source is about as hard as unzipping a file as long as the makefile’s configured correctly- and it usually is. if it isn’t, there’s ample documentation on compiling on the project’s site).

what it all comes down to, in comparison for windows users, is this:
imagine your control panel listing not only what you DO have installed but what software you COULD install (as well as a checkbox and “apply” button to install it). no more going to google to find the software company’s webpage to download the installer to only find out you’re missing a certain library- SO! off to google again to download the dll you’re missing, etc.

the advantages to this method are numerous- free software at one command/one select of a checkbox, a list you can scroll through/search through for software you need to accomplish a certain feat/goal (repositories are indexed, cross-referenced, etc.), AUTOMATIC UPDATING WITH ONE CLICK/COMMAND (both windows and mac lacks in this area), increased security (when you install from a repo, you KNOW the software is what it says it is and not some malevolent backdoor/trojan. that is why virii propogation has not occurred in linux- even though it is possible to write virii for linux that do VERY limited damage (due to the multi-user internals), it doesn’t propagate because the only people who would GET virii are the ones who wouldn’t be installing from source (aka “grandma and grandpa” users).

__________________________________________________

“I can’t imagine that a Linux PC is ready for the unwashed masses.

Can anyone imagine walking your parents through how to untar and ungzip an application and install it? For that matter what if they have to “make”? LOL!

Computers are getting harder to use for people like this, not easier. What is truly needed for people like my parents is a computer that provides IN YOUR FACE step-by-step instructions for EVERYTHING and a dead simple interface with 3 or 4 giant icons to mash like – EMAIL, INTERNET, PHOTOS, DOCUMENTS, etc.

Oh, and a built in – always on – vnc server so I can fix everything remotely when they inevitable screw it all up. “

(my response)

a couple things i have problems with regarding your assessment.
-you’re making assumptions that they’ll need to install from source- if a distro’s repos are set up properly, they won’t (unless they’re hardcore geeks and do coding, penetration testing, database administration, reverse engineering, hardware reconfiguration… my parents don’t do any of these. do yours? if it’s THAT hard for them, you can always SSH in. or give them a bash script to run.
-which is harder? “Administration > System > Synaptic, select Firefox, select Apply” (ubuntu users, correct me if i’m wrong. doing it from memory) or “url:www.getfirefox.com, click Download, save installer (or run… but that takes forever) run installer, etc.” i’d prefer the former. i think linux is MUCH more newbie-friendly.
-as for “step-by-step documentation for EVERYTHING”… it does not and will never exist. on ANY os. gnome and ubuntu have help documentation, just as windows does. openoffice has help documentation just as m$office does. however, and here’s the problem, PROBLEMS WILL ARISE INEVITABLY. they will any OS, no matter what. the normal user, NO MATTER WHAT OPERATING SYSTEM, will have no clue what to do. this is where the service industry comes in- you pay for support. you can always find it free online, too.
-as for your always-on built-in VNC server, i have a couple problems with that.
1. vnc is a proven insecure protocol. nomachine or VNC over SSH tunneling would be better.
2. most distros have VNC installed out of the box, already. the service (the thing that lets people connect), however, usually isn’t turned on by default. this is a security precaution, done intentionally, and is a trivial matter to turn on. same reason when you install windows, it doesn’t have Remote Desktop turned on by default. security hazard.
3. if your parents (as in your model) have a NAT router (as they should), vnc WON’T work out of the box unless you’re on their subnet. you’d still need to set up port forwarding. there are ways around this such as NAT repeaters, but that’s a different subject.

right now, i have the 750 gb seagate hooked up and doing a badblocks test.

when that finishes, i’m going to:

1. partition it into a ~345gb partition and a ~405gb partition
2. set up ext3 filesystems on both
3. GNU ddrescue the old dying data drive into an image file on the 405gb partition
4. mount the image file as a loopback device, and copy what i can to a 160gb hdd i had lying around. once i get the image’s contents down to ~320gb, i’ll copy the rest to the 345gb partition.
5. use GPartEd to delete the second partition and grow the 345gb partition to the whole drive.

here’s hoping it works with no hitches.

EDIT:
venting and frustration below. not for young eyes.

SON OF A BITCH.

the drive won’t even boot, not even after i kept it in the freezer. it spins up but i’m pretty sure the electronics controller board is fried (dear B: don’t ever let the power fluctuate down here again. if you do, give me a UPS plz. thx.).

so here’s the new game plan.

1. RMA a new drive to come with hopefully the same controller board. if it matches, swell. if not, i shell out ANOTHER ~$100 for ANOTHER drive. i hate you and your non-returnable RMA’s, Western Digital.
2. also if not, i need to send it out to a data recovery place (SIGH). this is getting expensive. don’t ever, EVER let anyone EVER tell you that redundancy and back up are not worth it. they are.

any recommendations?

knoppix: the final frontier.

well, it’s really not neurosurgery or rocket science. but i’m encountering some horrors mid-remaster of it.

i can mount the ISO just fine. i can make all the changes i want.

however, on my production box (running debian 4.0, stable), CLOOP DOES NOT INSTALL.

oh, i can download the source, sure. i can get the kernel source AND kernel headers just fine. i can even install make-kpkg…  but that’s where the fun ends. it seems kernel compilation in 4.0 is broken. i couldn’t get a plain ol’ vanilla kernel to compile, let alone patching cloop modules in. hell, i couldn’t even run menuconfig! nor xconfig or gconfig (but i WAS running an external x server. that shouldn’t have been a problem though). here’s the weirdest part. oldconfig worked fine! AND YET I STILL COULDN’T COMPILE.

i’m becoming more and more convinced to move my production machines to gentoo. it pains me to say this, but i feel that debian is gradually dying.

i just read an interesting article on ars technica. it talks of how mark twain/samuel clemens supported copyright, but not for the reasons you’d think.

a quote, “[H]e [mark twain] knew that his works would likely continue to be popular long after their (then) 42 years of copyright protection expired. Maybe this wouldn’t have bothered Twain much were it not for the fact that he was convinced that public domain works were nothing more than free source materials for publishers to pick up, print, and make money on (without paying an author). Twain feared that publishers would continue to print his works without paying him, and thus they’d continue to rake in the dough while his heirs got none. And, as Twain once noted, while authors die, ‘publishers’ don’t. For their efforts, Twain called them ‘pirates,’ for they did as true pirates do: ‘take’ things that aren’t ‘theirs’ and profit from it.”

EXACTLY. this is why i think mark twain would support the GPL, and the Creative Commons licenses- it would aim to  protect the rights of the “author” so that they were not abused by publishers, and still allowed the people to enjoy their works. it would leave the rights over content, et. al. completely in the hands of the contributor and not the distributor. it’s time to put those distributors in their place, their heads have gotten rather large.

and while we’re on the topic of copyright (or copyleft, etc.), it turns out in an interesting twist of fate that SCO doesn’t even OWN the copyright to Unix, and owes NOVELL money! the irony, the humour!

i still have hope for america’s judicial system. i just hope novell doesn’t go power-hungry and start going after the throat of linux and GNU.

here are my favourite highlights:

“Confirmation of Novell’s ownership of the UNIX copyrights will also put an end to SCO’s lawsuit against IBM, in which SCO alleges that IBM infringed on UNIX copyrights by incorporating proprietary UNIX code into the open-source Linux operating system.” (emphasis added)

“Judge Kimball has ruled that SCO owes Novell 95 percent of the royalties generated by the licensing of Novell’s UNIX copyrights. The two most prominent SCO licensees are Microsoft and Sun, both of which develop operating systems that compete directly with Linux.” (emphasis added)

HAHAHA.

i’m laughing so hard.

F(L)OSS- Free Libre Open-Source Software- is the geek’s worst-kept secret.

it’s a secret that shouldn’t be a secret by its nature; the more that know about it, the better it gets.

see, there are three main proponents of the F(L)OSS movement.
FREE- absolutely free of price. you may be able to purchase “extras”- service/installation, support, installation media, documentation, pre-compiled binaries, etc. for an extra price but the product itself is free of price- $0.00.

LIBRE- this is a french word for “free” but (like in english), the word has two meanings. the first is the above-mentioned application of free. the second (and this is the one implied by this word) is applicable to the open-source movement: “we are releasing ALL of the source code, all of the development information, all of the specifications, so that you can take what we did and build on it.” the basic idea behind this is that ideas should be free- that no man has a right to say “this is my program. you can use it, but you can’t change it to better suit your needs or likes.” it’s essentially an effort towards removing monopolies in the software business. more in this in the next section.

OPEN SOURCE- as hinted at above, all source code is released to the public instead of hoarded by a few developers. the advantages to this are limitless:

• it allows for software specialization
• it encourages superior development. this is why open code is much, much more stable, secure, and powerful: when, instead of a paid team of 100 or so developers working on the project and trying to write the code, audit the code for security problems, etc. only so much gets done. however, when you have 10, 000+ programmers and 10, 00+ security experts and 10, 000+ administrators and 10, 000+ users, etc. looking at the code and providing direct feedback (even offering code themselves), the project grows exponentially. or quantitatively. whatever the term is.
• accessibility. not in the terms of aiding the differently-abled (although it’s certainly a goal of the F(L)OSS community); rather, in terms of WHO gets to use the software. in the F(L)OSS situation, EVERYONE gets to use it. you aren’t bound by your income, operating system (there are often many cross-platform ports of F(L)OSS because the code is available), hardware (MOST of the time.), etc.

there are a fair number more excellent things about it such as support for older hardware, , but i’m sure the readers will do a fair jolly job of detailing them in the comments.

but the movement isn’t without some hurdles.

due to some hardware manufacturers (cough, cough Broadcom, for one) being in “exclusive and binding contracts” with Microsoft (and, sometimes although MUCH less rarely, Apple), there are no Linux drivers for it. one of the most common arguments against Linux is “it doesn’t support my hardware natively! i need to work to get it recognized!”

guess what. you need to do the same thing in Windows (and at this point, GOOD LUCK if you’re trying to get an HP printer working in Vista. YMMV). i’d guess that 70% of hardware out there isn’t properly natively supported by Windows (i’d love to know if there are any studies on this- anyone?)
i’ve worked at a computer repair shop for over a year and i’ve been doing “freelance” computer repair/use since i was 7 (i’m 22 now). when i say that Windows is a hassle, i mean it. i feel a bit qualified to make the statement.

“but it doesn’t support this game, or that software!” guess what. that isn’t Linux/GNU’s fault. know who’s to blame for that? the software developers. they think that the only way to make a buck is to release to the majority of the market (and Mac users know my anguish with this, i’m sure) and ignore the rest of the demand. or perhaps they’re just lazy and greedy/selfish. the Unreal game series (as well as Quake) have given a bone to Linux users- they have ported the game for us. and they’re still making a TON of money. but most game/software companies just don’t care about you, they care about money (do you really want to continue to support a company that doesn’t care about your preferences?). and in addition to that, they put restrictive copyrights in place so we can’t even reverse-engineer them to port them to our preferred OS. how is that NOT an oligopoly? (remember, it need not be unethical to be the only one on the market. they simply need to have control of the majority of market- no competition). i’m talking to you, Adobe.
and the initial configuration for some advanced, power-user software and fun stuff like that can be scary, especially if you’re not used to the command-line (because today’s OSes are dumbed down, and they shouldn’t be. not for everyone). but with a little practice (i’ve only been using Linux for about three years), you can become greatly more efficient (the CLI- command-line interface- is always MUCH more faster than a gui because you can actually type faster than you click). and i’d like to see Windows cron a system-wide software upgrade every night.

i just find it interesting that you get more people FROM mac and windows TO linux than the other way around.

just give Linux and F(L)OSS a try. and if you don’t like it, i give you a full guarantee of your money back.