- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

How to rool the world by Bill G
by Ian Young 19 Feb '15

19 Feb '15

Become the main supplier of an OS for PCs while IBM snoozes, replete with profits from existing business. Adopt the 386 processor while IBM messes about with the 286 perhaps because of sunk investment in that CPU. Make deals with the hardware makers they can't refuse and shut out any competition. Introduce the first GUI to become widely used on the machines soon to become predominant in desktop computing. Leave the superior OS/2 in the dust, and get IBM to sell Windows. Excel. Actually first came to fame on the Mac iirc, and rapidly drove out just about all other spreadsheets in its Windows guise. On its coattails came all the other applications we know today as MS Office, effectively wiping out all competitors. Get networking in the box with Windows and crush Netware and eventually Novell with it. And so it went until perhaps MS became like IBM in the 1980s and failed to see the next big thing on several occasions, or at least failed to achieve the same level of dominance as in the past in new fields. 2 cents is the suggested donation, I'll pass the hat around.

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Re: [wlug] PC-BSD: Set For Serious Growth?
by Chris O'Halloran 19 Feb '15

19 Feb '15

On Tue, 17 Feb 2015 21:40:02 +1300, Peter Reutemann wrote: > 'Luke Wolf, a KDE developer, argues that PC-BSD might become a > serious > -- source: http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/15/02/16/2355236 > > NB: Mentioning "Linux + Year of the Desktop" is always bait for a > flamewar. But... Did anyone ever use PC-BSD as their primary OS > (work/home)? Willing to share some insight? > > Cheers, Peter Perhaps people have to consider why they use Linux on the desktop at all (and why others than don't at present would). I think its people with a technical interest that use Linux on the desktop, either because they are familiar with it on servers, are passionate about the 'freeness' of it or the ease (including cost) with which they can set up a development environment. I think the big players like Apple and Microsoft would have to make some serious stuff-ups for the rest of population to go through the hassle of switching OSes on their current desktops. While many of the FOSS applications (GIMP/LibreOffice/Firefox) run just fine on Windows (and possible Mac too I don't know), they also reduce the imperative to shift entirely to Linux or BSD. And the only thing I see that really could shift the corporate environment is a server based Office(Document/Spreadsheet/Mail) solution that was so compelling, that eventually system administrators started to wonder if there was any point in sticking exclusively to an MS Desktop. Cloud computing, Smart TVs and the advent of Android and iPhone have certainly helped computer *users* become more comfortable with alternative OS and user interfaces. -- Chris

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FreeBSD-Current Random Number Generator Broken
by Peter Reutemann 18 Feb '15

18 Feb '15

'The FreeBSD random number has been discovered to be generating possibly predictable SSH keys and SSL certificates for months. Time to regenerate your keys and certs if using FreeBSD-Current. A message to the freebsd-current mailing list reads in part: "If you are running a current kernel r273872 or later, please upgrade your kernel to r278907 or later immediately and regenerate keys. I discovered an issue where the new framework code was not calling randomdev_init_reader, which means that read_random(9) was not returning good random data. read_random(9) is used by arc4random(9) which is the primary method that arc4random(3) is seeded from."' -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/02/18/2026258 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Google Chrome Will Adopt HTTP/2 In the Coming Weeks, Drop SPDY Support
by Peter Reutemann 18 Feb '15

18 Feb '15

''Google today announced it will add HTTP/2, the second major version of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), to Google Chrome. The company plans to gradually roll out support to the latest version of its browser, Chrome 40, "in the upcoming weeks." At the same time, Google says it will remove support for SPDY in early 2016. SPDY, which is not an acronym but just a short version for the word "speedy," is a protocol developed primarily at Google to improve browsing by forcing SSL encryption for all sites and speeding up page loads. Chrome will also lose support for the TLS extension NPN in favor of ALPN. -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/02/09/2320244 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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PC-BSD - ubiquitous in world of future - or not
by Ian Young 18 Feb '15

18 Feb '15

Some years ago I had a brief dabble with PC-BSD. It was brief because every time I attempted to boot a live DVD the system would fail to boot or run only for a few minutes before crashing. The same equipment had no trouble with various Linux distros. That was then of course and the project continues to exist so presumably some people have managed to run it. However I will stick my neck out and say that imho PC-BSD is a most unlikely candidate for world domination .... Any one seen it in action? I think when I tried it there were issues like limited support for USB, and driver support still lags behind Linux.

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next meeting of lug topics
by Ian Young 17 Feb '15

17 Feb '15

Saw some mention of Kali distro as a topic at next meeting. Not sure where this has gone, but no problem for me sharing the time as required. Will stick with the Android x-86 idea, and maybe dispense with Puppy developments if need be. In latest news the live CD of Android I downloaded boots on a Compaq laptop and appears somewhat usable on that machine.

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PC-BSD: Set For Serious Growth?
by Peter Reutemann 17 Feb '15

17 Feb '15

'Luke Wolf, a KDE developer, argues that PC-BSD might become a serious desktop OS contender by year 2020, since Linux so far has failed to grasp any serious market share. He writes, "Consider this: In the past 10 years has the distribution you run changed significantly in what it offers over other distributions? I think you'll find the answer is largely no. I do have to give a shout out to openSUSE for the OBS, but otherwise I've used my desktop in the same exact way that I have always used it within the continuity of distribution X,Y, or Z since I started using them. Distributions simply aren't focused on desktop features, they're leaving it up to the DEs to do so." He continues, "PC-BSD on the other hand in fitting with the BSD mindset of holistic solutions is focused on developing desktop features and is moving rapidly to implement them." What do you think?' -- source: http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/15/02/16/2355236 NB: Mentioning "Linux + Year of the Desktop" is always bait for a flamewar. But... Did anyone ever use PC-BSD as their primary OS (work/home)? Willing to share some insight? Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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End of the m0n0wall project
by Peter Reutemann 17 Feb '15

17 Feb '15

"m0n0wall has served as the seed for several other well known open source projects, like pfSense, FreeNAS and AskoziaPBX. The newest offspring, OPNsense (https://opnsense.org) aims to continue the open source spirit of m0n0wall while updating the technology to be ready for the future. In my view, it is the perfect way to bring the m0n0wall idea into 2015, and I encourage all current m0n0wall users to check out OPNsense and contribute if they can." -- source: http://www.linuxtoday.com/security/end-of-the-m0n0wall-project.html Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Will The Next Linux Kernel Be Called 4.0?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Feb '15

16 Feb '15

Apparently Linus Torvalds is running a poll <http://lwn.net/Articles/633231/> to decide whether to continue with the 3.xx version numbering or start from 4.0.

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Fwd: Re: Inkscape Version 0.91 Released
by Chris O'Halloran 16 Feb '15

16 Feb '15

On Mon, 16 Feb 2015 20:16:44 +1300, Peter Reutemann <fracpete(a)waikato.ac.nz> wrote: >> I just downloaded and built it from source. To those accustomed to I'm using it on Windows8 machine at work. I like the pdf export to latex option. It periodically crashes but still very useable - just not as stable as the previous 'stable' version. Cheers all

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