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<TITLE>The Answer Guy Issue 33</TITLE>
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<H4>"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
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<center>
<H1><A NAME="answer">
<img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" alt="(?)" border="0" align="middle">
<font color="#B03060">The Answer Guy</font>
<img src="../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif" alt="(!)" border="0" align="middle">
</A></H1>
<BR>
<H4>By James T. Dennis,
<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a><BR>
Starshine Technical Services,
<A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A>
</H4>
</center>
<p><hr><p>
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<H3>Contents:</H3>
<p><a href="#tag_greeting"
><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" alt="(!)" border="0"
height="28" width="50" align="middle">Greetings From Jim Dennis</A></p>
<DL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<dt><A HREF="tag/autocad.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28"
width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
><STRONG>AutoCAD for Linux? Not Yet. Sorry.</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag/floppy.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28"
width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"></A>fd0
--or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/floppy.html"><STRONG>Floppy/mount Problems: Disk Spins,
Lights are on, No one's Home?</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag/scsi.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28"
width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></A>SCSI drive installation
--or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/scsi.html"><STRONG>Partition your HD before you try to
use it.</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag/emacs_cc.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"
height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
><STRONG>Supressing cc: lines in Emacs' Mail replies</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag/virthost.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"
height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></A>chroot, twist, and other rescue-boot fun
--or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/virthost.html"><STRONG>"Virtual Hosting" inetd based
services using TCP Wrappers</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag/samba_pdc.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28"
width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
><STRONG>Linux/Samba as a Primary Domain Controller</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag/ipmasq.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28"
width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></A>ip masquerading
--or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/ipmasq.html"><STRONG>IP and Sendmail Masquerading
over a Cablemodem</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag/tty.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28"
width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></A>tty help
--or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/tty.html"><STRONG>Psuedo tty Becomes Unusable</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag/connect.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"
height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></A>connect script failed
--or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/connect.html"><STRONG>O.K. It's not a Winmodem</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag/shuffle.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28"
width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></A>[linuxprog] more shuffling experiments
--or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/shuffle.html"><STRONG>Shuffling Lines in a File</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag/hostavail.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"
height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
><STRONG>Conditional Execution Based on Host Availability</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag/desqview.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28"
width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></A>Desqview
--or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/desqview.html"><STRONG>Buying DESQview and/or
DESQview/X</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag/thanks2.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28"
width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
><STRONG>Thanks</STRONG></A> for the pointer to uuencode sources.
<dt><A HREF="tag/catch22.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28"
width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></A>Download a Catch 22?
--or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/catch22.html"><STRONG>Chicken and Egg
(Catch-22) for Linux Download/Install</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag/typo.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28"
width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></A>Important typo in Anti-Windows emulator rant
--or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/typo.html"><STRONG>Will the "Real" freshmeat Please Get
Bookmarked?</STRONG></A>
<!-- index_text ends -->
</DL>
<P><HR width="40%" align="center"></P> <!-- :::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
<H3><a name="tag_greeting"
><img src="../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif" alt="(!)" border="0"
align="middle">Greetings From Jim Dennis</A></H3>
<h4>Back to School Special</h4>
<p>
Well, it's been another great month for Linux.
We hear that Intel and Netscape are investing in Red Hat Inc.
and Intel is joining Linux International.
</p>
<p>
So, everything is looking rosy for our favorite platform.
</p>
<p>
What could be better?
</p>
<p>
Well, I read an interesting editorial in ``;login'' the USENIX
(<a href="http://www.usenix.org/">http://www.usenix.org/</a>)
Association's monthly magazine. This
is by Jordan Hubbard, one of the founders of the FreeBSD project
--- and an employee at Walnut Creek.
</p>
<p>
He talks about the tendency of the freenix "clans" to fragment
and duplicate development effort over relatively petty differences
in licensing and --- more often as a result of the slithings and
bites of "the snakes of Unrestrained Ego and Not Invented Here."
</p>
<p>
This fragmentation has been crippling the overall Unix marketplace
for twenty years. The odd thing is that there is both a Unix
"community" and a "marketplace." The members of the community
tend to form "clans" which may bicker but mostly feel that they
have mostly common goals. We'll argue incessantly over the
advantages of a BSD'ish vs. a GPL license, or the superiority of
'vi' over 'emacs' or vice versa (I'm a heretic on that battle
--- I use xemacs in "viper" -- vi emulation mode).
</p>
<p>
The Unix community has a long history of producing free software
--- one that predates Linux, FreeBSD, X Windows, and even the Free
Software Foundation itself. The FSF's GNU project was the first
<em>organized</em> and <em>formal</em> effort to produce a fully
usable system of tools that was unencumbered by corporate copyright
(some argue that the "encumberances" of the GPL are even too much ---
but that's back to the perennial clan feud; so let's skip it).
</p>
<p>
We may believe that Linux is the culmination of that effort. I
hope it's not.
</p>
<p>
Jordan goes on to explain the FreeBSD attitude to software vendors
that are expressing a renewed interest in the UNIX market and why
he (and his associates) tell them "to port to Linux first (or at
all)"
</p>
<p>
The FreeBSD support for running Linux binaries is apparently pretty
solid (my use of FreeBSD has only required native binaries). It's
possible that FreeBSD could be "fully Linux compatible" right down
to compliance with the "Linux Standards Base." (It's likely to be
easier for FreeBSD to achieve compliance than it will be for the
various non-x86 Linux ports).
<p>
</p>
<p>
Jordan also goes on to speculate:
</p>
<blockquote>
``
Say, for example, that someone fairly prominent
in the Linux community popped up and told various
users that they might want to give FreeBSD a whirl,
just to check out what it has to offer lately.
''
</blockquote>
<p>
Well, I'm probably not "fairly prominent" enough to fullfill
Jordan's wish here. However, I've been saying that for years, here
and in other fora. I think some of the SVLUG members are sick of
hearing me suggest it.
</p>
<p>
My co-author (on the Linux book that we're writing) is a FreeBSD
user. Some of my best friends favor NetBSD. My wife has been
recently working for an outfit that uses FreeBSD for most of their
desktop systems (only occasional spots of Linux) and Solaris for
their servers. (The FreeBSD support for Japanese is apparently
very good --- and it seems to be *much* more popular than Linux in
Japan)
</p>
<p>
I've used FreeBSD and still recommend as an FTP server. I tend to
stick with Linux for two reasons. The first is laziness, I've
gotten much more used to Linux' quirks than FreeBSD's, and it's
easy to pick up new CD's for Linux --- they're everywhere; I have
to hunt around a bit for FreeBSD CD's.
</p>
<p>
However, I'm going to be trying a copy of 3.0 when it ships (I
guess that will be near the end of this month). I'd suggest that
all serious Linux students and enthusiasts try one of the BSD's
--- FreeBSD for x86's; NetBSD for just about anything else; OpenBSD
if your putting up an "exposed" system and allowing shell access to
it.
</p>
<p>
Meanwhile I'll also suggest that you look at other operating
systems entirely. Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris ....
they're all Unix. When you get beyond DOS/Windows/NT and MacOS
all you see is UNIX.
</p>
<p>
However there's quite a bit more out there. You just have to
dig for them. Here's one place where you can start:
</p>
<a href="http://www.starshine.org/OS/"
>http://www.starshine.org/OS/</a>
<p>
I wrote that page a long time ago --- but most of the links
still seem to be alive (O.K. Sven moved --- so I had to fix
one link).
</p>
<p>
Two notes of interest:
</p>
<blockquote>
Amoeba is now "free"
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Amoeba is a distributed OS (think Beowulf clusters with
lots of OS level support for clusering, process
migration etc). It was written as a research project
by Andrew S. Tanenbaum of Vrije University (the author
of Minix, and the text book from which Linus learned
some of what he know about OS design). There was a
legendary "flamewar" (actually just a public debate)
on the alt.os.minix newsgroup about the merits of
monolithic kernels (Linux and the traditional Unix
implementations) vs. "microkernels" (Minix, MACH,
the GNU HURD, NeXTStep, and many others).
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
To learn more about Amoeba:
</blockquote>
<blockquote> <blockquote> <code>
<a href="http://www.cs.vu.nl/pub/amoeba/"
>http://www.cs.vu.nl/pub/amoeba/</a>
</code> </blockquote> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
The EROS project (Extremely Reliable OS) has apparently
finally been completed (for its initial release). I've
mentioned this project in my earlier columns --- it is a
microkernel OS which implements a "pure capabilities"
security and authority model. This is so unlike the
identity and access control lists models we see in Unix,
NT, Netware, VMS and other multi-user OS that it took me
about a year to "unlearn" enough to get some idea of what
they were talking about.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
EROS is not a free system. However, there are provisions
for free personal use and research.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
You can read more about EROS at:
</blockquote>
<blockquote> <blockquote> <code>
<a href="http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~eros/"
>http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~eros/</a>
</code> </blockquote> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
(The FAQ's explanation of capabilities and its comparison
to ACL's and identity based authority models is *much*
better than anything that I found back when I first looked
at this project a couple of years ago).
</blockquote>
<p>
So, before you sing the praises of Linux to another potential
convert --- consider your basis for comparison. If you've only
only used DOS/Windows/NT and Linux --- you'll want to go back to
school.
</p>
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<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H4>Previous "Answer Guy" Columns</H4></center>
<P>
<A HREF="../issue13/answer.html">Answer Guy #1, January 1997</A><BR>
<A HREF="../issue14/answer.html">Answer Guy #2, February 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue15/answer.html">Answer Guy #3, March 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue16/answer.html">Answer Guy #4, April 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue17/answer.html">Answer Guy #5, May 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue18/lg_answer18.html">Answer Guy #6, June 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue19/lg_answer19.html">Answer Guy #7, July 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue20/lg_answer20.html">Answer Guy #8, August 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue21/lg_answer21.html">Answer Guy #9, September 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue22/lg_answer22.html">Answer Guy #10, October 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue23/lg_answer23.html">Answer Guy #11, December 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue24/lg_answer24.html">Answer Guy #12, January 1998</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue25/lg_answer25.html">Answer Guy #13, February 1998</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue26/lg_answer26.html">Answer Guy #14, March 1998</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue27/lg_answer27.html">Answer Guy #15, April 1998</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue28/lg_answer28.html">Answer Guy #16, May 1998</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue29/lg_answer29.html">Answer Guy #17, June 1998</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue30/lg_answer30.html">Answer Guy #18, July 1998</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue31/lg_answer31.html">Answer Guy #19, August 1998</A><BR>
<A HREF="../issue32/lg_answer32.html">Answer Guy #20, September 1998</A><BR>
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<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
>Copyright &copy;</a> 1998, James T. Dennis <BR>
Published in <I>Linux Gazette</I> Issue 33 October 1998</H5>
<P> <hr> <P>
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