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<H1><A NAME="answer">
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<font color="#B03060">The Answer Guy</font>
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<H4>By James T. Dennis,
<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a><BR>
LinuxCare,
<A HREF="http://www.linuxcare.com/">http://www.linuxcare.com/</A>
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<H3>Contents:</H3>
<dl>
<dt><a href="#tag/greeting"
><strong>&para;: Greetings From Heather Stern</strong></A></dl>
<DL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<dt><A HREF="tag/1.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
>Wrong Support Center, Folks</a>
<ul><li>problems with my card --or--
<br><strong>Missing VXDs? Don't Use MS Windows!</strong>
<li><strong>winmail.dat and (Former) Friends</strong>
<li><strong>CD problems</strong> ...with a car
<li><strong>update</strong> ...webTV, we're not.
</ul>
<dt><A HREF="tag/2.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
>YOU can help the Answer Gang</a>
<ul><li>Strip Library Files --or--
<br><strong>Anyone out there know more?</strong></a>
<li><strong>seeking translation for Denmark query</strong>
</ul>
<dt><A HREF="tag/3.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
><strong>Procmail Arguments</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/4.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
></a>Random Numbers --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/4.html"
><strong>Getting Random Values in sh</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/5.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
></a>Limiting exported symbols --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/5.html"
><strong>More on Exporting Symbols from Shared Libraries</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/6.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
><strong>re Corel Linux and Blank Passwords</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/7.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
><strong>subshells in ksh, etc.</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/8.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
></a>Windoze on 2d Hard Drive --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/8.html"
><strong>A Usable Example lilo.conf for 2 Drive Dual Boots</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/9.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
><strong>Multi- Boot LINUX, NT and WIN98</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/10.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
></a>Lilo --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/10.html"
><strong>Boot Stops at LI</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/11.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
></a>Can't get into telnet --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/11.html"
><strong>Accessing Shakespeare's Lear: Get Thee to a Help Desk!</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/12.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
></a>How can I disable anonymous login to my ftp server --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/12.html"
><strong>Disabling Anonymous FTP</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/13.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
></a>Login as root problem --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/13.html"
><strong>Remote Login as 'root': Don't do it! (Except using SSH or ...)</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/14.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
></a>Linux DEVFS --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/14.html"
><strong>Linux devfs (Device Filesystem)</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/15.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
></a>FW: Linux --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/15.html"
><strong>Multiple append= Directives in <TT>/etc/lilo.conf</TT></strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/16.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
></a>question --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/16.html"
><strong>Getting Addresses Routed: Use IP Masquerading or Application Proxies</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/17.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
></a>Linux as a firewall/router --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/17.html"
><strong>FTP Through a "Firewall"</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/18.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
><strong>Simple Shell and Cron Question</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/19.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
></a>Uninstalling red hat --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/19.html"
><strong>Left in the Lurch</strong></a>
<br>or: Uninstalling Linux the Hard Way
<dt><A HREF="tag/20.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
><strong>help....need to delete a linux partition</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/21.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
></a>UVFAT --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag/21.html"
><strong>Getting UVFAT</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="tag/22.html"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
><strong>Find the source for specific program.</strong></a>
<!-- index_text ends -->
</DL>
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<A NAME="tag/greeting"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/hbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(&para;) " border="0"
>Greetings from Heather Stern</H3>
<!-- begin hgreeting -->
Hello everyone, and welcome to this month's issue of the Answer Guy.
For any of you that are coming in late, next month we'll have a team
of several, the Answer Gang. Folks, please welcome Michael Williams
and Ben Okopnik.
<p>
I'd like to especially thank Michael for stepping up to the wizard's
hat early. Also we have a few answerbubbles this month which I think
people will enjoy.
<p>
I'd like to please discourage people from sending us questions on both
plaintext and HTML versions. The HTML produced by mailers is just not of
publishable quality, and the mime attachment just makes our mail clunkier.
Thanks for the thought, but just text will be fine.
<p>
That said, I had an interesting time this month.
<a href="http://www.usenix.org/">USENIX</a> Annual Technical was in
San Diego, and a number of core linuxers, *BSD developers, and other
open source developers were there. There's been a crossover for ages
but with their Freenix track it's a little more obvious. Last year
the Freenix track book was half as thick as the normal proceedings.
This year it's just as thick. I suspect it's a really good thing that
Atlanta Linux Showcase (<a href="http://www.linuxshowcase.com/">ALS</a>)
is partnered with USENIX now, because I think there is a lot more research
to publish where those came from... I'll be there of course.
<p>
Now, on to the editorial. I thought of this mid-month. I told my friends
to look for it. I didn't really expect it would become a slashdot flamewar
and so on but I still think it needs to be said. So I'll add a disclaimer
which many of you will consider obvious, but others may need to have clear:
<ul>
<li>I am not a lawyer, I don't even play one on the net.
<li>I am not religious, I hope not to offend, but I think the comparison
is worthy.
<li>speaking of religion, I already have my own opinion in this matter; the
point here is to make <em>you</em> think, so that the open source
choices you make are your own.
<li>If the following makes you hungry, don't say I didn't warn you.
</ul>
<h4 align="center">Solved thousands of years ago, still argued today</h4>
<blockquote>
Looking outside the tiny little box in front of me, and indeed outside the
open source world, we have one of the most hotly debated arguments about
what is, and what isn't okay to use. We should follow its model, as it
appears to have stood the test of time while most of its strongest adherents
have not starved to death.
</blockquote><blockquote>
I am, of course, referring to kosher food.
</blockquote><blockquote>
Many of you may think this cannot possibly relate to computing except insofar
as the usual meal preceding a product release is nightly orders of pizza until
it's a go. Or chinese food or whatever else it is the managers and engineers
share a yen for. Last I recall vegetarian pizza is kosher (though not pareve)
and the usual Meat Lover's Special definitely is not. Neither is oyster sauce.
</blockquote><blockquote>
We can think of food in this context because it covers mixing code, as well as
dynamic linking. I can take a slice of good Jewish rye, and dynamically link
in some corned beef. Yum, still kosher. If I also dynamically link on some
swiss cheese, um, no. Still removable? Ask your rabbi if the touched meat
remains trafe. Most customers wouldn't be able to tell if this had been done
in the kitchen. If I make that a hot sandwich, I statically linked it, guess
I should get a new one.
</blockquote><blockquote>
A big fuss in the GPL seems to be about the sentence fragment which,
paraphrased, is something like "the whole of derivitive works shall be under
the GPL". One of its more common allergies is what to do about things which
require linkage against something that is under some other license. (I refuse
to label other licenses more or less restrictive, without a context to apply.)
</blockquote><blockquote>
But the fact is, that the rules of kosher food are not about preventing
jewish kids from enjoying cheeseburgers with their schoolfriends. They're
about health. It just isn't safe to eat crustaceans from the wrong part of
the sea, pork that may be undercooked, and a number of other things. Conversely
our concern over licenses is about our health. If a company, or a coalition of
friends, that is responsible for maintaining a product stops answering their
email forever, what am I as a user of their product able to do with it? Even
if I don't <em>personally</em> read its source code, under the DFSG compliant
licenses, I can always hire some programmer to solve my problems with it and
make derivitive works. This truth is made more useful by the fact that it
was also legal for me to glom a copy of the source code and keep it around.
</blockquote><blockquote>
It's perfectly normal for me to buy products at the store, in neat packaging
even, which are not directly consumer-level food. At least, I know very few
people who buy a bag of flour in order to scoop handfuls of it into their
mouth and call it lunch. It's normally statically linked against some dairy
products or water, leavened with yeast, and made into sandwich fixin's or
(with more linkages) sweets. Ooo, I almost forgot. Leavening it means it's
not kosher for passover. Do some people eat in this "more kosher" fashion
all the time? I suspect some do.
</blockquote><blockquote>
There are other products, like cereal, which we normally expect to be
dynamically linked (milk please!) but which are sometimes prepared in other
ways (eg. rice krispie bars) and yes, I know kids who eat cereal straight
out of the box.
</blockquote><blockquote>
So this is what I was thinking when the debate was re-awakened: Is the K
project kosher? I think so. Others don't have to think so. Right now,
the "Harmony" project (<a href="http://harmony.ruhr.de/"
>http://harmony.ruhr.de/</a> ?
I can't read German, and couldn't find code) which would claim to also meet
Qt's API, isn't enough to make even little bitty sandwiches with. But one
of the Harmony crew feels that the QPL is kosher enough for him (read his
letter to LWN at <a href="http://lwn.net/1998/1203/a/jd-harmony.html"
>http://lwn.net/1998/1203/a/jd-harmony.html</a>) so it may be a
bit of work. I think I'll go get me a nice, thick, not-kosher-for-passover,
corned beef sandwich on rye.
</blockquote>
<!-- end hgreeting -->
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<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
>Copyright &copy;</a> 2000, James T. Dennis
<BR>Published in <I>The Linux Gazette</I> Issue 55 July 2000</H5>
<H6 ALIGN="center">HTML transformation by
<A HREF="mailto:star@tuxtops.com">Heather Stern</a> of
Tuxtops, Inc.,
<A HREF="http://www.tuxtops.com/">http://www.tuxtops.com/</A>
</H6>
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