Java: Oracle has it now, and their lawyers failed to wring a huge settlement out of Google with it. If Oracle can't lawyer their customers to death with it, that leaves it's fate to be determined. Possibly circling the drain in 20 years. C#: 17 years old, still in development. Built on DotNet, which also powers Microsoft's system automation language: Powershell, which is also still in development, both of which are on GitHub no less. I suspect these have more legs then many might think.

The Author said: "I like to prove that vulnerabilities are not just theoretical—that they are actually exploitable to cause real problems,"
Care to share what you're basing your perspective off of? Mr Evan's actual detail *is* a long read and I fully admit I grazed it and may have missed something.

I'm going to presume you meant Ubuntu 16.04, and note that you're nitpicking on one of the two distributions highlighted. Regardless of the user spread between server and desktop (that was also noted in the article), are you implying that there's not enough Ubuntu 16.04 users to matter? That because it's near EOL, a zero-day exploit doesn't matter? There's exploits happening everyday that don't require privilege escalation, yet they frequently cost companies large amounts of money and time. Your definition of "serious" leaves much to be desired.

I won't agree on the "free vs proprietary", but it is awesome that the people behind that project responded that quickly.

As has already been addressed multiple times above, the package involved is installed by default in the listed distros and more.

How about you RTFM and understand what you're talking about, till then hush little child. Consider that the sensational title is intended to get attention on an actual threat, and past the willful ignorance of persons such as yourself.

Easily fixed: up up down down left right left right b a select

By all means, aim high. Just know that where users (in general) are involved, that arrow is going to fall much lower then expected.

Well, definitely not here. And I dare not mention where the lively discussions occur, Slashdot is not known for the good manners of it's commenters.

And yet it *IS* the particular issue you chose to pick on.

This thread is discussing which is easier to learn. "Good enough" is NOT good enough in this context. It may be good enough for a veteran to the tool who simply needs a reference, but it's horrid to Joe Newbie trying to learn *nix for his computer career. You put both of them in front of Joe Newbie, and it might actually trigger that change you think impossible.

And that's the beauty of it. The rest of us don't have to care about your perception of it. You're free to despise it to your hearts content, though your feelings about it are not shared by the entire community. Those who aren't carrying a torch and pitchfork over Microsoft's antics of old can judge the merits of this tool for themselves.

And you have these in Powershell, even more so since the version 5 (windows) release. I'm not sure if the linux alpha is quite there yet, but if it isn't, it will get there.

Just providing object access does not really add much, except complexity.

And sure, it's good for something. It's just a lot more complicated to do difficult things when constrained by provided objects and expected interaction. Specialized interfaces with limited extendability are not a step forward.

What you seem to view as "constraint" I view as "enabling". Powershell has actually simplified many of the tasks I and others have had to tackle. Perhaps you should try using Powershell on an extended basis and learning about it before you make off the cuff observations about what it is and is not capable of. But then again, you and your quotations know far better then I do right?

If computers ran on quotes, you'd be quite the genius. Alas, they do not.
A wiser person would understand there is a time to use objects and not text streams. You can love your hammer all you want, but that doesn't make it a very good screwdriver. As the linux faithful love to proclaim: "right tool for the right job". If your job description doesn't line up with powershell, don't use it. But don't think you're doing anyone any good by claiming it's good for nothing because it doesn't behave as demanded by your chosen philosophy.

Perhaps you should get out more. I know of myself and others that run either linux or MacOS as their local machine, RDP into Windows VMs for management. We also tend to be the guys who get promoted, because we don't restrict ourselves to what's considered "fashionable" to get stuff done. We learn and adapt to new options when they suit our needs. We think outside of the box that you seem to be too busy judging people from within.

Perks of this 'dumb' arrangement include:
---knowing my management tools all exist on the VM, as most of them are incompatible with my workstation. That means replacing my workstation leads to minimal downtime, I just have to install an RDP client. This also means that VM is ready for troubleshooting from remote locations, and I don't have to deal with large desktops due to multi-monitor setups, as one would when remoting to a local workstation.
---knowing that Windows key combinations won't be intercepted by the local OS.
---can test against Mac, Windows, and linux with ease.
---can use tools from all aforementioned OSs with ease.

You're off base. Those GUI cheerleaders are still cheering the GUI while looking forward to retirement within the next decade. They're the ones who will never install server core or nano because they can't RDP into it. I've known quite a few of them over my career, and I'm glad I don't have to work with any of them at my current employer.

Those of us who use and promote Powershell are the guys who never stopped using a cmd shell, and still dealt with ugly batch and *shudder* vb scripts until powershell arrived and gave us something worth bragging about. We never sneered at CLIs, we simply wished for something better, and now we can start using that something on linux also.

Salesmen putting down the competition in an effort to make a sale. In other news, the sky is still blue.

This is the biggest reason to have a network or community of trusted techs/engineers with a variety of disciplines. Instead of "bad because I prefer X" you get actual usable feedback. You ask "I need something that does X" and they respond with probing questions instead of "Y or nothing". Sometimes the obvious old familiar tool with lots of history isn't the right one. Sometimes it is. Never depend on the salesman to determine if it's the right time to rip off the old bandaid.

And if we all blindly stuck to something because it was written a long time ago, we'd still be offering up children to stone statues on a flaming pedestal. You're free to stick to the old ways to your heart's content. Now that there's a familiar more advanced option available, I'm free to use that. Options are a good thing, even when they don't match up with the philosophy you want to constrain them to. Don't use it. Or do. Either way, others will.