RPM having all the packaging written on a single file, mixing both shell scripting, changelog, dependency, you name it... is simply a horrible idea.

Why?

Having actually packaged other people's software with and without patches, the specfile method keeps meta information, the phases of pre-installation, setup, post-installation and your dependency information synchronized nicely. Of course, if you really need separate files you can just use the %include macro on recent rpmbuild versions. Put meta info in a header file, changelog in changelog.txt, dependency in another file, you name it.

You could argue that building an RPM is actually a little, too easy. Low barrier to entry means you get plenty of crappy RPMs (looking at yours, Skype) and flavor of the day naming. This is also a problem for Ubuntu PPAs. If the specfile looks horrible because the packager cannot script well, that has nothing do to with rpm's quality.

It could be worse. Like .deb's numerous mandatory directories. All the extra control files needed even if you don't use deb feature XYZ. And control files that are white space sensitive. Not good Python-style sensitive but I'll-kill-your-cat and get-off-my-lawn-80-column-punchcard Pascal sensitive.

But having built both types of package I can say that I prefer the apt-tools and front-ends which yum (and things like software.opensuse.org) is certainly catching up too. On the other side rpmbuild is quite nice, being pretty much make for packages. I've gotten better packages out of running alien on rpms than what the deb tools do with some native control file configurations.

IMNSHO, the debian package format is over-engineered (or poorly engineered...white space, bleh.) But the debian developers are in their right to be very anal about how packages are built, even if the specifics of it are masochistic to the poor distro folk having to make the package. The higher barriers means that packagers just cannot fart out a crappy package. They have to build something that is intended to be used within a greater system, apt. That apt ecosystem can then be built on that more stable ground.

But I'm betting like with apt vs yum, it's the superior end user interface which will win out here. The devs, packagers, icon makers and what not will continue to toil on the backside with the tools at hand, scratching those itches or raking in that corporate pay. And maybe someone's manager (or UI 'designer') will figure out that desktop and mobile devices just might need different UIs.

Although in the end, after enough customization does your original distribution even matter?

Earth-bound Humans are currently better at many impomptu, lightweight manual tasks than Earth-bound robots -- but are they still better when encumbered in a 200-pound spacesuit, with gloves like oven mitts?

Quite simply: yes.

The exact quote escapes me, but one geologist said that if you combine all the works of all the mars landers in history, it amounts to about a good day for an average geology student.

While it is inconvenient to have to send into space all the arms, legs and guts meant for living at around 1 atmosphere of pressure and not that much far from 24 C, it is really hard to beat having a working human brain when it comes to exploring.

Our global reach is proof enough of that.

We marvel at what our robotic tools can do, but mustn't forget they are but longer, sharper hammers today. There is still a human behind them.

But then, I'm biased. Like whalers who used to leave their families for years at a time, today I wouldn't mind being one of those stuck on a rock seeing things noone has ever seen before. Learning things noone knew before. And yes, probably dying for that chance like people die every day for less. In the meantime my battle.net ping times might suck, but then there's always [rock] porn right out the window.

To quote Albert Szent-Györgi (1893-1986) U. S. biochemist: "If any student comes to me and says he wants to be useful to mankind and go into research to alleviate human suffering, I advise him to go into charity instead. Research wants real egotists who seek their own pleasure and satisfaction, but find it in solving the puzzles of nature."

What will happen to the CmdrTaco's Links slashbox?

Will the Funnies change?

Now watch as the low UIDs to take over the discussion on this post.

Hesitation means a higher ID for those who asked: to register or not to register? Back in the day that was a serious question.

Long time reader, only one time submitter (I still have to remind people I'm not associated with any of the sites I linked, talk about obscure references.) Been coming to this little site since randomly typing slashdot.org into a url bar back in '98 or so. I don't recommend doing that today with DNS hijacking and domain squatters. But I did get sent to some funky Chip'n'Dips site with the most ugly color scheme outside of geocities. It kinda grows on you though, that green glow.

So, for next job ideas how about opening a restaurant?

I hear 'The Commander Taco' is a good name.

I can't believe a person as big of a publicity hound as Lady Gaga would every have a problem with a Weird Al parody.

Perhaps her PR agents know about the Streisand effect and are meta-meme hacking the culture for a little publicity? Certainly wouldn't be the first time someone started a fight just to get a little bit more famous.

-- Joe Haldeman,"Colonizing Other Worlds."

While he was discussing closed cultures on Interstellar Travel and Mutli-Generation Space Ships, Spaceship Earth also has some of the issues with having real live people trying to keep it together for the whole voyage. And we just go 'round and 'round with nowhere in particular as the course.

it's that we're taking genes and modifying them without knowing the exact changes made. We can make many permutations of the potato via GM, and have no idea what they'll end up as

Funny, sounds an awful lot like mutation. You know, that variation a breeder looks for to create the next great thing.

Oh, I get it: if 'mother nature' aka 'God' aka 'not a guy in a lab coat with a gene gun' does it, then the new genes are good. But if humans did it, then it's bad.

Bacteria have been performing this trick of inserting new/random genes for longer than we've been around. Humans are just applying it to plants and animals. And eventually our kids.

. Instead of the UNIX 'everything is a file' philosophy, it says 'everything is an object', and it's pretty cool.

It is pointing out the obvious that a file is kind of object, with a certain defined behavior, strong namespaces and associated methods?

Systems like Plan9, where everything literally is a file make the painfully obvious. The only changes would be to make file properties be just more files that appear to live bellow the filename as if it were a directory and get rid of completely foreign namespaces like the network interfaces.

There is some extra syntatic sugar with object systems. The 'object' systems use dot delimited dereferencing for system enforced sub-classing - runtime resolution of the thingy being talked about. The file system's path separators are only meaningful on the filesystem meta-level for object...er...file isolation. Otherwise we are dithering over path separators to namespaces: /path/to/thingy instead of container.subelement.thingy.

Of course, PowerShell has the advantage of an actual design and uniform implementation. Even the traditional Unix utilities produce completely unique output formats that often require regular expressions to pull out meaningful data or at least massage the pipe. This is a possible consequence of unregulated organic growth.

Now, the author of TermKit has a valid point in his article on the sofware's design: not enough file handles are used by traditional Unix utilities. STDOUT and STDERR are both used to produce human-readable and machine-readable output. Instead make STDOUT,STDERR (FD 1 and FD 2) machine-only and FD 3 and 4 be used for human-consumable output. This could be much more flexible. (Of course, like most standards, nobody would have used it in the sake of rolling the next great thing.)

But this highlights that trivially parsable output combined with pure file semantics gives you the benefits pure 'object' environments like Powershell gives to users. So it appears the inconsistency between terminal applications is the real issue, not some mythical object-ness that Powershell proponents claim files don't have. And TermKit's plugins / adapters "fix" that.

After all, what are programing languages but syntactic sugar in our heads, mere mental layers on top of high and low voltages running through some hardware?

On the contrary, the only thing that will propel Linux into the mainstream is are unique apps that are not available elsewhere. Otherwise users will just run those apps natively and continue to ignore Linux.

Yes, this is directly opposite the F/OSS ideal of software that is free for everyone. But it is reality.

The largest number of Linux converts I've ever been party to was directly the result of Compiz. Years of running Install-fests, going to various LUGs and discussing those pesky things that make a computer run were nothing. I did a 5 minute demo to a friend in public on my laptop of my flashy, sexy cube desktop and a real workflow that used it. The first words out of everybody's mouth was 'how to I get that?'

Apple has the 'iLife' experience (and BSD inside.)

Microsoft has Office, Video Games and Microsoft's Deal-making Marketing Machine.

What is Linux's killer app?

That xkcd always amused me.

The only way to really delete something is to encrypt it. Then forget the key.

Going to burn through a few wrenches before you find that out. Too bad most people only have two knees.

Relevant to the topic? I have about a dozen CDs of 'encrypted' Linux files that can no longer be opened. Apparently the old cryptoloop encryption implementation on my particular distro was somewhat buggy. The encrypted file system that was contained in those files could only be opened on the original PC. Which promptly died. (Thank you Murphy.)

Fortunately things like luks + cryptsetup made that specific cryptodisk implementation obsolete.

By your own admission you've devoted half a lifetime or more to developing [reading] skills. Should everybody have to do that? Are people who don't devote half a lifetime specifically to [literacy] skills "stupid" and "fearful"?

Computer Literacy is the New Literacy. Those without it are already ruled over those with it. From quants developing market models to make millions in seconds to average joes trying to print shipping papers to know what to pull off the shelves, computers are everywhere.

TFA's real point is that using GUIs to make things easier often doesn't. We wanted to just stick a brain in everything and magically have it be smart. Turns out it doesn't work that way. Leave out the issue of slavery embedded in sticking brains in everything. Master System Administrator skill isn't needed. But some level of skill is needed to use computers and do tasks that involve them.

For a funny twist, typing commands can be easier for some tasks. After all, it's just pushing buttons. And most people are pretty good at doing that. Just ask their spouses.

I don't turn on the even news and see a whole lot of evidence the rest of the world is filled with altruists, who only want what is best for everyone.

Threats sell eyeballs. And the rarer it is, the more news-worthy a topic is.

Unless they involve dripping-with-carebear-level-googly-eye cute or fits in with someone's (controversial) hot topic, the huge and normal amount of common altruists in the human population aren't news.

Helped an old woman across the street? Not news.

Tossed an old woman into traffic? Now we've got a multi-hour breaking story on our hands.

And to anyone not paying enough attention, any simulation is accurate enough to be indistinguishable from reality.

Cue jokes about politicians who only see things through lobbyist colored glasses.

the "free market" is best suited to making sure crooked securities traders don't cheat old people out of their retirement savings.

I am fascinated by this idea. What property of the free market, pray tell, keeps people from being lying cheating scum? After all, if I lie about having the goods once I've got your cash, well who's the richer?

Oh, you say you won't do business with me in the future? But you have no money now since you gave it all to me: you have no future. And get back to work, wage slave - those tacos won't make themselves.

In sh and derivatives, you type:

{ program1; program2; } | program3

The { and } enclose a block of commands that are executed in order. The block acts like it glues the standard output, error and input together. So you can do odd things like:

cat useless_use_of_cat.txt | { sort -u | sed -e 's/waste not/want not/g'; } | tail -1

This also works with the while and for loops. So you can write a loop that reads from a file with the "<" operator and pipes that to something else.

Don't forget that last ; before the }. It's an annoying one to forget.

I so very much wish I had learned to do this. In general I try not to acquire things I want to keep, but even so, it's becoming a burden.

Ian M. Banks in The Algebraist describes a 'slow' species, the Dwellers, who live so long that their personal houses evolve into museums of antiquity. Some well kept sections housing historical records hard to find elsewhere. Other wings being decayed to the point of hazard, a serious problem when your house is floating in the air of a gas giant.

Like all fictional species, they may be more a comment on humanity and an important insight into us. How different would be we after enough time, enough diaries started and abandoned, and enough partial collections left unfinished?

Good thing we have trash cans. And archeologist's willing to dumpster dive those city dumps.