That's not the comment form for the actual report, that's just a post for blog post comments.

Well spoken.

Thanks for the recommendation. You deserve to be modded up for that.

I'm not hostile to copyright. I have been working in copyright law since 1974.

The problem is that due to influence peddling, copyright law has lost its mooring.

It is supposed to ensure
-to the author,
-reasonable compensation,
and it is supposed to ensure that
-the work is turned over to the public after a reasonable time.

It is also supposed to permit fair uses of copyrighted works.

What we have now is:

-money which flows mostly to large corporations who are not authors

-a flow of money for vastly unreasonable periods of time

-the virtual abolition of fair use.

I am in favor of copyright law. What we have now is not copyright law.

Ya think?

You think I'm funny? Funny how?

Unfortunately, I have to agree with you.

Even this 'call for comments' by the government (a) comes from an agency that doesn't administer copyright law, and (b) has no return address for the actual 'comments'.

Fortunately, we have Slashdot, though. The government can come here and see what people think.

It was posted late last night (8/19) or early this morning (8/20)

And yet, no more redundant than necessary.

- Toast

http://www.snopes.com/science/well.asp

Unfortunately not it seems.

- Toast

JCFP maintains an Ubuntu package which is stored in an unofficial repository1.

Attention: As of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid, SABnzbd is part of the standard Ubuntu repository "multiverse". Installing SABnzbd is easy:

        Start the Software Center and search "sabnzbd" (or "sabnzbdplus"). Then click Install.
        Or, from the command line with "multiverse" enabled, type "sudo apt-get install sabnzbdplus".

If you use this method, you can skip the first parts and jump to "How To Start"

vent away i guess... just be aware that the difficulty you have in configuring it is the fault of the app developer... not a lack of OS facilities to make it brain dead easy

-Toast

I have no idea what you are actually attempting to do on Linux but I get the feeling you are "holding it wrong". What daemons are you attempting to install which requires you writing scripts? And why in the world would you have to install daemons on any sort of recurring basis with just a couple of machines on a home LAN? When you use the package managers for Linux systems that should be taken care of for you almost in the entirety, "out of the box" per-se.

I haven't had an experience anywhere remotely similar to what you are claiming except for when I've gone off the farm and have attempted to custom compile applications downloaded off the web or from a proprietary vendor (i.e. very rarely). But I knew what I was getting into and which automated management facilities wouldn't be available to me when I did. That I occasionally had any problems doing manual compilation was not unexpected and help was frequently just a simple google away.

I've been maintaining multiple (dozens of) networks of Windows, RedHat/CentOS, and Debian/(K|U)buntu servers and desktops for years now (plus tinkering with other derivatives). They are all pretty good about "easy" and "just works" installations... with the expectation that you are using their respective package managers, repositories, toolsets, methodologies, and ecosystems (or at least packaging formats) to install software.

RPM/Yum and Dpkg/Apt really do take care of most of the work and neither are obscure by definition of the fact that they manage the entire distribution (and repositories) by default. Your equivalent problem in Windows would be a failure of you to understand (or use) Windows Update and instead attempt to install all of the Windows updates including registry hacks... by hand... without using an .msi file or the like and then pondering why Windows is so convoluted when you fail to get a working machine out of the ordeal. Nobody works that way.

Besides that, most Linux application developers will release into one of these two formats anyways (deb or rpm), so I fail to see how you could possibly be stuck writing scripts "every time" you "install a new daemon app" unless you are using something like DSL (Damn Small Linux) where package managers are not necessarily present. And if that is the case you are using the wrong distro for your skill level.

I've also had the opposite experience re: log files on Linux. Text and log files are cheap and plentiful when the command line is a useful part of your operating system. Normally I get such verbose logging from a failure that it actually takes a little bit of investigative work to find the original point of failure instead of all of the effects. On the other hand I rarely get log lines (only error codes when I'm lucky) from many Windows applications when they fail however...

Not to be too harsh but your "simple fact" is not reflective of the reality on the ground. Your perspective is "off" and I think you have failed to grasp some basic computing and usage concepts instead.

- Toast

I won't cry that Microsoft is going down. But surviving blunders... repeatedly... is quite a different thing than innovating, strengthening their brand, or building consumer loyalty. And to that end I haven't seen Microsoft do much in the way of effective brand building in quite a long time. Most of what I hear about their relatively decent products is "Well, it's better than (last failed attempt at something) and beats (intolerable shit we put up with for years)".

I think the most telling part about it is that IT personnel and CxO's are also losing patience with Microsoft and are in search of other options in many cases. They may or may not find what they are looking for but I don't see many people choosing Microsoft without first looking elsewhere for other options these days. I also don't hear people extolling the virtues of Microsoft products around the water cooler (even the new fresh-out-of-school types) anymore at all either. These days you CAN get fired for picking Microsoft (the inverse of the "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM / Microsoft" thing).

Does this spell doom for them? No, but when they sound like they actually like the direction they are heading in (and want you to join them in it) I can't help but agree that they are on the path of turning into another has-been... eventually.

- Toast