"A firewall is a MUST".... However

1.) If you are a contractor (or an employee for that matter), and you're explicitly told not to do something, document your concerns, in writing and either do what they tell you or quit. This covers your butt when thing blow up. Note I said, when, not if. You don't get to dictate the business objectives in either case (contractor or employee).

2.) The networks/firewalls are only one part of the picture. I've noted other posts asking questions concerning the surrounding environment. These are good, even if they don't address point (1.) If a "best practice" for an element in the environment breaks the environment, then the "best practice" is invalid and MAY be ignored. It may also be that the app in question is brain dead, but that's a whole 'nother topic.

I've seen way too many "best practices" that do not account for the specific environment and even more "checklist" jockeys who can't figure out how to make things work without them. Learn to do more than to follow a flowchart/checklist.

There are "solutions" that become problems in and of themselves. Workaholism is in the same category... It solves a problem for a while and then becomes a problem itself.

Amen!

zypper and the tumbleweed repository in opensuse offers this, but then I'm stuck with systemd madness

... and the idea that they are pure poison is why I want away from distro packagers who think that way.

As any decent toxicologist will tell you, the poison is in the dose.

I started in '93 with Yggdrasil and slack. Ygg was a non-starter. slack is OK, but difficult to deal with even if I do like like and admire Patrick

Now to dig in!

I've also been considered insane from time to time.

What I want:

1.) rpm/zypper/yum based package management. This allows rpm dependency resolution and installed package verification by the package manager.
2.) SysV init. It's clean and it "just" works.

I think those two are a good start. Being able to use an established automated build system is probably a good idea too.

    Any other thoughts?

...Actually, I THINK we may be able to give 'em a run for the money

It's a best practice... how can it be wrong?

and my favorite dirty phrase "best practices"... Meaning "tell me what to do, I have no clue what the theory of operation is"

It's sad and in my opinion, from over 30 years experience, the product of testing and certification programs.... And manager/HR people who look for exactly those properties.

Who will come to sneer about how others have made choice's that make them poor?

I'm just askin'

but there IS a Starbucks

Yeah, like that... And while it seems a whole different issue, it's really not. It's ultimately all about the power of money and do we really want to feed and help grow corporations?

Not rent. Mortgage. The additional lien/contract can make the home more difficult to sell.

*might* is an interesting word. I *might* win the lottery... It's unlikely, but it *might* happen.

In the mean time, we have an unregulated corporation with their hand in the consumers pocket for the lifetime of the rooftop lease (20 years).

The equipment, if purchased outright with all the incentives available, is paid off in 7 years or less... At which time, the energy would be truly free to the consumer and the installation becomes a powerful asset when it comes time to sell the property vs a contractual liability to be navigated and re-negotiated. Generally speaking, property improvement loans are paid off at the time a property sells and the new owner is now running without an electric utility bill. How's THAT for a selling point even at a 5 to 6 year occupancy estimate?.

Someone mentioned greed. The first scenario looks like corporate greed to me (and swapping one corporate "master" for another). The second looks like independence to me. Both are debatable as to how green (what IS the carbon/environmental footprint of panel/battery manufacture anyway?)

There is the letter of the law and there is what is right.

There are a lot of things people CAN do... They just shouldn't