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Comment Re:systemd needs to stay optional (Score 1) 928

Yes I could do as you say, but that is besides the point. The point is that the system works and does so within the resources limitations of a single board ARM computer despite the fact it is running systemd.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a systemd advocate, I don't have it on any of my work servers yet, but equally where I have used it, it has been stable and simple enough and I have not noticed any particular "RAM bloatyness".

I remain open minded about the whole debate, I'll use whatever comes along next as long as it is stable, simple and it gets the job done. Systemd is different to sysvinit and it takes a bit of getting used to but it hasn't done anything evil to my system (yet).

I take a pragmatic approach to this sort of thing, If you don't like, don't use it. The guys building the main distros seem to like it however so you may end up having to use it if you are a Linux admin.

Comment Re:systemd needs to stay optional (Score 1) 928

I'm running Arch Linux ARM on a Wandboard Quad single board computer. The system runs apache, dovecot, postfix and samba for a small network. Systemd is in use as it was the default when I installed the OS. The machine only uses 224M of RAM, it has 1.6G free. systemd-journald is the biggest RAM-muncher with 64M is use, but I don't mind this because it's configured to not batter the flash by keeping current logs in RAM only.

Comment Re:Time to "stock up" from NewEgg ... (Score 1) 242

Alas windows is harder to keep running smoothly than either Linux or OS X. The windows 8 users on our network account for 90% of all support requests. Our linux and OS X users the rest. Now consider that around 50% of our users have windows, 40% linux and 10% OS X. These numbers only inlcude personal computers, not servers.

The windows users always seem to be reporting issues with performance, networking, printing, ms office being random etc etc, maybe they are lower calibre users but if that were true why do the support calls stop when we migrate them to Ubuntu or OS X?

Comment Re: Why at a place of learning? (Score 1) 1007

I don't have to reproduce the big bang to know that all of the observable universe is moving away from us and everything else... the big bang is STILL banging dude. The universe is expanding, you just need to OBSERVE this to know it is happening. This is actual evidence that is tangible, measurable and undeniable. We KNOW the universe was smaller yesterday than it is today we can see it expanding. On the other hand their is NO tangible, measurable evidence for the existence of any divine being nor has their ever been. Truth is, scientists love to disprove each other and do so all the time, whereas the religious ask us to have faith in the total absence of any good reason to do so. Scientists encourage critical thinking, they don't just believe any old crap because it's in a "special magic" book.

Scientists don't simply assume anything, they constantly try to disprove that which is disprovable in order to learn and develop their understanding of reality. Religion on the other hand tries to "keep the faith", immobile idiocy based on superstitions crud. Get thee behind me fuck-wit.

Comment Re:Why at a place of learning? (Score 1) 1007

I cannot realistically, directly influence the house of lords, it is an UNELECTED body that has a measure of CONTROL over our laws and our Parliament. The church has held positions of power in our society for generations and unless we point it out for the utter rubbish it is it will continue to do so. What I can do is make sure that as I go about my life I educate my children and those around me, pointing out religion for the the unthinking twaddle that it is.

Just as I wouldn't sit and idly watch someone drink a bottle of bleach (I'd let them know it was a bad idea); I won't idly watch someone fill their head with religious lies without at least letting them know it's a bad idea.

Comment Re:Why at a place of learning? (Score 1) 1007

I think that religion does impact my rights.

For example... here in the UK we have an unelected house of lords with a significant number of bishops in it there to represent the church. This group get to review and vito the descisions of the house of commons where the elected politicians ply their trade. I don't want a religiously deluded bishop to mess with the business of government.

It is not harmless to simply ignore religion and to allow it to continue to be presented as a valid alternative to science in our schools and universities. Like any stupid idea it should be pointed out as such in order to help our society to grow intellectually. Religion is superstitious rubbish that should not be given credability by education institutions allowing it room to grow.

Comment Re:Java's demise (Score 1) 125

Not being a SAN appliance user myself, I'm curious to know what form of Java are you encountering? If they have a Java config application you install on your PC, then it sounds like they have a crappy UI and my guess is that a language change won't help them program a better one. If however they are serving up a Java applet from an embedded server within the appliance then I guess they could use an update because the last time I saw an applet in the wild I fell off my stegosaurus in shock.

Comment Re:What's wrong with Windows Server? (Score 2) 613

This might be a dumb question but isn't what you're looking for simply... journalctl --no-pager -f | grep blah blah etc ? I'm genuinely curious about your response. I've recently installed ArchLinux ARM on a small server and it uses SystemD (my first experience with it) so far, it's been different, but I havn't found anything that I can't get working in it. I'm not carrying a torch for either the for or against camp here; here's what I've learned setting up my first SystemD server so far.

On the face of it, SystemD works OK, it does what it promises and for my limited use cases it is fine

I found it unintuitive for an admin used to using System V init

I read more about it and the authors claim that they provide many small programs that each do one thing well, they however have improved the integration between these, they seem to have admirable goals, I'm not convinced one way or the other about their implementations. What can I say, nothing has crashed so far for me, but I'm not sure I like the idea of one team trying to supplant quite so many binaries with their own versions.

I'm not sure I notice a whole hell of a lot of difference for my headless server, except the new network card naming stumped me at first. It boots, it runs and it does what it is supposed to. As for "EVERYTHING" being loaded into PID 1 this does not seem to be the case on my machine, I see different processes for the different apps that came with SystemD only the /sbin/init process is on PID 1, things like journal and dbus and logind are all running on other processes.

Personally, while I understand the concerns many have when others mess with our beloved Linux, I don't have any evidence from my own experience that things are in any way more bloated or insecure as is being claimed here. What I do know is that most distros are providing support for SystemD and a lot seem to be using it as the default now or in their next version. It looks like I'll have to learn it one way or the other so it may as well be now.

I remain confident that if in time we (the Linux community) find out that SystemD is utter crap for whatever reason, then we'll either improve it, rewrite it or move to something else entirely, such is the way of open source.

Comment Re:The problem with traffic engineers... (Score 1) 579

Reminds me of a game I like to play. Whenever I'm at a red light and the driver in the next lane is playing with his phone, I like to do a false start lurch to make him think the light has changed. Sometimes I can get in three false starts during one red light. Funny as hell.

Your actions are irresponsible and dangerous. The road is not a place for your amusement. Trying to prank the idiot in the next car is just not a good idea, a funny one sure, but not a good one, the consequences could be fairly harsh if phone-tard actually pulls out into moving traffic and kills someone. In my humble opinion, both you and the dumbass with the phone deserve a fine to attempt to modify your dangerous and irresponsible behaviour.

In fact you're both proving the case for drvierless vehicles, you can't be trusted to behave in a safe and predictable manner towards other road users.

Comment Re:Fsck x86 (Score 3, Insightful) 230

ARM is massively dominant in the embedded and mobile markets. These markets make up a vast quantity of electronics gear. Intel (the X86 pushers) even make ARM chips. ARM is starting to make in-roads into larger devices and encroach on traditional Intel/X86 stomping grounds. ARM have plans for servers and PC's running with their chips. They are low cost, low power and quite good at what they do. Admittedly they won't be replacing your PC gaming rig any time soon, but they're not chasing that market (yet). You are sadly unaware of just what ARM is if you think it's had it's "15 minutes" it's just getting started at the edges of the PC market, it's backed by many vendors and I for one think it'll be around for a while yet. Look at the market share tablets have stolen from the PC, they are mostly ARM powered. Sure netbooks seem a little crusty, and havn't had the uptake their manufacturers were hoping for, but ARM server gear is taking off. Also the IT nippers are playing with ARM with their Arduino and Raspberry Pi gear. I wouldn't count ARM out just yet. Hell, I just replaced my decade-old trusty Linux server at home with a Wandboard Quad running Arch Linux for ARM. Guess what, it works really well, as a Samba, Backup and Email server for the family and I'm not even an ARM enthusiast, it was just MUCH cheaper than a regular Intel or AMD replacement and perfectly up to the task.

Comment Re:No steering wheel? No deal. (Score 1) 583

ah you must be a Windows user, this mistrust of computers is common with your kind :P

All jokes aside though, will it get my favorite parking spot at the shop? Or stop spontaneously in a lay-bye to admire a spectacular view on a high mountain road? I do trust computers to do a better job than the average human when it comes to driving, but I must admit, a manual control input would be nice for some things.

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