I realise that you're joking, but if we have gotten the stuff into orbit, just push it gently in the direction of the sun...

It's the applet part of Java which has a bad security record. Running code under Java has exactly the same consequences to security as running native code, arguably even less.

I would argue that a large factor to why I would install and use Cygwin is to get rid of the "standard DOS shell". Replacing that crap with something like rxvt or xterm makes for a huge improvement.

"For that comment and 50 cents you can get a cup of coffee"

(or whatever a cup of coffee costs these days)

While on the subject it's worth mentioning the article from Ask Slashdot which nicely and detailed answers most of the questions you may have.

Actually, this is one of the best content articles I can remember on Slashdot... The graph in the middle is simultaneously funny and sad. :-/

But at least there is an offer of exclusive free content! Yay!

His name was one of the first I learned to recognize as a young beginner sci-fi-aficionado (ohh, maybe 10 years old?). I really liked the Steel Rat books, both others as well.

Here is a comment by John Scalzi (who is actually surprisingly similiar in style - I recommend).

No, this isn't 'Interresting', rather mod as 'Blathering'.

Well, there is no point denying that Theo isn't the most malleable person. But, as has been said here on /. before: while he comes through as whining most of the time, he's also correct most of the time. Many people tries to interpret his statements from the common commercial viewpoint (like in, how to develop a successful software product and make PROFIT, or at least achieve world domination), but rather his goal is quite simple: develop a free, fast and secure Unix OS. That's all. No grand plans of IPOs or commercial success. Theo is quite happy getting by on selling those CDs, living in his little house, and occasionally traveling around the world climbing mountains and hacking Unix. You gotta read goal.html and observe him and the project for a few years to really understand that.

While this is true, the history also proved him correct on many things (Charles Hannum was on the core team that did the kicking).

That whole mess sucked. The OpenBSD developer that made the port (which was supposed to be a re-implemenation) f*cked up big time and imported GPL-files into the tree. The only thing positive in the whole affair is perhaps Theo's unconditional backing of his developer.

It does (I believe the kernel must be on a non-RAID slice/disk, but that's no different to most other implementations).

Actually, the very minimalistic installer is often hailed as one of the best and fastest in the industry. I don't think that there are that many installers where you can do the install by repeatedly pressing enter (and writing the hostname once) in that short time. And well, it's doesn't remember the state, but then again, you can restart it (a shell script) and start over without rebooting - that can't be said about many others.

This seems to disprove that. Unless you have different definition of 'chroot cage'.

In many aspects virtualization contradicts the goal of security. Also, most VM solutions are proprietary, thus does not run on OpenBSD.

Yes, in clear text. Do you propose they should be encrypted? And where should the crypto key be placed? Perhaps... on disk? Hashed? If you are paranoid - use whole disk encryption. Because physical security is the key issue here as I see it. The keyfile is supposed to be user-readable only...

What is a reasonable default expiration time? No, there is no plan because the feature doesn't improve anything.

Uhmm, what are you talking about? You aren't... trolling?! Are you?

No, here's where you actually are correct. Theo doesn't do shit for the users - he is only concerned with the goal stated above (free, fast, secure). The availability of OpenBSD to the userbase is actually a side-effect.

Hehe, if anyone who uses an OS because he or she likes it is a fan then I guess we are all fanboys (and fangirls).

The vast number (but by no means being even close to a majority) of systems deployed on OpenBSD seems to contradict the second point.

Nico Kadel-Garcia, is that you?!

No one has said that. Neither does the manual.

Excuse me? Tatu's first version was under a BSD-like license, later versions was changed to something incompatible which induced the fork.

And Sun/Oracle, Apple and IBM among others seems to like the license very well, considering they has imported OpenSSH into their own products.

15 years of development and countless of features seems to contradict that as well.

BTW, speaking of rants...

Sorry, I either don't remember or the article didn't say. And a quick googling didn't give any references...

IIRC I've read (several years ago) about a fish that uses a leaf as cover to avoid being seen/caught by for example hungry birds (was it in south america? Amazonas?). But then again, I don't know if this either can be categorized as tool use. I mean, swimming under something isn't that difficult...

...I would immediately make a large donation to PostgreSQL - the arch enemy for all Oracle database solutions. Just to spite them.

While the comments on the size of Pirate Party are correct, it can also be formulated slightly different: PP is, in the moment of writing, the fourth largest party in sweden (with respect to the number of party members). (source )

By the rate of new members, PP should pass 'Centern' in the coming week or something like that, and thus become the third largest party.

PP's youth organisation is (perhaps unsurprisingly) the largest by far (actually has more members than the second and third combined).

It should however be noted that party membership in Sweden is not widespread, thus the actual voting result in an election will not necessarily reflect the membership records.

If you would like to contribute to the cause (for nothing else than just to spite the big media companies), you can make a donation here.

While I'm not sure they deliver merchandise abroad, they have a small shop where you can buy the obligatory t-shirt. Yes, the revolution accepts Visa.