Oh boy, so many things wrong here...

Hilarious. Try getting actual, useful support from Red Hat and SuSE, to name just two of the biggest... Go on, I'll be waiting right here.

The level of incompetence in these companies is simply astounding. Sure, there are some very good guys in there, but not in front-line support, that's for sure.

And, just so you know: hardware certification these days is usually Linux + FreeBSD, and it's done by the hardware vendor, not the software "supplier".

Yes, systemd homogenizes Linux... Down to the level of utter, absolutely unstable crap like Windows.

And there is not "a half dozen BSDs" - there is only three: FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD.

Compared to the situation of Linux, with not "half a dozen BSD", but litterally HUNDREDS of distributions, I am not sure you are being serious...

Ah yes, AWS, that marvelous field of shitty softare and even shittier infrastructure. Just FYI, it's called an "AMI", a system image in other words, and there are AMI for all of the BSDs. And the same is true for Azure and many other cloud offerings out there. You simply don't know what you are talking about, right? Either that, or you should stop blindly clicking on the Ubuntu AMI every time you create a VM in EC2.

Actually, no, systemd IS the reason serious system administrators and quite a few devops are leaving Linux behind. The crap you have to deal with gets simply unbearable after a while.

I could go on refuting your ridiculous arguments again and again, but frankly, I have better things to do with my time. You are a very poor devil's advocate and an even worse technologist/system admin/unix admin I am afraid. Your level of ignorance is frankly stunning.

iXsystems does not *own* FreeBSD - it hired some (former) FreeBSD people.

FreeBSD itself is -- as far as I know -- "managed" by the FreeBSD Foundation, and, in turn, that Foundation is managed by the FreeBSD developers.

Yes, it's called "astro-turfing". It's been all over the news these days.

I'll grant you that. It could be tricky to put together well.

On the other hand, if you are that concerned with your privacy, do a Richard Stallman, and refuse to have a cell phone at all: he has said several times he considered them are nothing more than advanced tools for the intelligence community. Plus, of course, closed-source software, etc.

To be honest, I recently bought a very specific smartphone precisely for that reason: it was one of the rare model that still offered a removable battery, so who am I to criticize?

Yeah, and if you are in China how is that "standing up to Governments and protecting free speech" thing working out for you? Hmmm?

And, again, you have not read a single line of the article: AML mandates activating GPS and wifi when, and ONLY when, you call the equivalent of 9-1-1.

Implementing AML in a safe and privacy-protecting way is, as far as I am concerned, a trivial exercice for Apple engineers.

Come on, I am all for protecting free speech and privacy, but Apple not adopting AML is simply ridiculous.

Agreed, but there is a difference between a charging port and saving lives.

In that respect, (safety) regulation probably is more important than regulation.

Have you even read the article?

It specifically states that AML only turns on location (automatically) WHEN you dial 9-1-1.

Oh, wait, this is Slashdot, so your libetarian little ego could not stand the magic word at the top of my rant, right?

Sorry about that, my bad.

It's called re-gu-la-ti-on...

Specifically, European regulation. Any smartphone sold in Europe should integrate AML, or be banned outright. Period. No exceptions. You have 6 months to comply and communicate with the European regulators a detailed timetable for your compliance.

72 hours after that regulation is passed by the European Parliament, I bet you Apple will come out with an announcement supporting AML and a couple of months later, with the latest iOS updates, all iPhones would be AML-Compliant.

Sure, a lot of imbeciles will scream bloody murder, Big Brother and governmental interference with the free market, but seriously, this is what works with these companies. Apple makes tons of money in the EU, and it won't take the risk to lose that market.

Also, it's pretty rich from Apple to refuse AML, when it deleted all VPN apps from its Chinese store. Fsck that company. Support AML or eat dung.

- "Uh? There has been another issue with systemd? Really?"
- "Yeah, but anyway, never mind, we have better things to do."
- "Okay."

Slackware: no systemd, sane defaults, no weirdo patches.

Yeah, it works.

First of all, let me state that most of my machines are Linux, or BSD. I find the whole panic over WCry absolutely hilarious.

Something like OpenBSD, but less stringent:

First-tier is average OS support - six months support tops, after that, you need to upgrade. You have version 4.3 while the latest version is 7? Tough luck.

Second-tier is emergency OS support: 12 to 18 months support tops. On a specific version (meaning fubar 6.0 but not fubar 6.1 for instance ), only back-port of the most critical patches to base system.

Every 5 years, for embedded and ultra-secure needs, you get an ULTS (Ultra-Long Term Support) version, which is going to be supported - provided you sign an annual support contract with mucho dinero - as long as necessary, including backporting patches from the newest version of the OS, but only for the base system. Anything extra you add to that base system is your responsibility.

The issue here really is pretty much the same as an "Internet of Things" issue: please, dear MegaCorps, use a nice, updated AND SECURE DEFAULT CONFIGURATION for your freaking products - no, Windows XP is not nice, updated and secure out of the box, and neither is Linux if you open 200 ports and services with "admin" and "secure" as login and password, respectively.

On a more general note, if you use Windows within your product, I don't care what that product is, you are asking for trouble.

And that is all I have to say.

This sucks, but I'll have to search a decent open-source app for to do lists.

In the meantime, I'll probably use Keep, by the other Great Satan.

Oh, and F* you Microsoft.

Pick your poison:

- Tape: inexpensive and slow, require frequent testing (backup we do, it's restoration the problem!), usually unreadable after 6 to 12 months or less (that's in production people).

- WORM: more expensive than tape and just as slow, work well in the medium term (meaning 10 years top).

- XFS NAS: faster than the above, require good hardware and a bit more work than either tape or worm. Don't forget to setup replication to multiple systems. May suffer from bitrot in the long term (checksumming/hashing files might be a good idea). Very stable, large capacity file system. Tape backup is always a good idea.

- ZFS NAS: slightly slower than XFS (at least, that's my experience, YMMV). Ultra-large capacity. Snapshotting is just a breeze. Again, replication to multiple, distant systems is mandatory. Very stable file system. Tape backup is always a good idea.

- DNA, 3D crystal lattice, holographic memory: what we are all going to use in the future. Still in beta testing, though.

- DVD: don't make me laugh.