"your[sic] assuming they update"

Ummm, no, I'm responding to the OP who said;

"Many people are going to shout "UBUNTU!!! They can just do the updates themselves."

and went on to recommend apple products as an alternative.

Please try and read for comprehension before posting in future.

"1.) /tmp is still under /, which he wants to mount read only "

See what the AC said or if you really want it is shit easy to symlink it to another partition.

"2.) And if /home were its own partition, does that necessarily make it immune to hard poweroffs?"

It means the whole system does not get hosed due to "Unnanounced poweroffs", just the latest "Mahjongg" save game or whatever. I'm sure you'll agree that this will lead to a lot less in the way of critical fuckups overall.

Uhuh, because we all know that mac upgrades never introduce problems, right?

Yes, because we all know the name Microsoft invokes such macho imagery . . .

(Yes, I realise you were joking. So am I)

"I never realised how much time I spent on fixing friends windows boxen until recently."

I'm probably a bit older than you. Quite a while back I learned to "just say no". It gets easier when you can say "I don't use Windows, you will have to find a windows person to fix that."

Inevitably, they then ask "Don't use Windows? What do you use then?" and I'm sure you can fill in the rest yourself.

As you've obviously realised, life gets sooo much easier after you've done this.

Whereas, on Linux, if you have been sensible enough to place /home on a separate partition, you can re-install the OS and reload all the apps you want with a single console command. Meanwhile the user's profile, desktop and all their data remains totally untouched, including the layout of the 1000 icons they keep strewn across their desktop.

Truly, Windows is a fucking support nightmare in comparison.

Plus, if you do a lot of upgrades you simply install apt-cacher on one of your machines and point apt to that.

Updates from a fresh-install-from-CD to all-the-latest-patches takes, literally, minutes. It takes longer to apply the patches than it does to download them.

"flash didn't install properly. So, I had to teach a 80 year's old how to untar and copy a library "

Nice attempt at a troll, but that hasn't been the case for several years now.

Now Mozilla simply asks you if you would like to download "flash-Plugin_nonfree" from the multiverse repository.

You click "yes", type in your password and restart firefox.

It's no harder than installing it on Windows.

But don't listen to me. You just sit there happy in your bitter little world and clutch that Windows safety blanket to your wittle chest shill-boy

"what if mahjong or whatever writes or wishes to write data like saves, high scores or something to the hard drive"

In Linux, all user-space apps write to /home/%user (and also /tmp)

If he has any sense (and I assume he does) then he will have /home on a different partition.

Anybody who installs linux without doing that is simply asking for trouble.

Uh, speaking of Captain Obvious, it is an obvious fact that "the only port open to the public network is the one running " applies to every single server on the internet, (unless it was set up by an MCSE of course) so what exactly was the point the OP was making?

Free clue for you.

When there are only two parties and they are both essentially the same then every vote is a wasted vote

It's like, uh, kinda the point.

There are four types of voters in modern politics.

1) The cheerleaders

These are the wonks that always vote the same way and remain totally oblivious to the shortcomings of their chosen "side"

2) The fanatics

These are the single issue voters that vote solely on the issue that concerns them. Mostly Greenies and Fundies.

3) The Morons

Vote for the best haircut or the best pork-barrel artist without giving much though to much of anything.

4) The Disillusioned.

These are the ones who realise that both parties are corrupt and essentially the same so they either abstain from voting entirely or try and find an independent local candidate who has reasonably sane views.

I count myself as #4

"If the only port open to the public network is the one running the proxy software (or whatever it is), then there is very little attack surface."

1) Find buffer overrun hole in proxy URL parsing mechanism.

2) Craft website with appropriate URL

3) Browse your web site via the proxy

4) Profit

Yes, well, I am in my forties, and used to be an avid gamer. Not so much now but I still do play games that warrant my attention. Right now that would be Oblivion on the PC.

Anyway, we got ourselves a Wii just yesterday and you will not believe the game that has garnered our attention the most. Sure, Wii Sports Tennis and bowling are fun games, and we have played our fair share of both but the one that has taken the lions share of playtime is a game that is nearly 20 years old, and was purchased via the Wii store. In my opinion it is the best game ever produced, "Toe Jam and Earl" for the Sega MegaDrive from the "virtual console" department, (which is a great idea in itself)

Anyway,I'm not sure what my point is here. I guess it is that a nearly 20 year old game still shines amongst all the glitz and glamour of the modern hi-tech 3D rendered "mega games" that are produced these days.

At least the video game industry has not de-volved to the same depths as Hollywood. Yet. Although they sure are working on it.

I'm glad I got most of the urge to game out of my system in the golden years of gaming. I can't see a bright future from here on in, as corporate suits take over more and more of the positions of influence in the dev studios.

It's a terrible shame really.

He posted as AC. You fail at the internet