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[#] Wed Mar 29 2017 16:13:42 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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That's not the point. KDE 1.X was exactly the desktop Linux needed at exactly the right time, and it had well-defined interfaces for almost anything you wanted to do. It doesn't matter whether GNOME was better or worse; the point was that Miguel single-handedly and deliberately sabotaged the one opportunity Linux had for a single desktop UI and API's. And for that he deserves a thousand eternities of torment.

(KDE 2.X was pretty good, too ... after that they started trending towards a more Eurotrash style of UI -- a sin that Apple is also guilty of.)

[#] Thu Mar 30 2017 17:29:45 EDT from kc5tja

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I really need some more proof that Icaza was paid to start Gnome before I extend enough credence to that idea. I think he was just naturally a jerk, and MS saw him as an ally much later.

[#] Thu Mar 30 2017 23:10:29 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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I just re-installed my Windoze desktop after getting hit with malware

from a bad download. First time in the 2+ years I've been running
'doze as my primary desktop OS.

...and four days later a new computer shows up at my doorstep. The timing on this was impeccable. And by impeccable I mean COMPLETELY PECCABLE!


[#] Fri Apr 21 2017 09:52:22 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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For those who care ...

[ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2017/04/11/windows-10-creators-update-whats-new-in-bashwsl-windows-console/ ]

Lots of updates to the Linux subsystem in Windows 10.

It's also been revealed that the reason the console window (which runs cmd.exe and powershell) doesn't suck as much as it did for 30 years, is because they modernized it to accomodate the Linux console. So it seems that Linux is even making Windows itself better :)

Don't get me wrong, I still want Bill Gates to be fed feet-first into a wood chipper, and I still hope to (literally) piss on his grave someday. But this is a good development, and I've never been one to let my personal biases get in the way of an objective observation. It's ironic, but Microsoft now has a better unix than Apple.

[#] Fri Apr 21 2017 12:26:24 EDT from Ragnar Danneskjold

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Apple has a real Unix - it might be the only real Unix left soon.

I'm sure it was fun talking BSD vs. System V with you back in the day.

[#] Fri Apr 21 2017 22:46:09 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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Today, Linux *is* unix. The "pedigree" hasn't been relevant for a long time.

Back when BSD vs SysV was a thing, I didn't have access to either. All I had access to was Altos machines, running Xenix. Then, as now, Microsoft had an interesting unix.

[#] Tue May 02 2017 17:31:01 EDT from LoanShark

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Lots of updates to the Linux subsystem in Windows 10.

Yeah, I jumped on Creators Update as soon as it came out. Looks like the fixed the pagetable issue that was causing java problems. This is starting to look useful as a backup dev environment for those days that I might not bring my work Macbook home.

[#] Tue May 02 2017 17:31:25 EDT from LoanShark

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Also looks like some of those fixes got backported to the pre-Creators Update build.

[#] Thu May 04 2017 14:47:52 EDT from LoanShark

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I'm sure it was fun talking BSD vs. System V with you back in the day.


Burn!

You forgot to mention Xenix :-)

[#] Fri May 05 2017 06:33:42 EDT from fleeb

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*snfphtpht*

I used Xenix, back when I worked in Japan.

I couldn't tell it was a Microsoft product. It worked too well.

[#] Fri May 05 2017 12:15:09 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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There's some interesting history here. Check this out.

[ http://tinyurl.com/k9ukmec ]

It's common knowledge that Microsoft originally intended for Xenix to become the multiuser, multitasking successor to MS-DOS. According to this article, the change away from this strategy had a lot to do with the breakup of the AT&T monopoly. After divestiture, AT&T would be able to directly sell commercial Unix licenses, and Microsoft was going to have a problem competing with them.
So was IBM, which seems to have been the genesis of the OS/2 partnership.

Imagine that. They broke up one monopoly and created another.

The last 30 years or so would have been a lot more pleasant if Xenix had become Microsoft's flagship operating system. Imagine a world where MS-DOS had gone the way of CP/M , and Windows (at least Windows as a base operating system) never existed. I suppose Linux would not have come into existence either, but FreeBSD would probably have happened either way.

Hopefully, Windows will continue along the path of VMS and eventually become "basically a unix."

[#] Fri May 05 2017 12:18:14 EDT from kc5tja

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Interesting; didn't think of putting those events together. How ironic, then, that if MS had kept Xenix and developed Windows for that instead, they could have developed Windows for that platform, and Xenix could have beat out their competitors on that basis alone. (Well, I suppose it would have been known as Presentation Manager, but still.)

[#] Fri May 05 2017 13:59:17 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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Exactly. Microsoft was already looking to replicate the success of Excel on their own platform instead of Apple's, and the X Window System hadn't really taken hold yet, so "Presentation Manager" would have ended up being a lot like the original Windows, but with a real operating system underneath. Windows would remain strictly a user interface layer, just like X.

Can you imagine?

Microsoft would have been able to do their desktop, and compete with the big-iron unix vendors, all without inserting an obnoxious OS platform into the mix.

[#] Tue May 09 2017 10:21:57 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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Here's a fun one.

[ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/09/microsoft_windows_defender_security_hole/ ]

Malware can be installed onto numerous versions of Windows, both the desktop and server versions, by exploiting a security hole in ... get this ... their malware scanner. This scanner engine is used in all of their security products, from the "endpoint protection
to the "perimeter scanner" to the "server engine" etc. etc. etc.

Simply drop the malicious code into a file, and when the scanner scans that file, the malicious code is EXECUTED with system-level administrative privileges.

Only our trusty bunch of friends at Micro$oft could bring something so "
"innovative"

[#] Tue May 09 2017 18:01:19 EDT from kc5tja

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Oh, that's just rich! :)

[#] Tue May 09 2017 19:43:07 EDT from zooer

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Tue May 09 2017 10:21:57 AM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored
Simply drop the malicious code into a file, and when the scanner scans that file, the malicious code is EXECUTED with system-level administrative privileges.

 

Anybody read The Cuckoo's egg?  GNU Emacs was capable of doing that 30 years ago, Microsoft just caught up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg

If you want to see the one hour NOVA episode about the Cuckoo's Egg, recreated by the author and people involved...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcKxaq1FTac   (Good but very poor acting)

 



[#] Wed May 10 2017 11:05:07 EDT from Haven

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Tue May 09 2017 19:43:07 EDT from zooer @ Uncensored

 

Tue May 09 2017 10:21:57 AM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored
Simply drop the malicious code into a file, and when the scanner scans that file, the malicious code is EXECUTED with system-level administrative privileges.

 

Anybody read The Cuckoo's egg?  GNU Emacs was capable of doing that 30 years ago, Microsoft just caught up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg

If you want to see the one hour NOVA episode about the Cuckoo's Egg, recreated by the author and people involved...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcKxaq1FTac   (Good but very poor acting)

 



 

I read the Cuckoo's Egg back in the mid 90s.   I also read Hacker Crackdown, which detailed more of Operation Sundown, which cracked down on BBSes.  



[#] Mon May 15 2017 17:33:29 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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I read the Cuckoo's Egg back in the mid 90s.   I also read Hacker
Crackdown, which detailed more of Operation Sundown, which cracked
down on BBSes.  

That modem tax is coming any day now ... they promised!

[#] Tue May 16 2017 08:52:55 EDT from fleeb

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It already exists in the form of line noise. You aren't taxed in money, but in signal degradation.

[#] Tue May 16 2017 13:07:06 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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Ah ... so it isn't actually line noise ... "they" (choose any "they" you want ... the government, the illuminati, Rand Corporation) are adding special modulation to the signal to make your computer work "the way it ought to."

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