Anybody use Linux? For old hardware, which distro?
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From: John Hasler on 3 Jun 2010 10:19 I wrote: > Paid support [for Linux] is readily available. The Natural Philosopher writes: > Ah, but he will say it costs more than using windoze. Then he should stay with Windows (which he will, of course: he's just a troll). -- John Hasler jhasler(a)newsguy.com Dancing Horse Hill Elmwood, WI USA
From: The Natural Philosopher on 3 Jun 2010 10:32 John Hasler wrote: > I wrote: >> Paid support [for Linux] is readily available. > > The Natural Philosopher writes: >> Ah, but he will say it costs more than using windoze. > > Then he should stay with Windows (which he will, of course: he's just a > troll). Not sure he can even run windows. He certainly seems to feel that typing things in boxes is too much for even a 'power windows user Who Can Program' . :-) Anyway, its clear he likes to find peiople who are enthusiastic advocates of Linux. Missed out here. I just use it, love it and don't want to change. Almost don't want the rest of the world using it, as then people would start trying to write viruses for it... I guess Ray is one of those people who likes to be part of a big crowd, and feel like he is a winner because he made the same brand choice as anyone else. Hence all this carp about 'which distro?' as if it really mattered. His mistake is in thinking the rest of the world is like him. Anyway, enough troll baiting. Time to do something more productive with this machine. I think I'll design a nuclear power station ;-)
From: Mike Easter on 3 Jun 2010 11:12 RayLopez99 wrote: > Mike Easter >> I have been broadband connectivity since the >> 80s, That's not right/true. I've been online - commercial BBS such as GEnie - since the 80s but not broadband. I was dialup for that until the 90s when my cableco did internet. >> I would also troubleshoot the modem functionality in XP and take notes. >> > > Well it works, is Haynes compatible, don't see what else there's to > note. My experience with internal modems is that you never know enough. See if you can find out what kind of chipset is in there; and get some background at linmodems - softmodem deficiencies http://linmodems.org/ Linux Winmodem Support You need to know how 'soft' the softmodem is compared to a genuine hardware modem. This is a good article to read to get an idea http://www.56k.com/reports/winmodem.shtml Why soft modems are different "A controllerless modem, ... still has a hardware datapump, but implements the controller function as software. -- An HSP modem dispenses with both the controller and the datapump, and uses software to provide both functions." > But this non-power user, a woman, is so cheap she doesn't want > to spend anything beyond her local basic cable bill, where she watches > Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz and Ms. Opray Winfrey during daytime TV. I did > convince her however that her phone bill would be free (using Skype) > under DSL, so maybe she might do that...I have no control over her > decision and must assume the worse (which is dial-up modem). Some people are hooked on TV; others are hooked on the internet :-) -- Mike Easter
From: Mike Easter on 3 Jun 2010 13:30 unruh wrote: > I think most would say that any linux will only work for 5 years at > most, as will most other OS. Not that it will not run after 5 years( > assuming the hardware still works) but that so many security issues will > have cropped up that it is dangerous to use it. Give some examples of serious or problematic linux security issues that would cause it to be 'dangerous' to run some 5 year old linux distro today. That would be - name some mid-2005 linux distro security risks. -- Mike Easter
From: Keith Keller on 3 Jun 2010 14:30
["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.setup.] On 2010-06-03, The Natural Philosopher <tnp(a)invalid.invalid> wrote: > unruh wrote: >> >> I think most would say that any linux will only work for 5 years at >> most, as will most other OS. Not that it will not run after 5 years( >> assuming the hardware still works) but that so many security issues will >> have cropped up that it is dangerous to use it. Of course many still run >> Windows 95. And many also are infected by viruses, trojans and other >> nasties, and are a danger on the web. But they run. > > Linux wise, thats relative bollocks. > > Linux will run forever, as will any system that's not mucked around with > too much. Yes, it will, but what happens when the distro maintainer stops issuing security updates for (e.g.) openssh? Your choice is to either take it over yourself or upgrate to a newer distro release. That was unruh's point above--note he specifically stated that it'll run just fine. > The reason you upgrade is not because the SOFTWARE stops working. Its > because the hardware does, or something you want to do is no longer > possible on the old software. ....such as keeping up with security updates. Now, as far as the particular number chosen, 5 years? I'm not convinced about that--CentOS 3, for example, is still updated, and it was released over six years ago. (I believe that CentOS 2 is still getting updates, even.) Red Hat's official life cycle for RHEL releases is seven years. So RHEL 2 is EOL, and RHEL3 will be later this year. See http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/errata/ Slackware still issues updates for 8.1, which was released in 2002. So I think this depends greatly on the distribution--clearly distributions can be found that will continue to release patches for longer than five years. --keith -- kkeller-usenet(a)wombat.san-francisco.ca.us (try just my userid to email me) AOLSFAQ=http://www.therockgarden.ca/aolsfaq.txt see X- headers for PGP signature information |