Quote from JamesK :

Yeah, Ubuntu is very Windows-like (ie. run it and go), with a Mac style security that stops you from doing anything too stupid. Very easy to get started, not so easy to live with if you're used to regular Linux ...

Hmm, why is that so?

I have installed and used Gentoo + Ubuntu mostly, some other distros too and really can't get it why it is harder if used to some other Linux as you can do everything via hard way still if you like to and often it is still needed, which is pretty stone-age design, imo.

OS development should really take step forward already and forget old traditions, nobody really needs them.

Getting stuff that wasn't in Ubuntu packages to run was a PITA, Debian modules are meant to be compatible, but I found I had to spend a while putting lots of symbolic links in :-/

Also, being an old Linux user I really missed having a proper root login

Quote from JamesK :

Getting stuff that wasn't in Ubuntu packages to run was a PITA, Debian modules are meant to be compatible, but I found I had to spend a while putting lots of symbolic links in :-/

Also, being an old Linux user I really missed having a proper root login

That is wrong in whole Linux system really, they have everyone in own corner, why not create some standards to be better than Microsoft and make things compatible. Also everything should install with point and click method, anything else is from last century really. But Gurus and clever people are against that, they are afraid of something I guess.

root login seem to be missing from more and more of distros, I guess there is reason behind it, even I just see it only one way to make more trouble.

There's more standards now than ever for it, lol. I love the Ubuntu packet installation system, its slick and easy to use ... but not everything is packaged up as a Ubuntu package

The root access is how MacOS works - ie. its only available to a system process. More secure than Windows or regular root access by a large margin!

The absence of a root login is useful for security because if you would accidentally open a trojan, it would have the same user rights as the user who ran the trojan. That would mean the trojan can do every possible thing to your pc.
Even microsoft dropped the idea of that every normal user needs to have admin rights. They now have a security pop up thing asking for your password, like "sudo". Even osX and ubuntu have had that for years.
By doing a root login you are actually removing a layer of security. So if you get exploited some day, don't complain about the OS, complain about the user.

Quote from Vain :

Actually all kinds of people have had exactly that thought and thus started a new and revolutionary distro that was going to conquer the home-user-world with ease!
It doesn't work that way.

Vain

It does not work, because they always thinking me create this, this will be best and all others will be crushed. So, 1900 century.

Gather all together, form standard, everyone uses standard, problem solved. There are standards for house building and all accessories, why there is none to computer programs and operating systems?

Quote from JTbo :

It does not work, because they always thinking me create this, this will be best and all others will be crushed. So, 1900 century.

Gather all together, form standard, everyone uses standard, problem solved. There are standards for house building and all accessories, why there is none to computer programs and operating systems?

Computer nerds have bigger ego's?

Quote from Vain :

*Exactly* that's the route FOS went in the last 5 years. You see where it went. No where.

Vain

Greedy bastards, that is the problem, 'me thinking'. Maybe evolution will get past that in next 5000 years, but I believe more to that we blow ourselfs out

If you want to run something as root in Ubuntu just put sudo before the command in the terminal.

for example

No need to switch accounts and no chance anything else will run while your in that account.

doesnt mac run mac and pc wouldnt it get 2x the amount of viruses?

Quote from moeFinley :

If you want to run something as root in Ubuntu just put sudo before the command in the terminal.

for example

sudo fortune

No need to switch accounts and no chance anything else will run while your in that account.

Yes I know that, but its a major PITA if you have to do lots of CLI work!

Quote from JamesK :

Yes I know that, but its a major PITA if you have to do lots of CLI work!

Why don't you then open root shell?

Quote from JamesK :

Yes I know that, but its a major PITA if you have to do lots of CLI work!

To make a terminal window a root user window

There is always a solution with Linux. If people want it they make it

Quote from imthebestracerthereis :

doesnt mac run mac and pc wouldnt it get 2x the amount of viruses?

Os X and XP can both be installed on recent (Intel) Macs, they run entirely separately because by default Windows is given a NTFS hard drive partition and the Mac is given an HFS partition. As NTFS is read only in Os X and XP can't read HFS what you do in one Os cannot possibly have an effect on the other unless you manage to damage hardware. If you created a FAT partition for use with both Os you could have possible dodgy files going from one to the other but the seeing as there are no viruses for Os X the chance of one coming along which cleverly integrates itself with another operating system is exceptionally unlikely to happen.

There's always a solution with Linux if you can be bothered finding it. Most people want to spend time getting the thing done that they sat in front of it to do. That's why Windows is more widely used - it's easier to use for Joe Public. Apple macs? Don't worry about doing something productive - consume! Consume more!

No one operating system is "best" - it's what's "best for you". Consider three ways of programming your VCR to record a TV program:
* Enter a single Videoplus number that'll record the program at roughly the right time.
* Spend five minutes entering the times in the manufacturer's proprietary method that you have to learn first, then for the first few times find out you got the channel/am or pm setting wrong, but after that it'll be spot on most of the time.
* Don't worry about video - listen to some music from iTunes!

Guess which equates to which operating system.

Quote from imthebestracerthereis :

doesnt mac run mac and pc wouldnt it get 2x the amount of viruses?

that would only be true if the virus population was equal for both operating systems. there are almost no viruses that target OS X (the current version of the mac os). those that do exist are macro viruses, which attack MS Office documents, so in that case those viruses are platform independent and only run if opened in an MS Office program...which you can hardly fault the OS for those viruses.

there are some exploits that allow remote users access to the system, but those don't self replicate, so they aren't technically viruses. there have also been a few proof-of-concepts that have come out, but nothing actually in the wild...and most of those proof-of-concepts were by security vendors trying to scare people into buying there software.

Quote from moeFinley :

To make a terminal window a root user window

sudo -i

There is always a solution with Linux. If people want it they make it

Yes, I also know that, I sorted a one-click solution to that after rooting around in the FAQ. After a while I figured it would be easier to just go back to SuSE

Don't get me wrong, Ubuntu is probably the easiest distro to get started with, but for someone that started out with kernel 1.0, coming from a HPuX & AIX background, its easier to go with a more traditional setup.

Quote :

Post your mac crashes

Here. :P

Quote from farcar :

Here. :P

LOL must be Australian sense of homour, I was just about to google "mack + crash" and post a pic like that too

Quote from JamesK :

The root access is how MacOS works - ie. its only available to a system process. More secure than Windows or regular root access by a large margin!

Not entirely true, you can enable root user on Mac OSX if you desired it. Also you can activate the root user in Ubuntu by going "sudo passwd root", then typing in your password, then you can set a root password, thus enabling root.


The more you know...

Quote from glyphon :

there are some exploits that allow remote users access to the system, but those don't self replicate, so they aren't technically viruses. there have also been a few proof-of-concepts that have come out, but nothing actually in the wild...and most of those proof-of-concepts were by security vendors trying to scare people into buying there software.

Also, Apple seems to patch these flaws in days when they find out about them, not take 8 months researching and then put out a broken patch, then 2 more broken patches to fix the first broken patch, and by the time Microsoft gets it right, their next OS is out.

Just thought I'd bump this a little bit to say in the past week I've experienced 2 Mac crashes... whilst vista has crashed... 0 times.

Once while playing CoD2 (although that may be put down to the game, it completely froze the mac though), and once at a logon screen to our uni network, just got the spinning ball thing.

So there you go lol.

1) Spinny Ball != to a crash... Crashing is usually an unexpected reboot or an error message. The Spinny ball is usually a lack of RAM, so it needs to take a bit of time to do page file swapping.

Quote :

No one operating system is "best" - it's what's "best for you". Consider three ways of programming your VCR to record a TV program:
* Don't record it at all since DRM doesn't allow you to
* Spend five minutes entering the times in the manufacturer's proprietary method that you have to learn first, then for the first few times find out you got the channel/am or pm setting wrong, but after that it'll be spot on most of the time.
* Don't worry about video - listen to some music from iTunes!

Guess which equates to which operating system.

Fixed it a bit

drm hasn't affected VCR recording, at least here in the the states...yet.

Quote from glyphon :

drm hasn't affected VCR recording, at least here in the the states...yet.

No?