22 Apr
2004
22 Apr
'04
3:54 p.m.
On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 17:05:51 -0400
Roger Merchberger <zmerch(a)30below.com> wrote:
Rumor has it that William Donzelli may have mentioned
these words:
Unforch, that is the way it goes sometimes...
Then you could make 'em look *real* foolish - download a Linux distro
called "Knoppix" -> it boots & runs off of CD. Once you're done,
reboot &
yank the disk, it's back to winblows...
I don't know if I would trust a library computer system that was open to patron use
but so insecured that it allowed a bootable CD-ROM to work. With spam problems being the
way they are, I'd hope any publicly accessable, taxpayer funded computer system would
be more secured than that.
I wouldn't mind a bit if said computer system was running NetBSD or even, perhaps,
Linux. I think I'd like it better than a Microsoft (spelled correctly) Operating
System. But that's really beside the point, as any of the above can be properly
secured for use in a library.
As to email clients to use: this is the 21st century, and while it's fine for people
to enjoy classic computers, and immerse themselves in them to whatever degree they like (I
personally enjoy using my SparcStation IPX with a real VT-220 as the text console from
time to time), I couldn't get by on this list without an email client that properly
threads and nests the messages, like Sylpheed, which I run on a Slackware system. I
suppose it could display messages with a monospaced font, though I haven't looked for
that feature.
The great-great-grandparent post which flamed a sig did seem out of order and even rude,
at least to me.
Why?
Just because some supervisor says to do something is no reason
to do something if it's senseless.
It depends on how much you like your paycheck. taxpayer,
you certainly should be able to take a set of Linux or
FreeBSD CD-ROMs with you to a public library and use them to "repair"
at least one of their computer systems. Doing so may certainly freak
a pretentious librarian out, who claims to know something about
computers and doesn't, but that's not something that you need concern
yourself with.
Not with any of the librarians I know. They would not freak out - stay
cool and collected - as they telephone the police...