11 Jun
2009
11 Jun
'09
7:27 a.m.
At 7:47 AM -0500 6/11/09, Daniel Seagraves wrote:
DEBIAN PROJECT KNOWS BEST. YOU WILL NOT QUESTION DEBIAN
PROJECT!
My favorite so far is how Debian Project disables encryption in a
certain RADIUS package because Debian Project disagrees with the
license of the encryption library the programmer used. You have to
go out of your way to build a local version and NOT have Debian
overwrite your local version with their lobotomized version on every
upgrade. If you ask about this you are informed that you should pick
another RADIUS package because the programmer is "an asshole" who
"won't compromise" over a "simple change".
The stupid part is that the part that Debian thinks they should be
exempt from is a provision of the crypto library requiring the
programmer to acknowledge use of the library in promotional
materials, which they say is against the GPL. (After all, you should
be working for THE COMMUNITY and not looking for personal credit for
your work!)
There's also the stupid new provision in the installer that you MUST
create a local non-root user to install the system. But Debian
Project, what if I use LDAP and Kerberos to provide users on my
system? The answer is "You aren't supposed to do that!" The
workaround is to install the system without a root password.
DEBIAN PROJECT KNOWS BEST. YOU WILL NOT QUESTION DEBIAN PROJECT!
(But isn't this the same kind of behavior I was bitching about
coming from Redmond back in the NT4 days?)
This is exactly the sort of BS I was talking about when I mentioned
OpenBSD. Theo de Raadt is infamous for these sorts of stupid
mistakes. One version for the Alpha shipped without the ability to
use it as a firewall because he threw a hissy-fit over a license
change in 'pf'. Of course that was also the only version I was able
to get running on my AlphaStation 500/333 (a very nice box that isn't
suited to OpenVMS because I don't have enough RAM for it).
More recently he cost OpenBSD funding for a major programmer
gathering because he through another hissy-fit. He doesn't give
proper thought to the consequences of his actions.
Your complaints against Debian show how firmly entrenched in the
dogma of the "Cult of RMS" it is. At least with OpenBSD they'll
write a competing product that in the long run might very well become
the standard. OpenBSD is all about security.
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |