Oh it does annoy me!

For the last 12 or so years I have created a mariad of bash scripts that do all manner of tasks. Some are very simple while others are huge and complex monsters but the underlaying theme across them all is that i have shared almost all of them.

This can and does create problems when other people with less scruples than myself take some script I have done and rework it claiming it is all their own work. Now, given the time span over which these scripts have been written it may be that those people assume the script to be a lost work where the author of has long since disappeared. Even so, that should not mean the original author should not get at least a nod for his original code and even a cursery nod if the idea behind the original and new is used as a basis for the new work.

Instead what I see is various people who simply create a new work either based (forked) off the original script or a new work that is simply a stolen idea behind the original idea. This goes completely against the ideals of the GPL a license I use for all distributed works, but does sadly show the times we now live under where theft, of any kind, is considered perfectly acceptable.

It does bloody annoy me all the same.

A simply attribute that says "this script is based on a script by <blah> called <blah> which can be found <blah>" or  even as simple as "the idea behind this script came from <blah> by <blah>". But no, instead there are no such attributes and instead either the idea or actual code chunks are lifted and called their own.

It sucks but is a part of all those aged under 20 who see everything as being free even when it so clearly is not. And that goes for every country on this lump of rock we call Earth. And, it really does annoy me.

Oh dear.

With some web sites now offering up Slackware build script it is disheartening to see they are including dependency information.

A few years ago an American mate of mine and a bunch of people from another long standing binary only web sites offering slackware compatible packages started to work on improving the information about how slackbuild scripts are done and done properly. After a few weeks it soon became clear they wanted to do more to 'improve' the slackware package management system. One of these 'improvements' was depenancy awareness. My American mate and I dropped out due to this single thing which we could not agree to.

The Slackware author is also opposed to dependency awareness within the SLackware package management system so why on earth are these 3rd party people insisting on adding dependency awareness to their build scripts? Worse. Some of the people offering this crap are now part of the Slackware developement team. Does this mean they are now leaning on the main creator to have this shit part and parcel of the package management system?

What next? Some crap like RPM and apt-get where sources have to be hacked to Hell and back to make them fit in with that distributions layout?

I sincerely hope not. While I cannot see SLackware gaining any more momentum than they have right now I honestly think such a thing would be the final nail in Slackwares coffin. Stop this crap now before it catches on!

Usenet trolls

They have always been around. Since the dawn of Usenet itself. Well before the term Internet became common usage. They are so easy to spot. Here is a good example of what a troll will say.

"I'm looking for the best Linux distro in terms of user interface that requires none or a minimal amount of command line work. One that has a lot of working applications including a good web browser, office suite, email, games, programs that will playback music (mp3, lossless, ogg, MIDi, etc.,) no hassle drivers for all-in-one printers, will accept external usb hard drives and DVD drives, external usb modem - basically as complete an OS as possible without having to hunt down a lot of drivers and hack the system to work. I had enough of that with the Amiga. I will most likely be running this on a PC laptop without any other OS installed. I don't like crowds on a single computer when it comes to op systems."

Now, all of those things he/she demands have been standard on Linux distributions for the last 3 or 4 years. The fact that he/she covers such a wide range of hardware and software requirements spells out he/she is trolling the newsgroup. If he/she had done even the slightest bit of googling he/she would get the answers he/she seeks. Instead he/she has trolled a Linux newsgroup.

Why is this particular bit of text labled trolling? After all, isn't he/she is merely asking which of the numerous distributions has everything he/she demands? Well, no. For one, he/she asked in a Linux newsgroup. For two, he she covers a wide range of requirements. For three it simply smells foul. For four it has troll written all over it.

From time to time we Usenet stalwarts see posts with content like this and simply ignore the poster. Unfortunately, we have some amongst our number that cannot resist such posts. That particular post will see one of two things happen. One, a distribution war will start. Where a number of people will be sucked in and start saying "this or that distribution is best" without even considering the original posters intents or wants/needs. Two, the poster will never post again as everyone else smells troll too and ignores the original poster.

I hope, in this case that the latter prevails.

I wish...

That the main, apparently, hardware review web site for Linux users called Phoronix would NOT use that abomination for an operating system Ubuntu as their main, and seemingly only, operating system when reviewing hardware and doing tests.

The reasons for this wish are plenty.

First and foremost is the fact that Ubuntu is not a pure Linux operating system. They, the Ubuntu developers, just like the Debian operating system Ubuntu is based on, patch the hell out of just about every application they provide, including the kernel. This gives plenty of other problems on its own.

They must think that because Ubuntu is well used it is the only distribution worth using. Tthey could not be more wrong. This is a blind attitude that stops many old timers, such as myself, from beleiving anything they have to say on any hardware review. They complain when CPU's and GFX cards cause Ubuntu to spontaneously reboot or lock up or otherwise crash whilst at the same time making it sound like this crashing is a Linux issue when in fact the issue is down to Ubuntu only.

Take their review of the AMD Phenom quad core CPU as a prime example. They tested it and claimed it reboot or locked up or otherwise crashed the system and yet there are many, like myself, who have used the same CPU since it first came out and have not once had a single issue with it. Sure they said that an update to the kernel solved most of the issues they experienced with it but even this 32bit versus 64 bit review of the same CPU says they had problems. The problems they experienced was entirety down to the Ubuntu operating system they love so much. Myself does not use Ubuntu. I would not, ever, go anywhere near it let alone use it. I use a pure 64 bit operating system called Bluewhite64 which is a port of Slackware. Slackware itself is re-known for being a stable, rock solid stable, operating system and because bluewhite64 is a one for one port of it (save for the ia32 stuff) it too is totally stable. Oh! Look at that. Their choice of operating system is the issue. That is so obvious even my 15 month old child could see it and yet they continue to use a known unstable operating system.

The developers and reviewers etc of that web site really should get out a bit more and remove their total reliance on Ubuntu. Then, just maybe, old timers would take the web site more seriously as right now they are considered a joke. This is not to say they do not have some good stuff on there, they do. But, until they stop claiming Linux is unstable with this or that hardware installed when the truth is that it is Ubuntu that is unstable they will continue to make old timers not bother checking hardware against what this web site has to say about said hardware.

It just is not right.

A long time ago a mate of mine and I worked out how to get gaim, now pidgin, working without the need for mozilla's nss. It took us about 15 minutes to get all the kinks worked out and we even provided all the slackbuilds and a binary builds created by our own slackbuilds.

Even though we stopped providing these scripts and binaries a while ago we still get emails about them. At the time we created them all and for a good 2 or 3 years afterwards the files where downloaded over 1 million times. The web page that hosted the files had over 4 million page views. All in all we was happy with the results of our work.

Fast forward to the present and we find there are several people claiming they created both the slackbuilds and the work around to get gaim, now pidgin, working with GnuTLS and friends. This is a situation we find all to often on the Internet where new people to slackware claim they created this and that but what they don't tell their readers is that they have everso slightly edited the slackbuilds that people like my mate and i, have had on the Internet years before this new unethical crew came to slackware.

It is unfair but then i suppose this is the state of the western world now where new people make a new for themselves off the back of those who went before.

Old timers.

Are being forgotten.

As I transverse around the Internet it becomes clearer and clearer. Those trailblazing old timers are being what can only be described as forgotten.

Look at some of the once nail-on-the-head web sites that offered up free advice and information. Then look at some of the new kids on the block web sites and you will see lots of the advice, information, scripts etc etc on the new kids web sites looks remarkably similar to those old timers web sites. Plagarism in all but name is what it is.

Oh yes, I know all about how the Internet is supposed to be in that everything bar very little is avaialable for others to copy etc but I am not whining about that. I am whining about how these new kids totally ignore and have utter disregard for other peoples work and by extention the authors of those old time web sites.

Take my own web site which has been available to all since 1998. Since that time it has gone through several redesigns but the basic premise always remained. That is to give the reader advice on some of the problems they may be having. Well, problems they are having else why would they search a solution that ultimately brings them to my web site. I have not done much work on the web site since around 2004 and it shows. It looks dated, it has information pertinant to 2.4.x kernels and little to nothing about 2.6.x kernels. But, the information offered is as valid now as it was when written. Some, if not all, of the scripts and coding bits are just as useful now and it is those bits I find eleswhere on the Internet apparently written by someone else! Line for line stuff that cannot be mistaken. Slackware build scripts written some 4 or 5 years ago have been slightly reworked and put out as someone elses work.

It is downright annoying to find my own code and information elsewhere on the Internet with not so much as a cocked hat in recognition. People who one would assume are fine upstanding individuals who should know better but apparently don't.

As far as people accessing my site goes I get, give or take a few either way, approx 4000 uniqute hits a week even now. I know that is not many but still for a web site that has not been updated for going on 4 years that is not bad, but that is not the point of this whiney rant. The point is that all us old timers want is the recognition we deserve.