the empty calorie

Yeah, I don't want Bill touching my OS...(I've actuallly been planning to develop this...eventually)Well, this may sound like a backwards step (starting it out simple)But it will be "non-*nix, non-win, and non-apple" (the last two are kind of "duh")It will be a modified version of Bell Labs' Plan 9 for the 68000.The computer it will be run on is one I am building, which is actually using a 68010..but either way...it will be quite unlike some things ever seen..

Does anyone know how to set up LILO to boot another hard disk with Plan 9 installed on it? I'm Installing it on the other hard drive, and then hooking it up as a slave and setting up LILO to give me an option to boot into Plan 9 on that drive. Anyone have any ideas?

I'm a bit over the numbers on the end...whatever happened to calling it something else? Sony can get away wit hthe numbers, but MS being the copycats they are....just have to stick a 2 on there.

Good suggestion...I was a bit bummed out to see that when Mac OS X was in the making...it was supposed to have a interface quite similar to NeXTSTEP, from what I had heard before...That's all I want..just the NeXTSTEP (or near-exactly similar) interface running on Mac OS X...(off topic) Bah, I'm in the process of building my own computer as a project....it will take me years to do, but I won't die happy until I do it. It won't help the market out any, due to it being (currently) being designed around a Motorola 68010...If I can successfully build this, and still have enough life left to livve afterwards, maybe I'll try putting togehter a prototype for something that would absolutely rock the effin' socks off of any Mac or X86...I've got most of it down....it's just....developing a computer these days is quite expensive...Woz had it easy.

I have no experience with C. Basic and 6502 machine code are all I've ever done..but neither wil help me here...

Okay, here's the gig..I have an iMac DV (G3 400MHz) sitting on my desk, currently unused. I want to install Mac OS X, due to support for Mac OS "Classic" being cut off (I liked classic...), So I've decided to make the move to OS X, but...I don't want to use Aqua....I want to use X, and WindowMaker as my window manager. But...Since I'd be running X and WindowMaker instead of Aqua....Would OS X-native programs that would normallly run in Aqua be able to run in X, without Aqua? I'm referring specifically to iChat AV...

Ack, and I forgot...I would advise that you ditch the softmodem and definetely the AOL. Not only for the reason of their odd connection protocol, but because you're paying the same price I do for broadband internet, to get a dial-up connection...

Yeah, my first linux experience started during a school band trip, when i had 30 bucks in my pocket, and found myself holding a red hat 7.0 box in a software store...Nowadays, I wouldn't use red hat if I was paid to, but it did help me out a bit with learning...But I REALLY didn't start learning until I felt gutsy one day and downloaded Slackware 7.1..heh...you will learn so much in so little time...

Eh...I don't really know what to say...package mangement always...ugh..I hate it. But, in the educational sense...it would be nice to do...

Honestly...in my opinion, forget the Intel, forget the AMD, and follow the Sun.Score yourself a Sun Ultra 2...or Ultra 60...using anything with a CISC processor is just beating a dead horse...

Okay, I'm having a bit of a problem here..perhaps there is nothing I can do about it, since it appears to be on the remote end, but My transfer rate when connecting to Xisto FTP keeps stalling, and when it does go, it goes about 0.23K/S for a second and back to stalled...I didn't invest in a DSL connection for this...IS there anything I can do about this? My FTP client's bandwidth throttle is set at 200K/S, So it's not that...and it's not just this one time, it's every time I try..it takes a few hours to upload my SMF directory, when it should be a matter of minutes. Any help around?

Heh, yeah, I can't wait to see "Longhorn" either...it's going to be the last stake driven into the heart of Microsoft...

My advice on a Linux distro would be...well, this shouldn't be a surprise, but slackware. Yes, the installer is text-based, and I don't see how that scares some people, but I guess it can. My first distro was Red Hat, and...I thought it was okay, but it was a little slow, and clumsy. Yeah, I could click around and such, and they were nice enough to include a sticker in the box that told me like 25 commands or something, but you will need WAY more commands than just those...but when I had Red Hat, I learned a little...but not enough. My advice is to dive in the deep end head first, and go with Slackware. That was my nex distro after Red Hat...and after a week, I learned a great wealth of knowledge. If you're into this sort of thing, it's nice to have this knowledge down early-on, especially when it comes to configuring scripts.. Also, i FINALLY learned how to complie source code in Slackware.. I had all these programs I wanted when I had Red Hat that weren't available in RPM (which I was dependant on until Slack). These days, I refuse to use RPMs anymore, and everything out there under the sun has a tarball (.tar.gz). But, I understand some people don't want to get underneath the GUI and mold Linux into shape, and if you're one of those, I propose another..Option B: SuSE Linux. This distro is great if you're just a point-and click person, But isn't completely crippled to more advanced users (Like Red Hat and ESPECIALLY Lycoris Desktop/LX/) Very solid, stable system, plenty of bells and whistles, if that's what you like...Not the most customisable, though...I don't believe it includes Gnome, though...One warning about SuSE: You may find yourself dependant on RPM packages...Option C: Now, Unless you're specifically married to Linux, another good option I have come across is Solaris. But, a lot of things you might want to have you will have to add yourself.. compliling source can be a bit more complicated than Linux, and your choice of software is more limited than linux (although, Solaris still has several buttloads of software vailable). Sun's packaging system is quite nice, although text-based. But Solaris packages, like RPM, aren't available for everything. with even less packages available than RPM. But if all you're looking for is just the basics, Solaris is a great choice. If you want more of the "goodies", like emulators, and such...Linux would be a better choice.Now, here's an option that I recommmend against... Lycoris Desktop/LX, formerly Redmond Linux. This distro aims to be the most friendly for Windows users migrating to Linux, and while I do appreciate their goal, part of the way they do this is by SEVERELY crippling the distro. No compiler, little RPMs available, plus, the only software I could actually get to run in the stuff from Lycoris' library of programs. Avoid this distro at all costs.Now, generally, I don't recommend anything I haven't used myself, but it's worth mentioning that I've been hearing lkots of great things about Gentoo Linux, so that could be worth checking out. I've also heard great things about Debian as well, but I am completely unfamiliar with both of these...I know debian has it's very own packaging system, but I've never played with debian, so there isn't much I can say..Well that's my two cents...I hope you find the right one for you. Remember though, if you don't like one, there are many other distros. There's one out there for everywhere. Mine just happens to be Slack. But, that tends to happen when you got comfortable with a text-based interface before you could walk more than ten steps Ah...8-bit computing...the good old 6502...those were good days.

Heh...you unfortunate Windows user... It's more like microsoft puts a sign on all Windows products that say "mug", not just IE...Why does Microsoft make so much money, when their products are of the absolute worst quality? And who would actually pay money at all, let alone $200-$300 bucks PER installation, of an OS that has such a high rate of failure? I will never know...

I don't see why I would need that much space...an email itself doesn't take up much room.I use hushmail, due to their focus on secuirty. Very good email service, I highly recommend it.

Yes, it would be nice to have one to call my own, but....if I did, it wouldn't be any different from slack, so I can't really see the use :Pbut just in case i want to someday, how would I go about this?Coulld I use a unix kernel instead?

My advice (although not for the faint of heart) is to give yourself a bit of a crash-course. Throw slack on your system and cut your teeth on it. That way, if you're not content with Slack, and choose to move to another distro, you won't be completely lost when you have to play with the command line...and you can't avoid the command line in linux..

Oh it was 1985....Not when Microsoft was founded, but when Windows was released...But what I really wanty to know is, with so many different options at the time, why would anyone go with Windows? It was the worst grapical interface of them all for IBM-compatibles.. GEM and GEOS were much more sophisticated...but also what bugs me is....why was the IBM-compatible even purchased by anyone, when you could have a computer that was better by leaps and bounds (I'm referring to the Amiga) for just about the same cost? Also related to this....Interesting little fact: when IBM was designing the IBM-PC, the original consideration for the processor was the Motorola 68000. but was dropped in favour of the 8086 (or rather, the dummied-down version, the 8088, which was designed for an 8-bit bus). Why did IBM make this decision? They said the 68000 was too powerful.

I've never fully understood how people roll their own distros...slack's always been good to me.And what is a "vanilla" kernel?

Kidnap it dude, you'll be doing the guy a favour because Windows is dying!Now, yes, you can use existing x86 hardware to run linux (which I am currently doing), but I'd much rather be running on PPC or SPARC...x86 will never be able to stand up to good ol' RISC...only thing it has going for it is that it's cheaper technology, but really, i feel that the x86 should have been retired ten years ago...along with Windows. Now back to the topic..Yes, the new Mac OS X on its's way is Tiger. But, Even to this day, I have had yet to even touch or get within 100 feet of a computer running OS X. I've seen the screenshots and such, and I also noticed this supposed "NeXTSTEP-inspired interface" (although...that dock is in no way similar to NeXTSTEP whatsoever..), and honestly, I don't really see myself ever moving over to OS X. Maybe I would if they gave you the option to use the Classic interface...eye candy is okay UP TO A POINT. Now it's absolutely ridiculous! not to mention unnecessary...Anti-Aliasing...okay, I can deal with that. transparent windows? Sure that's okay.....but buttons that look like jello, and all these "effects" that actually slow stuff down...I hate it. Oh wow, when you open explorer, everything is animated in when a new folder is opened, but it takes more time. But hey, I guess some people consider blocks and sharp edges painful on the eyes...what do you want next? The icons to dance? Give me a break..None of these new features of graphical interfaces are actually doing anything useful.

Yeah, I was about to say that's the dumbest Idea I've ever heard of. It would be a disgrace to GNU...

About the banner: It's at slackware.com, under "propaganda". Lots of cool stuff there to choose from.I've noticed Gentoo has had a lot of people using it in the past few years....I've never tried it myself. Every other distro I've tried just seems a bit too..."butchered up" like Red Hat, SuSE and Mandrake, which didn't even last a week. (and then there's also Lycoris Desktop/LX, which was the absolute worst distro I have ever seen...) Maybe this is to protect new users from themselves...But I can't stand it...but then again, I've been using command lines even before preschool, so I'm at an advantage there over others my age.Heh...it's so amusing how people get frightened whenever they see me using a command line to do anything...and they say "that's something I could never learn to do"...yeah...typing stuff like "ls" and "cd" and "rm" and stuff...let me tell you, it takes YEARS of practice to get those down... (rolls eyes)...more like an hour at the most.

Ghost the NT4 drive and then after you put it back in the 2000 machine, then use the 2000 disk to upgrade.Although, I'd find it much easier to just create them again on the 2000 machine. It's really not that hard...but you're a Windows user, so maybe it seems harder to you.

Same for me...KDE 1 and KDE 2 I wasn't too fond of..KDE 3 is much better...Gnome...I hated Gnome 1, Gnome 2 wasn't exactly my favourite ether, but nice to see that it wasn't another windows-wannabe...I love CDE, but it requires some extra jugglong...and then I've tried enlightenment, xfce, etc...but I always end up coming back to good old WindowMaker.

Eh, it's nice to see a new desktop for *NIX...but I'll stick with good old WindowMaker. :PAll these little cubes do everything I need.