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**TWPonKubuntu** · Jun 01, 2018, 06:04 PM

It is telling that Linux holds a majority in server installations too. I wonder if this is an "end around" attack on the Linux dominance? Enterprise systems are server heavy, as I understand the terminology...

**woodsmoke** · Jun 01, 2018, 07:43 PM

AAARRRRGGGHHHH... "OPEN"//////// WILLINGLY SELLING ITSELF to the GREAT MICROSITH...

The old woodsmoker OPENLY STATES...that this is...

what "all those people" have ALWAYS SAID...

that GIVE ANYBODY...A BAJILLION DOLLARS and "he...she...it"...

WILL SELL FU#$%^& OUT...

It used to be that "open" would WILLINGLINGLY THROW THEMSELVES INTO THE MOUTH OF THE KRAKEN...

apparently the old woodsmoker has been "not allowed" to post images so you will have to click the lind to see Jack jump into the mouth of the kraken.. lol

[IMG]
https://pre00.deviantart.net/c1dd/th...ly-d6082zi.jpg
[/IMG]
WHETHER IT IS "logical" or not...

THIS IS JUST FUC@#$% WRONG...

WOOD...GAWD ALMIGHTY SMOKE GIT HUB!!!!!!!!!!!

**GreyGeek** · Jun 02, 2018, 09:50 AM

IF Microsoft makes that move, and I have no reason to doubt that they will, and combining that with the flat-line and declining sales of desktops and laptops as Joe and Sally Sixpack move from laptops to smartphones, and abandon their laptops, it seems that we may be witnessing the end of the PC era.

It is strange writing that. I was there when the PC era was born in the mid 1970s, and I may be watching it die in the next few years. It will be a slow death until the economies of scale are no longer practical, then the decline in production will be rapid. Probably within a quarter. Folks will continue to use and repair their existing laptops, so this will be the slow death part, but eventually even Linux developers will no longer develop Linux ISO's for laptops. For smartphones? Perhaps, sooner or later, but I doubt that they will be allowed to get a foothold because of Article13(1). Corporations will continue to use laptops for workstations until they eventually return to just using keyboards and monitors connected to virtual desktops spawned in mainframes running corporate versions of Linux, but not being developed or controlled by Torvolds.

Maybe, someday, someone will develop a smartphone with 40-50 hour battery life and a holographic virtual display with an air keyboard for a "smartphone" that picks up energy from the Sun via photo-voltaic clothes or body heat, and is hooked 24/7/365 to the web via 5G anywhere on the planet. All for only $500/mo. Oh, it will be authenticated through that chip embedded in the bone on the top of your skull. Only you can run it, it will track you, and any and everything you do with it will be monitored and controlled by those wiser, smarter and more powerful than you. Your superiors. Big Brother. Open Source software will not be able to be installed and won't be allowed even if you were able to locate a website where it was downloadable. The dark web ".onion" sites? Wiped out long ago following the Article13(1) passage in 2018. The ISP's began blocking your access to them, meaning Tor was no longer legal.

Back to now:
I hate the smartphone form factor (4 3/4ths X 2 3/4ths for my iPhone 6+) and there are something that are just better or work better on my 17" laptop: Universe Sandbox^2, Minecraft, SageMath Notebook, watching videos, banking, KFN, etc.

But, that said, I do my most important stuff on my iPhone: EKG's for my wife and myself, blood pressure measurements, tracking exercise (iPhone is always on me), banking (even though the laptop is easier, the iPhone is always more convenient and is always with me), paying bills, GPS, maps, weather radar & warnings, news flashes from local media, watching my grandson's baseball games remotely, ordering refills from the local pharmacy remotely at any time and being notified when they are ready, a photo copy of every document generated during my wife's illnesses, or mine, and photos & movies of every major family event, OBCDII analysis of my automobile's warning lights allowing me to know in advance what is wrong and how much it will cost before I go to a repair shop, compass, universal alarm clock, inclinometer, tracking airplane flights anywhere in the world at any time, Nebraska parks & rec maps & rules &reg at my fingertips, a calendar which notifies us of every important event or scheduled task in our lives, and much, much more. I've only used 32 GB of the 64GB of space available on my iPhone. I've had it for 3 1/2 years and plan to keep it until Apple bricks it.

The big negative: Apple controls it all, how long I can use it, including what the iOS will allow or revoke, how long the battery will continue to work without needing replacement, and it is under constant surveillance by whomever. Censorship could rear its ugly head at any time, and sometime in the future I expect it will, if I am still around. Apps can and have been revoked and pulled back, and that can happen again. Underground Weather just bricked their Weather Radar app to force an "upgrade" to their HiRes Radar app, although the bricked app is better.

I cannot do on my 17" Acer a 1/10th of what I do on my iPhone 6+. My Acer is too heavy, it operates only 2-4 hours on battery, depending on what I am doing, it requires headphones to be private, the more it is moved around the more likely something will break, BUT, it is a LOT easier to type on.

**GreyGeek** · Jun 02, 2018, 10:28 AM

Originally posted by TWPonKubuntu View Post

It is telling that Linux holds a majority in server installations too. I wonder if this is an "end around" attack on the Linux dominance? Enterprise systems are server heavy, as I understand the terminology...

It's always "end around" with MS. See how they reversed the move to Linux by that German city, Munich? It was all political. They moved an office to Munich. Began meddling in local politics supporting candidates that favored Windows over Open Source. Got a mayor elected, then got a city CTO hired. Then began the big move, with all the fudged "studies".
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/0...sts_ownership/

By 2012 they were saving 10M Euros/yr switching to Linux. The switch to Win10 will cost Munich more than they realize, but MS will make profit like a bandit.
https://www.computerworld.com.au/art...-gartner-says/

Microsoft's dirty tricks are legendary, and they haven't stopped.
http://conspiracy.wikia.com/wiki/Microsoft

Keep your data safe and hide yourself on the Internet in Germany?
http://conspiracy.wikia.com/wiki/Win..._User_betrayal

**TWPonKubuntu** · Jun 02, 2018, 11:07 AM

GG:

Despite the apocalyptic outlook of your posts, I find myself in agreement. Optimistically, the people who are now writing and supporting Linux will not go away, although we may simply expire in our time and not be replaced by kids coming of age. The younger generation is simply too indoctrinated by the M$ "education" system,

If M$ does gain control of the 'Net, which is all too possible, I think we will still have a small "underground" of programmers who will offer an alternative. It might not be Linux, but it also will not be Big Brother owned and operated. I hope that happens, but...

I'll point to the mesh networks as a viable alternative. They can connect to each other and, optionally, serve as portals to the WWW network. They are currently "bootstrapping" themselves into existence, since it requires a dedicated set of people to both setup and maintain a mesh.

Hardware is a problem. Look at how much trouble we have to go through, even today, to find a Linux compatible laptop. My 32bit systems are on the way out and I expect to be needing a 64bit laptop in the next couple of years. Desktops are less desirable due to size, power requirements and the need to buy separate compatible components.

Brave New World, indeed...

**GreyGeek** · Jun 02, 2018, 12:31 PM

Last year, in anticipation of curtailment of our Internet and personal freedoms I did an extensive test of P2P technologies, including meshes.

P2P is a total failure for several reasons. First, they are too complicated to set up and run for most mom & pop users. Only geeks need apply. Secondly, they have been compromised. The blockchain on which they are based has been compromised, and it is easy to forget the very long "password/id" that designates your node. Thirdly, my ISP (and the one before that, and before that) has a EULA which forbids me using my HD as an Internet server, even though I have a static IP address. That is exactly what happens when one sets up a P2P like IPFS or FreeNet or ZeroNet, etc... Your HD becomes host to at least two hundred webpages of other P2P users. At one point with IPFS I had 600+ websites on my HD. I had a 100Mb connection and I have 6Gb of RAM and an i7 CPU with eight cores, but my desktop slowed to a crawl. My Internet connection behaved like it was only 5Mbps and slower. IOW, you host their web pages, they host yours. That, supposedly, is how P2P is supposed to defeat censorship. Your web page is on too many other HDs for the gov to track and erase, especially if they are all connected via a blockchain tunnel. You become responsible for the child pron that appears on your HD even if you are not aware of it. Prison time. Big fine$$$

It would essentially be impossible for a mesh to go beyond local and become regional, much less state, national or global. Internet truck lines and DNS servers are capable of Terabyte transmission speeds. Google set up a 60Tbps line two years ago! Speeds have only increased. A mesh is going through WiFi routers with a max of 250mw transmission power and a max range of a couple hundred meters, unless dishes or yagi's are used for LOS transmission of up to 5-10 miles. Most WiFi's are set up as access points, not bridges, which requires a different setting. Stringing wire would be better, but then you'd need to get city permission and that would never be granted. I've followed several meshes in Philli and the NY area. After five years the Philli is struggling to maintain 50 connections, and the only Internet they get is bootlegged by a user who also has Internet service, which is illegal and amounts to theft of service. And, without the content of the Internet, what other purpose does a mesh serve? Revolution? Resistance?

I've mentioned before that during the Berkeley "Free Speech" riots of the 1960's the police could never figure out how the Marxist radicals coordinated their protests and countered University, city and state government police actions, just so they could swear in public. They used audio amplifiers with the 250 Watt outputs connected to copper poles in the ground instead of speakers. The mic inputs were attached to similar poles. They were using "underground" radio! Very clever! Audio frequency signals sent five to ten miles in all directions from campus, IIRC. Just like the Polaris submarine ULF transmissions from a tower near Silver Creek, NE, near to where I used to live. Now, we can use hand held VOX walki-talkies with several encrypted channels and 30 mile LOS ranges.

**TWPonKubuntu** · Jun 02, 2018, 02:09 PM

My advocacy of mesh networks is not based on a desire to replace the current "internet". I want a means to communicate and share information between like minded people. That, for instance, means that a rural agricultural community could have server(s) which host local, national and international news and an encyclopedia of information which is accessible by only those in the community. That information archive may prove to be invaluable in the future...

An urban community would be no different in structure, but might have different content.

Key parts of a mesh network are:

Ability to use either radio or hardwired connections
Secure server(s)
Local Email services
Encyclopedia database, ala InfoGalactic (NOT wikipedia), for an education and knowledge base external to the current 'net.
VOIP services if voice contact is desired.

Specifically NOT subject to regulation by the international ICANN bureaucracy although the FCC will want to keep their thumb on a radio based system so there is a benefit to being able to use hardwired connections.

There needs to be an option to string wire from existing telephone poles, but this is heavily regulated and owned by both private businesses and government agencies.

Given that equipment was available, a small community might chose to install underground cable.

Another option is to use Amateur Radio for packet transmissions. Again, lots of bureaucracy and "red tape" with this, but it is an option now.

**GreyGeek** · Jun 02, 2018, 05:00 PM

Originally posted by TWPonKubuntu View Post

My advocacy of mesh networks is not based on a desire to replace the current "internet". I want a means to communicate and share information between like minded people. That, for instance, means that a rural agricultural community could have server(s) which host local, national and international news and an encyclopedia of information which is accessible by only those in the community. That information archive may prove to be invaluable in the future...

An urban community would be no different in structure, but might have different content.

Key parts of a mesh network are:

Ability to use either radio or hardwired connections
Secure server(s)
Local Email services
Encyclopedia database, ala InfoGalactic (NOT wikipedia), for an education and knowledge base external to the current 'net.
VOIP services if voice contact is desired.

Specifically NOT subject to regulation by the international ICANN bureaucracy although the FCC will want to keep their thumb on a radio based system so there is a benefit to being able to use hardwired connections.

There needs to be an option to string wire from existing telephone poles, but this is heavily regulated and owned by both private businesses and government agencies.

Given that equipment was available, a small community might chose to install underground cable.

Another option is to use Amateur Radio for packet transmissions. Again, lots of bureaucracy and "red tape" with this, but it is an option now.

Those are good examples for mesh use.

Before I began my consulting business I wanted my kids to have a good education, so I moved to a town of 485 people along the South Platte River and taught there. Actually, living 5 miles outside that town my kids went to a one room school house and I wasn't disappointed in their education. That town would be an example of a perfect location for a mesh network but using Ethernet instead of WiFi for the "trunk line". The server would be at the town Library and cat-5 or better Ethernet lines would be wired along all the major streets with booster routers every 100 meters. The booster routers would radiate WiFi signals to the homes and businesses. The library server could be the "cloud", where people could upload encrypted files for storage.

I visited Phillymesh when I looked at P2P & mesh stuff and it wasn't far along, maybe 50 users. It's come a long way now:
https://www.fc00.org/#fc05:3ab5:1182...0a85:b6a4:b241
but it's lost almost an entire wing. Perhaps 500 - 1000 users now. Still, not bad.
https://phillymesh.net/wp-content/up.../fc00map06.png

https://www.metamesh.org/community-wifi-resources
http://gowasabi.net/ Saint Louis
https://tomesh.net/map/ Toronto mesh network Just started
http://gowasabi.net/content/coverage-area Maybe 50-60 users
http://sdmesh.net/ Just talking
http://www.pittmesh.net/ 65 sites in Pittsburg
https://www.metamesh.org/ (supported by pittmesh -- lots of tech info
and their list of mesh networks
https://www.metamesh.org/community-wifi-resources

The movement has gone international. Here is list of meshes by country
http://www.thefullwiki.org/List_of_w...orks_by_region

If a mesh were made by folks connecting wifi to wifi through bridges then the speed of the net would depend on the slowest connection between your wifi and the home base, say the library in my fictitious town. My wifi chip on this laptop gives me 250+Mbps connection, but if I am downloading I can go any faster than my write to HD speed from a full buffer, which is about 100Mbps. IF there was a wifi or two between me and some central hub and their connection speed was 802.11a or b or some mis configured g, then my n connection can be no faster.

**NickStone** · Jun 03, 2018, 02:28 PM

This is why Microsoft should buy $2 billion startup GitHub and turn it into a weapon against Amazon

http://uk.businessinsider.com/why-mi...18-6?r=US&IR=T

**TWPonKubuntu** · Jun 03, 2018, 02:39 PM

GG;

Thank you for the research links. Mesh popularity is growing and it is a good thing.

RE the speed of a given mesh network; at this point in the evolution of mesh, speed is (IMO) secondary to being able to bypass the current WWW / Internet. I can live with slower response in exchange for some better control over content and, perhaps, more privacy consciousness on the part of the people who maintain a mesh system.

I'm NOT saying that mesh is more private. It probably is equally porous and vulnerable to similar malware and attacks as the WWW. I'm referring to the mindset of those who run separate mesh networks...

**GreyGeek** · Jun 03, 2018, 03:00 PM

IMO, a mesh running FreeNet would be a nice combo. FreeNet would allow you to create private blockchain tunnels to specific people, in addition to the entire mesh.

**jpenguin** · Jun 04, 2018, 09:28 AM

I like github, but I mirror on https://notabug.org/

Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk

**GreyGeek** · Jun 04, 2018, 11:02 AM

Originally posted by jpenguin View Post

I like github, but I mirror on https://notabug.org/

Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk

But not under jpenquin?

**GreyGeek** · Jun 04, 2018, 05:02 PM

On March 31, 2017, Brian Harry posted a blog about MS shutting down CodePlex on Dec 15, 2017. Today, MS & GitHub announced a $7.5 Billion dollar buyout of GitHub by Microsoft, using MS stock shares, not cash. One of the comments reflects exactly my experience with MS buying a technology and then abandoning it. Specifically, Visual Fox Pro.

– Microsoft release Product X
– Microsoft heavily promotes Product X, promising its the wave of the future
– Microsoft devs want to work on cool new technology, pitch it to management
– Management agrees, pulls plug on Product X
– Microsoft avoids telling community Prodct X is being wound down, instead claims its “still supported”
– Without active development, Product X hemorrhages users and market share
– Microsoft publicly announces Product X is being discontinued because it has low market share
– Devs that invested time, knowledge, and money into Product X are screwed
Sound familiar? The story of just about every product Microsoft has touched over the past 15 years.
Just a few short years ago you were announcing on this very blog how you are the one in charge of CodePlex and the MSDN blogs. Months later, all active development stopped on CodePlex, all MS teams moved their projects to Github, and the site was left to wither over the past few years. And *shock* – people stopped using CodePlex. So instead of having alternatives to Github, we’re down to de-facto monopoly with a company that is unprofitable and could disappear eventually.
Plus- MSDN blogs are still as big a pile of garbage as they have been for a decade.

MS embraces GitHub over a year ago, while simultaneously neglecting CodePlex, then they extended their GitHub embrace by moving their CodePlex developments to GitHub. Now, they have purchased GitHub.

Another comment in the blog predicted "Before long Microsoft will buy Github…remember if you can’t beat ’em buy ’em."
Buy 'em indeed.

IF history is any predictor of future behavior then I predict that GitHub is doomed.
MS bought Minecraft and promised continued support for all platforms. Now, new releases of Minecraft are moving away Java. Translation: those running Minecraft on Linux are out of luck. My grandsons have been slowing moved away from Minecraft and now don't play it, so it won't be a loss to me, but how often can you find good games that don't exploit sex and realistic violence?

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