name resolution

Sun Nov 26 22:05:23 UTC 2017

On Sunday 26 November 2017 14:26:20 Liam Proven wrote:

> On 26 November 2017 at 15:28, Gene Heskett <gheskett at shentel.net> 
wrote:
> > Liam, it turned out at the end of the day, that we were closer than
> > some might have thought from watching our exchanges on quite a few
> > things. I like it that way. :)
>
> Thanks for that!
>
> I'd say it's like this.
>
> I've been around a pretty long time in this business too. 30 years,
> very soon.
>
> I've watched DOS 3.3 and 3+ Share over NetBEUI, with a side order of
> Concurrent CP/M and Xenix, replaced with DOS 5 and Netware over IPX,
> with a side-order of Concurrent DOS and Unix, replaced with Windows 3
> for Workgroups and NT 3 Server, replaced with Win95, NT4, Win98,
> WinME, Win2K and Win2K Server over TCP/IP, replaced by WinXP and
> Windows Server 2003, replaced by Vista, then Win7 and Windows Server
> 2008 with IPv6, then Win8, then Win8.1, then Win10 against something
> running inside VMware.
>
> I've watched System 6 replaced by System 7 replaced by MacOS 8 and 9
> and then Mac OS X 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, "Tiger", "Leopard", "Snow
> Leopard", "Lion", "Mountain Lion", "Mavericks", "Yosemite" and now I'm
> typing on "Sierra".
>
> I've put in NetBEUI, HP DLC, DECnet, IPX/SPX, AppleTalk, EtherTalk,
> and I've ripped it all out and replaced it with TCP/IP.
>
> I've built and installed servers with 3Com 3+Share, 3Com 3+Open,
> Netware 2, Netware 3, Netware 4 and Netware 5, and with NT 3.1 Server,
> NT 3.5 Server, NT 3.51 Server, NT 4 Server, Windows 2000 Server,
> Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.
>
> I started on SCO Xenix, then SCO Unix, then played a bit with IBM AIX
> and Solaris, then Linux 1.0, 1.2, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4, 2.6, 3.x and now 4.x.
> I've also tried and failed to get far with FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD,
> Minix3 and Plan 9 from Bell Labs.
>
> I've used CP/M 3, CCP/M, CDOS, GEM, GEOS, EPOC16, EPOC32, Symbian,
> Newton OS, iOS, Android, QNX, Blackberry 10, BeOS, Haiku, AmigaOS 2 &
> 3, ST TOS/GEM, QDOS, Afros, Acorn MOS + DFS, RISC OS 2 and 3 with
> ADFS, DEC VAX/VMS, on brief occasions a PDP-11, an AS/400 and a
> System/36.
>
> So many OSes. So many networking systems. I'm sure I've forgotten
> some.
>
> But it's all going away. Now there are so few, and there's so similar,
> and it's very sad.
>
> My early TCP/IP systems were statically-addressed. Then I learned DHCP
> and WINS. Then I learned about hosts files and DNS cache. I added
> proxy servers and had to have working internal DNS, via a caching
> proxy server. Then the server was on a permanent link, not dial-up.
> Then it was on a router. Then it was on Wifi, at first ad-hoc, later
> based around access points. I've used Token Ring, Sage MainLAN, Thick
> Ethernet, 10base-2, 10base-T, 100base-T and now gigabit.
>
> Stuff keeps changing.
>
> My attitude has been, be a reed, not a tree. Go with the flow. Use
> what that customer wants, not the cool new thing. As standard change,
> I change. I go with what is current and what works.
>
> I didn't like Netware 4 and NDS. NDS did nothing I needed and got in
> the way. I switched to NT4. That worked very well for me.
>
> I didn't like Windows 2000 Server and Active Directory. It did nothing
> I needed and got in the way. So I switched to Linux servers and
> firewalls. That worked well for me too.
>
> Windows XP was big and slow and complex. I didn't like it. I put it in
> for my customers, sure, but I switched to Mac OS X, on an old free
> unsupported Mac, installed with XPostFacto, heavily upgraded with
> cheap 3rd party bits, because I couldn't afford new Macs.
>
> When I got free cast-off Macs from customers that were new enough to
> run OS X without hacks, I switched to them. And when they got too old
> or too unreliable, I switched to Linux.
>
> Every time there's a new version of Windows, I switch back to it for a
> little while to get to know it, then go back to Linux.
>
> And the Linux I've used since 2004 has been Ubuntu.
>
> I wasn't wild about GNOME 2, but I tried all the competitors and they
> were all worse.
>
> So I went with it.
>
> Then came Unity. That I liked. It looks like Mac OS X, and I like Mac
> OS X.
>
> So many changes. So much new tech.
>
> If you try to stand against it, go "no, I don't like this, I don't
> want it", then you are lining yourself up for pain and suffering.
>
> You have to go with the new, embrace it. That doesn't mean being
> bleeding-edge, but trying to use 1995 or 2005 networking techniques in
> 2015 is not going to bring you happiness and a simple, clean working
> system. It's going to mean hacking, kludging and forcing OSes to do
> things they were never designed to do.
>
> It's just bringing suffering upon yourself.
>
> Life's too short. I just want it to work.
>
> Now, Unity is going away, and instead, we get GNOME 3. I've been
> experimenting with that since it shipped. I don't like it. It's pretty
> but it doesn't work my way.
>
> So I'm not going to force it. I'm not going to customise it with a
> dozen extensions to work the way I like. That's standing in the path
> of progress.
>
> So I'll switch, sadly, again. Xfce, probably. It's not shiny or pretty
> but it works.
>
> In the past, we've clashed because you insist on doing 2 things that
> in my extensive experience are *really bad ideas*.
>
> [1] You use a special RT kernel and a very old version of Ubuntu, as I
> recall, for CNC mills. That's fine. If that's what you need, fine. But
> you also use these specialised machines for general Internet access.
> That's a _disastrously_ bad idea. If it's Internet-facing, it _must_
> be current or you're at risk. Using an old version or a special kernel
> for a general-purpose PC is a terrible, bad, risky, dangerous idea.
> For a happy, easy, safe life, you do the Internet on modern Ubuntu and
> use the special version for its special job _and nothing else_.
>
> I tried to tell you this. You shouted at me angrily.
>
> All I was trying to do was save you pain and problems. You wouldn't
> listen.
>
> [2] You have a 1990s style statically-addressed network, IIRC. You
> raged about Network Manager and so on.
>
> I suggested that the path of least pain, least trouble, was a standard
> modern IP network. DHCP, static leases for machines you want on
> unchanging IPs, and let the router/firewall do DNS so you can find
> them by name.
>
> You shouted at me angrily. You wanted it your way.
>
> Again, all I was trying to do was save you pain and problems. You
> wouldn't listen.
>
> But I was only trying to help, but you didn't want advice about the
> simple, no-fight, go-with-the-flow way of doing it. You wanted YOUR
> WAY and nothing else.
>
> That way means pain, misery, and fighting custom-modified OSes. That
> means suffering. I wanted to save you that but you didn't want to hear
> it.
>
> I'm sorry we clashed. I really was only trying to help.
>
> Now, this poor angry person Xen is shouting angrily at me, because
> modern Internet standards don't work the way he wants, and he wants it
> his way, and he can't have it, so he is spamming his ISP with DNS
> requests for internal names that the external DNS can't resolve, and
> it's my fault and Apple's fault and those hideous evil nasty bad tech
> companies who BROKE HIS SYSTEM... because he doesn't really know what
> he's doing, but he wants it his way, without learning to do it the
> right way.
>
> And because I do know how to do it, I am bad and evil and one of Them
> and I keep using my age and knowledge to make him look bad.
>
> All my fault.
>
> Because for thirteen years, I've been hanging out on this mailing
> list, giving free help and advice and trying to help people fix their
> computers.
>
> Even though that's what I do for a living. Even when I had so little
> work I couldn't pay my mortgage and my bank confiscated my bank card.
> I had to move country to get a new job in the end.
>
> But still I stay here, offering guidance and advice when I can,
> sometimes getting it wrong, but learning as well as trying to help.
>
> I'm not a programmer. I can't provide code to Linux.
>
> I could write documentation but that is my day job now and I don't
> want to do it on my time off.
>
> I no longer do tech support, which is great, except here, for nothing.
>
> But some people will still write you 3 or 4 emails in a row, shouting
> at you, cursing you, calling you names, saying you're cheating by
> claiming special knowledge, or calling you a liar, for offering free
> help.
>
> *Sigh*

Thats 2 of us Liam. With Ralf, maybe 3. I don't know what distro the next 
LCNC installer will be based on, but I expect I'll be running it within 
a couple months of its release. But I'll also say that wheezy has been 
more stable over its life cycle than the ubuntu's were.

One does what one does when in Rome. :)

Take Care Liam. Your support on this list is like Mastercard, priceless.

> --
> Liam Proven • Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
> Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • Google Mail/Talk/Plus: lproven at gmail.com
> Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven • Skype/LinkedIn/AIM/Yahoo:
> liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 • ČR/WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal: +420 702
> 829 053

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>