3 ms·

C'mon. If it's part of a Linux distribution it's part of "Linux".

by VirtualAirwaves 8y ago

azinman2 8y ago
Tell that to Richard Stallman, who will go ape if you call GNU tools “Linux”
- Crontab 8y ago
  I like Stallman but he can be a pedantic prick.
  - ovao 8y ago
    The “prick” isn’t necessary: you could just as easily have said that he can be pedantic and left it at that.
    - nixpulvis 8y ago
      Boy you're such a prick... oh I get it.
    - labster 8y ago
      Exactly. Always apply the DRY principle.
  - branchless 8y ago
    He's an absolute visionary. Can you imagine how much you'd be paying to access a computer without him?
LeoPanthera 8y ago
That's misleading even if you're not a follower of Stallman. Lots of operating systems use Grub that aren't Linux-based.
newnewpdro 8y ago
There's a substantial difference between grub password protection, a feature which I've never seen anyone use in practice and the ubiquitous login prompt. The OP specifically said the login prompt was defeated by backspacing alone.
- stevekemp 8y ago
  Reminds me of the bug in Solaris where you could get root by essentially pressing entering a username and mashing the keyboard a bit: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/muc.lists.bugtraq/5zYUw5Kt_UU/CaTUzTt6b10J https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/muc.lists.bugtraq/5zYU...
opan 8y ago
Not really. You can use Syslinux in place of GRUB (in fact, I was when this bug was first appearing in the news). I also think it's bad practice to generalize things to that point. There is of course the obvious issue of Linux just referring to the kernel, making it hard to talk about just the kernel if you get into the bad habit of referring to many things by that same name. More importantly, though, if there's a bug in GNOME or your file manager, it feels very wrong for someone to say it's a problem with "Linux". I think this distinction matters more due to the modularity of GNU/Linux and all the choices of programs for basic tasks.

C'mon. If it's part of a Linux distribution it's part of "Linux".

azinman2 8y ago

Tell that to Richard Stallman, who will go ape if you call GNU tools “Linux”

Crontab 8y ago
I like Stallman but he can be a pedantic prick.
- ovao 8y ago
  The “prick” isn’t necessary: you could just as easily have said that he can be pedantic and left it at that.
  - nixpulvis 8y ago
    Boy you're such a prick... oh I get it.
  - labster 8y ago
    Exactly. Always apply the DRY principle.
- branchless 8y ago
  He's an absolute visionary. Can you imagine how much you'd be paying to access a computer without him?

LeoPanthera 8y ago

That's misleading even if you're not a follower of Stallman. Lots of operating systems use Grub that aren't Linux-based.

newnewpdro 8y ago

There's a substantial difference between grub password protection, a feature which I've never seen anyone use in practice and the ubiquitous login prompt. The OP specifically said the login prompt was defeated by backspacing alone.

stevekemp 8y ago
Reminds me of the bug in Solaris where you could get root by essentially pressing entering a username and mashing the keyboard a bit: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/muc.lists.bugtraq/5zYUw5Kt_UU/CaTUzTt6b10J https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/muc.lists.bugtraq/5zYU...

opan 8y ago

Not really. You can use Syslinux in place of GRUB (in fact, I was when this bug was first appearing in the news). I also think it's bad practice to generalize things to that point. There is of course the obvious issue of Linux just referring to the kernel, making it hard to talk about just the kernel if you get into the bad habit of referring to many things by that same name. More importantly, though, if there's a bug in GNOME or your file manager, it feels very wrong for someone to say it's a problem with "Linux". I think this distinction matters more due to the modularity of GNU/Linux and all the choices of programs for basic tasks.