Why does this person get to interview Jeff Waugh?

[aysiu]

Quite possibly the most obnoxious and ill-informed interviewer I've seen in action. I can't believe Jeff Waugh gave this Jaqui person the time of day...

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877-6066271.html

[LordRaiden]

I really can't answer the question but the interviwer seems to be the kind of mentality that http://funroll-loops.org/ describes: tweakers who cannot tolerate having a using general system for everyone. The interviewer is passionate about hating Microsoft in an almost fanatical way.

[caldevil]

It was so stupid on his part to complain about firefox being required package. The only thing that uninstalling firefox does is uninstall yelp. If he is geek enough he can build yelp with source code without firefox support and be happy.

[aysiu]

This is my favorite part... had me laughing: Jaqui: Since sudo single user does everything it is a seriously flawed security model, I always use root account for administrative purposes.

Jeff Waugh: Sorry, it's not a flawed security model. We're extremely attentive to security issues, and this is the kind of configuration that is recommended for large server deployments, and any situation where a task-based approach to privilege escalation is required. Turns out, that fits very neatly with the requirements of a desktop system. It is disappointing that the whole concept of root is inflicted on users of other distributions. You'll note that Mac OS X uses a very similar approach to Ubuntu.

Jaqui: Yet there was no way to put system administration password into system admin tools in the GUI. I definitely disagree that regular user as administrator is as good of a security model; that is the way Windows boxes get infested with malware.

Jeff Waugh: That's not how Ubuntu works. The user is an administrator only in that they have sudo rights should they need to perform administrative tasks. They do not have inflated privileges in general use. This is not qualitatively different to having a root password that just ends up being a different password to type in. We've thought about this long and hard, and we have a very conservative approach to security issues. Ultimately, this is the best way for UNIX systems to work in general -- professional sysadmins will tell you the same thing.

Jaqui: The "only administrator can do anything" is why every Windows box is being run as administrator. Microsoft has yet to create a good multi-user operating system; you are turning Linux into a clone of Microsoft's flawed multi-user model with this type of security model.

[LordRaiden]

I like this one:

Jaqui: Root account is there to be used, therefore sudo is a security risk. (Secunia advisory (http://secunia.com/advisories/18358/), sudo doesn't completely release from the system when it's shut down leaving the system vulnerable to exploit, a fact that was actually reported to Secunia by Ubuntu). I'll have to disagree that using sudo instead of the root account is more secure.
Jeff Waugh: Sorry, but I don't believe that you have the depth of knowledge to state that as a fact. You're welcome to your own opinion though. :-)


I wonder what window manager (if any) Jacqui uses. If he is yelling about GNOME then he probably screams about KDE as well.

[K.Mandla]

That person obviously had an agenda from the start. Jeff seems to have a good job fending off the attitude without becoming combatitive in return. I don't know that I would have been that graceful.

[Lord Illidan]

I only agree with Jaqui on 1 point. PCMCIA on desktops is not that good, why not make an option for the user on installation to chose whether he has a laptop or desktop?

Otherwise... bad interview by an arrogant and "know-it-all" interviewer to a very patient Jeff Waugh.

[John.Michael.Kane]

Frist thing that jumped out at me was argumentative. second this interviewer claims to use LFS, and ubuntu was a pain to use. I don't know if this interviewer was trying to be funny or what. we as linux users know that not every piece of hardware will work all the time, and every disto our there has it's shortcomings, however to go off on a rant with a dev like this to me does no good.

[Lord Illidan]

They say that he is quite clever and knows his stuff.
I wonder.

[John.Michael.Kane]

Lord Illidan I will give the guy credit if he took time to setup LFS, however i can't believe that coming from lfs to ubuntu is that big a problem, ubuntu should be a peice of cake after doing things from source in theory.

[aysiu]

They say that he is quite clever and knows his stuff.
I wonder.
"They" must be idiots, then. How can someone who knows his stuff claim that the sudo security model is the same as running Windows as administrator?

[Lord Illidan]

Lord Illidan I will give the guy credit if he took time to setup LFS, however i can't believe that coming from lfs to ubuntu is that big a problem, ubuntu should be a peice of cake after doing things from source in theory.

He says he installed LFS. Also, I don't understand the big deal about it... If you follow the instructions, you can do it. Same for gentoo. Sure it is harder than Ubuntu, but it is not impossible.

[John.Michael.Kane]

Like i said he came from a source based distro to one that is pre compiled for the enduser. there should have been no problem for him to understand the distro in question, and gentoo or LFS is harder for most endusers getting either of those fully working, and keeping them updated is nothing to thumb your nose at. if linux as a whole is easy for you to understand to the point you can say "you don't understand the big deal about it" thats fine. since i'm not looking for an argument i will leave it at this.

[Lord Illidan]

Like i said he came from a source based distro to one that is pre compiled for the enduser. there should have been no problem for him to understand the distro in question, and gentoo or LFS is harder for most endusers getting either of those fully working, and keeping them updated is nothing to thumb your nose at. if linux as a whole is easy for you to understand to the point you can say "you don't understand the big deal about it" thats fine. since i'm not looking for an argument i will leave it at this.

Don't take me wrong, I know LFS and gentoo are harder for most endusers, it is just that some people make a lot of fuss about them, and never try them, when probably they are capable of installing and maintaining them, with some help and good advice.

Again, I am referring only to installation, I am aware that maintaining is a different cuppa tea.

About linux as a whole being easy for me to understand...ah, I wish...hehe.

[Harold P]

That person is an ignoramus.

[John.Michael.Kane]

That person is an ignoramus.

I would not go that far maybe he just had agenda or maybe felt that ubuntu should have been easier. who knows!! the dev handle the interview verywell, and as stated avoided arguing with said interviewer.

[aysiu]

I would not go that far maybe he just had agenda or maybe felt that ubuntu should have been easier. who knows!! the dev handle the interview verywell, and as stated avoided arguing with said interviewer.
I would go that far. Did an expert install and didn't realize it. Thought Synaptic was a frontend for aptitude. Insisted that sudo was the same as running as root all the time. Ignoramus. I go that far.

[asimon]

This is rediculous. Rude, incompetent, very bad style, informational worthless. If you haven't yet read it, don't. It's a waste of time.

[briancurtin]

i wonder if this jaqui guy ever forgets to breathe. he doesnt seem too smart.

[woedend]

Jeff Waugh: Sorry, but I don't believe that you have the depth of knowledge to state that as a fact

that pretty much should have been Jeff's only comment, the answer to every question. This guy is an idiot(or better perhaps, is ignorant) and if you fail to see this you are blind.

[simonn]

Don't take me wrong, I know LFS and gentoo are harder for most endusers, it is just that some people make a lot of fuss about them, and never try them, when probably they are capable of installing and maintaining them, with some help and good advice.


The thing is that you can install or maintain a source distro and have no more of a clue than if you had been doing the same with any other distro.

If you can install or maintain any linux distro and understand exactly what you are doing then it makes no difference if the distro is a source disto or binary distro.

The differences between any distro are really very very small.

Being able to type, ./configure && make && make install does not an u83r 133t h4xX0r make.

Anyway, this Jaqui bloke, aside from having a girl's name is clearly a d*ck (ha, censors, it could be duck!). He also thinks he has a bigger e-prick (bugga!) than he does.

[prizrak]

If we give him the benefit of the doubt and think that he actually knows anything then it's a clear case of a tweaker vs an everyday user. Ubuntu isn't a very customizeable OS it ships with alot of interdependent software, it is very possible to customize it but at the end of the day it might not be Ubuntu anymore.

The interviewer's comments are somewhat akin to me saying something like "You drive an FWD car? Pfft it understeers in corners." to my mother. She doesn't care if it understeers she doesn't turn at 60mph like I would she just uses it for transportation. That guy is also not understanding that to most of us it makes very little difference if bluetooth daemons are installed, they don't run.

I also don't think he understands how a computer system really works. Even if a module is installed it doesn't mean it ever gets loaded. If bluetooth subsystem doesn't recognize a bluetooth device it won't start it would get a "device not present" error, same with most hardware services, unless they were created by a monkey with a learning disability, which I do not believe to be the case in Gnome. He also obviously has a bias, he hates Firefox for no other reason than the interface, which is a pretty stupid reason to hate something.

[simonn]

Ubuntu isn't a very customizeable OS

It is as customizeable as ANY other distro. You don't like something, rebuild it, uninstall it, install something else.

You are right about when does something stop being Ubuntu though.


The interviewer's comments are somewhat akin to me saying something like "You drive an FWD car? Pfft it understeers in corners." to my mother.

It's more like:

"You drive a FWD. It has a cup holder. I do not have any cups as I only drink out of beer steins so I do not need a cup holder. My push bike does not have a cup holder, so your FWD is crap."

[Iandefor]

This guy doesn't know his stuff. Quick list of things he's wrong about:
Thinks that Synaptic is a frontend to aptitude
Used expert install and never even noticed
Claims to use LFS, but misses the simplest of config options, like setting a root password and enabling root login
Argues against bluez-utilities because *he* doesn't use bluetooth, then calls bluetooth support a waste
Missed the fact that nautilus-sendto depends on bluez... then claimed that there aren't any packages that depend on bluez.
Argues that since Gecko is it's own code, Ubuntu shouldn't depend on Firefox.
Missed that Ubuntu is apparently installed on both laptops and desktops- he claims that laptop-utils is pointless.
Seems to believe sudo is somehow incompatible with gtk, since he says that you can't edit system files outside of vim.
Insists that the special-case software like bluez-utils and laptop-utils aren't used often, and are therefore "crap". Also seems to believe that said packages are unremovable.This is far from exhaustive. In addition, he's argumentative and seriously lacks in tact.

It's more like:

"You drive a FWD. It has a cup holder. I do not have any cups as I only drink out of beer steins so I do not need a cup holder. My push bike does not have a cup holder, so your FWD is crap." Exactly.

[nalmeth]

I hope he didn't waste too many resources in his time with ubuntu.

[Lord Illidan]

In all fairness, I agree about the laptop utils being useless, but only on a desktop system. I re-iterate that the user should chose at installation whether he has a laptop or a desktop, and based on that choice the installer can go ahead comfortably.

And I think everybody knows whether the computer infront of him is a laptop or a desktop, make it more simple, add a picture!!