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Mission and Vision Statement This is an "anti-hype" self-education oriented CS site that tries to counter the current "software over-complexity" drive (including deadly open source overcomplexity). "Slightly skeptical" approach makes it more suitable for education as it asks and tried to answer questions (sometimes as a humor) that you will not see on a typical "self-congratulation" open source sites which promote points of view to which most of us already subscribe. The site tries to help people deeply interested in software technologies to understand the tradeoffs and compromises of modern software better (please note that for self-study it's of paramount importance to get the best textbooks possible; that's crucial for the university environment too, as many universities are just diploma mills.) It might be useful also for older folks, who are fighting to preserve their jobs by enhancing their skills. While advocating OSS this site skeptically treats OSS bloatware like Red Hat and especially Gnome. The author prefers Solaris 10 as a server as the most stable and mature flavor of Unix and "unixified Windows" as a client and thinks that the most important segment of Linux are Debian and minidistributions like Knoppix. The site stresses that scripting languages, not Linux hype (in its Raymondism or Stallmanism incarnations) represent the most important area of open source development and that (Free/Open/Net)BSD and old proven command line tools like OFM, orthodox editors and classic Unix utilities still hold their own: one of the key problems in software is that fashion rules and its demands require that programmers change tools, languages and OSes like women change shoes. The site also explore links between OSS and cults and has strong anti "cult of personality" stance (see biographies of Richard Stallman and Linux Torvalds ).
Unix_system_calls : Scripting_Page : Compilers : Assembler : Linus_Torvalds_Biography : Skeptics : Bookshelf/compilers: Algorithms : Orthodox_File_Managers : AWK : Decompilation : Altoffice: Skeptical_Antivirus_Page : Dual_boot : Integrity_checkers : Editors : Free Registry tools: TCP/IP_books: Open_source_humor: Shells: find : PAM : Vnc : Linus Finland Period : Knuth : Classic books : C language : Bookshelf/Assembler : Information_Overload : Beautifiers : Classic Unix tools : Unix OFMs : Bookshelf/algorithms : Scripting/perl
Minidistributions : Pseudoscience and press : Patching Best Practice in DMZ Environment : Softpanorama Society Orthodox File Managers Site : The Orthodox File Manager(OFM) Paradigm. Electronic book : Lang/assembler Log Auditing syslog KISS Certification: General Issues Softpanorama Exam Strategy Solaris Sertification Antispyware Tools Spyware
ResearchIndex |
Note about disappearing sites: after dot-com fallout, many interesting Web sites are gone. That means that some links in pages can be broken. Please try to use Goggle, Open directory, etc. to find a replacement link and, if you are successful please mail us a correct link. See HOWTO search the WEB.
This is a Spartan WHYFF (We Help You For Free) site. It might help, but it cannot replace the best teachers and the best books.
Copyright © 1996-2004 by Nikolai Bezroukov. www.softpanorama.org was created as a service to the UN Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) in the author free time. Submit comments
This document is an industrial compilation designed and created exclusively for educational use and is placed under the copyright of the Open Content License(OPL). Original materials copyright belong to respective owners. Quotes are made for educational purposes only in compliance with the fair use doctrine.
Standard disclaimer: The statements, views and opinions presented on this web page are those of the author and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the author present and former employers, SDNP or any other organization the author may be associated with. We do not warrant the correctness of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose.
Created: May 16, 1996; Last modified: October 30, 2004
