[Beowulf] Repenting for sins against Dell (on good Friday, no less)

[Mark Hahn]

>> I'd like to add that Dell's DKMS (Dynamics Kernel Management System) is
>> great:
>> 
>> http://linux.dell.com/projects.shtml#dkms

really?  I've never much seen the point, since when I want a kernel
update, it's almost never for drivers, but more fundamental parts 
of the kernel, often not even modules.  I suppose that a vendor's 
responsibility might focus on drivers, though.

> build a way for customers to buy proprietary linux apps (e.g. games) via
> authenticated/keyed access to yum repos, he could singlehandedly create
> a serious userland linux market.

HP has its own distro, but is still trying to use a traditional 
approach to making patches patches available.  (ie, ftp patch files
that unpack to rpm(s), install script and docs).  it seems pretty 
obvious that yum repos are the way to go (is there any _technical_
reason to prefer deb's?  to me, the gist of a distro is the web of 
version dependencies that it presents when installed.  why distros
at all?  because dependecies are normally a digraph, sometimes cyclic,
so it's really hard to share non-leaf packages between distros...

> Cut a deal with vmware on the side, add full out-of-the-box lin/win

is there any reason to prever vmware over one of the free VMs?

> via yum and he could take the office desktop by storm.  Secure windows
> -- run from inside linux!

I'm not so sure about that - why would VMed windows be more secure?
my understanding is that the thing that makes windows vulnerable is 
the hooks that make windows integration work.  and it's the integration
that people expect, no?