this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

The end is nigh, I tell you!

Y2k38

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 68 points 1 month ago

Then the internet would blame it all on Linux.

However, the recovery process would be much faster. The Linux kernel would try to load the kernel module and if it fails it would skip it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Doubtful. By far, most servers responsible for Internet traffic are not running crowdstrike software.

This incident was a bunch of fortune 500 companies caught with their pants down.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

If all of the parts of the internet that the average person finds useful goes down, then it matters little that technically "the internet" is not down. If it can't be useful then it is as good as "down".

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Who do you think runs those servers? What do you think those companies run on their Linux servers?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Those companies aren't "the Internet." They're products connected to the Internet.

The OP argument is like saying the Internet is dead because Netflix is down.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

A lot of people would say the internet was down if a large number of those products weren’t available. Also companies like Google do own parts of the physical Internet infrastructure.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Don't forget that ftp.cdrom.com , the biggest server on the Internet at it's peak, was running on FreeBSD.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

There's a free blue screen of death? All of these people paying for Windows for no reason /s

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I have no idea what the hell that is...

But Netflix runs on some BSD too

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Freebsd, as does whatsapp and PlayStation

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's where you would download your anime and Quake 2 installer twenty years ago.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Interesting!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Probably not. Most Linux admins know their systems and are able to navigate out of the situation with ease. But also most people don't use any corporate off-the-shelf software, because there are better options that are freely available.

Furthermore a Linux installation is dedicated and slim for one single purpose. The flexibility creates diversity.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This combination of arrogance and complacency sort of thinking is how it does happen on Linux one day.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Linux also isn't as popular on the desktop or end user devices

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Are you implying that Windows server admins don't know their shit?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I've scene some supposedly 20 year veterans who don't know the architecture of AD

Not to say that is all of them but I've scene some who really can't do anything outside of click some buttons.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

No. They don't. They always need Microsoft support to solve situations and upgrades. You can also ask simple questions that they cannot answer. Try Active Directory: how to run AD in a secure fashion? Or: What services do rely on DCs in our company?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago

My guy, I work cloud support for both Linux and Windows VMs.

I get dumbass cases from both all the time.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As a Windows engineer, the number of times I've seen other "engineers" open a case with Microsoft is insane. It seems to be a lot of their first reactions. No logs, no trying anything, just "this broke, why no work". I think it's that the Linux guys are mostly self taught, and the windows guys aren't.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think it's more of "we pay Microsoft (or any company) for this. Make them handle it."

It's that kind of thinking that makes shit like the crowd strike problem possible.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Windows server admins: "We pay Microsoft for the service, damn right we'll use it!"

Linux server admins: "We don't pay anyone for the service, hopefully someone else had the same issue and posted about it somewhere..."

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Interestingly, the latter ends up with better stability and security!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I think the shower thought is centered around IF a ubiquitous bug that required physical access to the machine to resolve occurred simultaneously across all Linux machines.

If you couldn't remotely resolve the issues, regardless of your competence, simply the WALK to each machine and hooking up a KVM to each one would take a long time.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 month ago

There won't be such case is my argument. No one patches a system "for fun" and automatically there except they really set it up like that. It would be only one kind of a case in one company.

Furthermore, you cannot compare Linux systems. A modem firmware with busybox is not the same as a Debian PC desktop. It works differently and has only the kernel in common. And in both cases they aren't patched at the same time. They are not even the same version, hell not even the same platform.

E.a. nothing will ever break like this. If it does, it will be one single case of a single IT department.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

Connect to your hypervisor remotely, pray it uses something like bhyve/FreeBSD

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

2038 is the next big thing to hit older *nix based OS. It will be Y2K all over again.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It'll be 911,000? As long as it's stored with 32 bits that should be fine 🤷

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I agree. We've been able to do 6 digit math for decades now

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Maybe on my 32-bit ARM server with ancient kernel it will. Any 64-bit machine is immune.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

...unless it's running software that uses signed 32-bit timestamps, or stores data using that format.

The point about the "millennium bug" was that it was a category of problems that required (hundreds of) thousands of fixes. It didn't matter if your OS was immune, because the OS isn't where the value is.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

...timestamp is signed? Why?

Edit: Oh damn, I never noticed that the timestamp is indeed signed. For anyone curious, it is mostly historical as early C didn't really have a concept of unsigned

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

It also allows users to store dates back to ~1902.

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