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Re: Why does Linux crash?



On 20110419_225719, Borden Rhodes wrote:
> Good evening,
> 
> I do mean this earnestly and, despite my frustration, I am not trying
> to flame the good people of Debian, GNU or Linux.  Nevertheless, I
> have to ask: why is it that in 2011, the world's greatest operating
> system lets Eclipse seize control of my computer, eat up 2 GB of RAM,
> monopolise a 2.2 GHz, dual-core processor and flood my hard drive with
> I/O?  I thought that a computer capable of processing over 4 billion
> operations a second could sort itself out in 20 minutes but, alas, I
> had to yank the power.
> 
> I thought the Linux kernel was supposed to have controls in place to
> prevent programs from getting away with this.  Of course, the problems
> inherent in Java, and by extension, Eclipse, are a whole other topic.
> However, is there a kernel task force working to prevent this from
> happening and, if so, what's the best way of giving them feedback when
> my system locks up so they can plug up the hole?  I hate to think what
> a malicious program could do to a web server if Eclipse can do this to
> my computer.
> 
> With thanks,
> 
> Borden Rhodes

There is no software that never fails. I don't use Eclipse, but it appears
to be an integrated development platform. In other words software for 
helping programmers write software better and/or faster. It is for developers,
not noobs who have no idea why software fails. Why are you trying to use it?

But given your experience with Eclipse, I hope you are developing a healthy
scepticism about proposals to have elections voted and votes counted on the
Internet. Imagine what malicious persons could do with that.

-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@mesanetworks.net


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