* John Grant :

I'd rather have no app than one that secretly sends information I consider personal back to the company:

http://netsecurity.about.com/compute/netsecurity/library/weekly/aa110299.htm

Thanks for the URL. According to the 11/09/99 update on that page, the newer version supposedly doesn't use tracking. Perhaps the one you use now does?

Probably the only thing that would come from that is more spam, but that's plenty, IMHO. Enough to make me think twice about just running any old .bin from them anyways, just on general principles.

Well, the realplayer executable is a .bin without the extension, and there is no source code to see what it does either. I was unaware that they did this (though not at all surprised). I always use my throw-away address for any type of registering, and sure enough all I get are spam messages sent to that account.

Then too, "setup.exe" was one of the things I _hated_ about that "other" OS, and I'd just as soon not condone that kind of crud here on Linux. What does a .bin do for me that a .rpm wont?

Agreed. OTOH, not every Linux distribution uses RPM. How will companies distribute their products if they don't know how to package them? Perhaps there will be a lot more of these types of install binaries coming from the Windows-centric companies. IIRC, you can run the .bin as a user, so it can't do anything serious to your system (not a luxury allowed with that "other" OS). Not being very helpful anymore, David. -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/

Hi John! On Wed, 17 May 2000, John Grant wrote:

On Wed, May 17, 2000 at 01:25:28AM -0600, David Porter wrote:

...

* John Grant :

...

Is there a way to edit preferences for the version of RP that ships with 6.3? I need to tell it the port(s) to use so it can get through the firewall, but I can't select the view->preferences menu to change it.

You mean you can't select any of the menus in Realplayer [unknown version]?

Yes. When I click on a menu I get the menu panel popup, but I can't select any items in the list.

I had this happen to me on every installation of SuSE6.3. A reinstall of RP fixed it. -- B. L. Jilek | ICQ: 10733954 | Linux user: 163800 PGP: DSS 0x800B3A69 RSA 0x3F1963C5 | OS: SuSE Linux 6.3 --------------------------------------------------------- -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/

On Wed, May 17, 2000 at 01:34:53AM -0700, John Grant wrote:

This is version 5.0.0.35 btw. At the moment I'm running icewm and XFree86 3.3.6, if that's relevant.

Oh, dear. Don't use that crusty old thing :). Get 7 from: http://scopes.real.com/real/player/player.html?src=000516realhome_1,000512choice_2a&dc=518517516 Get the self-extracting archive, not the RPM. Also useful is the Macromedia Flash Player from: http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=Shock... -- -=|JP|=- "Why, oh, why didn't I take the blue pill?" Jon Pennington | Atipa Linux Solutions -o) jpennington@atipa.com | http://www.atipa.com /\\ Kansas City, MO, USA | 816-241-2641 x121 _\_V 6D04 39E0 CAE9 9ADA 2CA3 2EBE 898A 6C37 CA1E A29C -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/

On Wed, May 17, 2000 at 08:33:29AM -0700, John Grant wrote:

Read the thread. I'm not interested in "setup.exe". If I can't tell ahead of time what it's going to do, it doesn't do it on my system.

I saw that. I seem to remember untarring the .bin, but my memory is a bit fuzzy. I have one question for you, though; did you or did you not install Netscape on your system? If you did, your argument for security and understanding has already been defeated tenfold.

I just downloaded the .rpm. In looking at it it looks like it's not going to put the files in the right places though. Maybe if I get ambitious I'll unpack it and install everything manually.

Actually, the .bin follows HFS perfectly. /usr/local/RealPlayer is a perfectly logical placement, and the installer will ask if and where a symlink goes (the logical placement being /usr/local/bin).

Then again, maybe I'll just lose interest in this project. Sorry Real.

Indeed. You gotta' do whatcha gotta' do. :) -- -=|JP|=- "Why, oh, why didn't I take the blue pill?" Jon Pennington | Atipa Linux Solutions -o) jpennington@atipa.com | http://www.atipa.com /\\ Kansas City, MO, USA | 816-241-2641 x121 _\_V 6D04 39E0 CAE9 9ADA 2CA3 2EBE 898A 6C37 CA1E A29C -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/

On Wed, May 17, 2000 at 10:53:26AM -0500, Jon Pennington wrote:

On Wed, May 17, 2000 at 08:33:29AM -0700, John Grant wrote:

...

Read the thread. I'm not interested in "setup.exe". If I can't tell ahead of time what it's going to do, it doesn't do it on my system.

I saw that. I seem to remember untarring the .bin, but my memory is a bit fuzzy. I have one question for you, though; did you or did you not install Netscape on your system? If you did, your argument for security and understanding has already been defeated tenfold.

I have netscape on my system. SuSE "installed" it, in the sense that they integrated it into the system. I have no problems with that, that's what I pay them for ain't it? :) I do (typically) run with most of the bells and whistles turned off. Lately I've been experimenting with junkbuster's "trust" mechanism too. My main problem here is not so much that I'm running a binary. It's that I'm a) running a binary that gives _no_ indication about what it's going to do, nor does it even come with documentation claiming what it will do ("install RealPlayer" is not detailed enough) and b) does not come signed or tagged in any manner so that I can verify that the binary hasn't been tampered with. For all I can tell, it will overwrite some random files in /etc and /lib, and install stacheldraht along with realplay. We all know the DLL wars that go on in Windows, and wasn't there a problem with an early version of Star Office (or was it Applix?) on linux that needed to use it's own libc.so or something? A beta of the Real player is just not a critical enough system component to make me want to play those games. As for running the program that the binary installs, that's also a can of worms.. but a /different/ can of worms. I'm prepared to deal with that via firewall settings and file perms, once I get the dang thing installed. Though once again, I have to wonder how much of my time this is really worth.

...

I just downloaded the .rpm. In looking at it it looks like it's not going to put the files in the right places though. Maybe if I get ambitious I'll unpack it and install everything manually.

Actually, the .bin follows HFS perfectly. /usr/local/RealPlayer is a perfectly logical placement, and the installer will ask if and where a symlink goes (the logical placement being /usr/local/bin).

If they had even said this much, I would have been more inclined to just install the .bin. Maybe I'll send Real a note with a clue attachment.

...

Then again, maybe I'll just lose interest in this project. Sorry Real.

Indeed. You gotta' do whatcha gotta' do. :)

I suppose it would be easy enough to just run the .bin and be done with it. I probably would have heard about it by now if it caused any problems. (My thanks go out to those guinea pigs that have gone before.) I guess I'm just bitchy because I hate to see Windows-isms like this creeping into Linuxland. heh, as I type this, Blind Guardian is singing: "lost in the deep shades the misty cloud brought monstrous it covered the shore fearful into the unknown" Quietly it crept in new horror, insanity reigned ... hmmmmm ;) -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/