[luau] dhcp-146-41

[Warren Togami]

W. Wayne Liauh wrote:
> I don't think you understand the seriousness of this issue.  As I 
> mentioned in my very first post, RoadRunner changed the host name of MY 
> computer without my permission.  (As a result, I was unable to load my 
> printer driver even as a root.)  The succeess of internet age depends on 
> trust, i.e., whether we can trust bandwidth providers.  If you think 
> this is OK, then perhaps you should get your brain examined.
> 
> Jimen, you have always demonstrated yourself as one of the more 
> knowledgeable Linux experts on our island.  I am interested in sending 
> out a message.  Nothing personal.

Wayne, I really appreciate your contributions to the community, but 
sometimes I truly question your logic.  I do not understand where you 
are coming from quite often.  In this case, you are taking this issue 
way too personally and your understanding of the technical side is flawed.

DHCP itself is designed set your hostname if your configuration is set 
to allow this.  Red Hat's default configuration has done this for years. 
  I remember it happening to me from as far back as Red Hat 5.2.  I 
suspect this is the default because many organizations use a DHCP naming 
scheme for their machines.  For example this is how Microsoft's Active 
Directory and several other directory services works.  The clients by 
default allow themselves to be named by the network administrators in 
order for Intranet resources to be accessable by name rather than IP 
address.

The problems that we experience with hostnames are mostly because of a 
design problem with regard to hostname resolution and applications in 
Linux.  It is counterproductive to complain about it here and assert 
that it is a violation of your rights.  Pointing fingers of blame wont 
help the situation either, because vendors and especially volunteers who 
work on these projects are much less likely to listen and help you when 
they're turned off by such unprofessional behavior.

Somebody else mentioned that Mandrake always handled this particular 
issue properly.  I sometimes heard people complain about this in Red 
Hat, but that is all it was, annoying complaints that only pissed off 
developers.  If somebody would calmly spell out the problems in the 
proper channels I am sure it will be fixed.  I will personally look into 
this issue during Red Hat 8.1 beta that I am currently spending about 8 
hours a day in debugging.  Sorry I haven't been around lately, but now 
I'm back.  Could you please explain in detail in one e-mail so I can 
quickly analyze this problem?

Quite frankly I'm surprised by your behavior in this instance.  It seems 
ridiculous to me that you would quit this list over this.  You have 
taken this way too personally.  This is NOT a violation of your rights, 
you simply just didn't understand it fully.

I'm sorry you disagreed and quit.  I still consider you to be a valued 
member of our community.

Warren Togami
warren at togami.com