Very unhappy with FreeBSD 13 MOTD

mer said:
Interesting. If one boots directly into a graphical environment, one never sees MOTD. If you ssh into that box, log in on a different virtual console, sure you'll see one.
Me, I do startx so initially log in on a virtual console, but in all honesty, I've never really paid attention to it since 3.x. Now when some of the fortunes were removed, that annoyed me.

Oh, Linux also does MOTD on a ssh/console login.
Click to expand...
Wasn't the original intent of MOTD to issue organizational announcements? As in, information important enough to merit communicating to EVERYONE who logs into the system?

I personally learned a lot about adjusting the technical mechanism of MOTD just from reading this thread...

To me, knowing how to adjust those kinds of details - that's a good exercise in learning how to read the manuals, finding the correct files to edit, editing the files themselves, and verifying that the changes work.

In fact, that exercise was part of my Computer Science curriculum. A low-impact procedure that doesn't irreparably mess up a system to the point that a clean reinstall is needed. The worst that happens is a mildly annoying line of text appearing when you log in...
 
astyle said:
Wasn't the original intent of MOTD to issue organizational announcements? As in, information important enough to merit communicating to EVERYONE who logs into the system?
Click to expand...
I believe that was part of it. Other OS at the time (VMS, etc) and the environment (pretty much everyone on a VT100 or similar) had login banners which MOTD is similar to. As things move to more graphical environments, users lost that visibility so now you typically see it only when you ssh into something.

It definitely is a useful tool, it seems most complaints come because of a change in behavior, not a loss of functionality.

My opinions only, agree, disagree, no problems. I'll just add them to my MOTD.
 
Alain De Vos said:
Where is the fortune mod "offensive"?
Click to expand...
I don't recall when, but there was a roughly "I'll remove this and ask forgiveness later" action on some of the fortunes.

Keep in mind that some of the contents of "fortune" was written a long time ago, in a different era of "offensive". Just like some classic literature like Huckleberry Finn is now considered offensive but at the time of writing was not. That's what happened to fortune.
I'm not arguing should/shouldn't fortune have been changed or "fortune offensive or not offensive" just pointing out that "some parts of classic fortune were deemed offensive by today's yardstick and were removed".

All my opinion, and that's all I'm saying about it.
 
mer said:
I don't recall when, but there was a roughly "I'll remove this and ask forgiveness later" action on some of the fortunes.

Keep in mind that some of the contents of "fortune" was written a long time ago, in a different era of "offensive". Just like some classic literature like Huckleberry Finn is now considered offensive but at the time of writing was not. That's what happened to fortune.
I'm not arguing should/shouldn't fortune have been changed or "fortune offensive or not offensive" just pointing out that "some parts of classic fortune were deemed offensive by today's yardstick and were removed".

All my opinion, and that's all I'm saying about it.
Click to expand...
Huckleberry Finn is now offensive??? Just fire Ron DeSantis, and tell him to cut the crap. Oh, and Greg Abbott, while we're at it. 🍿
 
  • Like
Reactions: bjs
This week i watched.
www.rottentomatoes.com

Quills

A fictional work that reconstructs the unknown fate of the Marquis de Sade, the writer and sexual deviant who was imprisoned in an insane asylum for the last 10 years of his life. The Marquis de Sade befriends the director of the asylum and shares affections with the asylum laundress. When a...
www.rottentomatoes.com www.rottentomatoes.com
 
kpedersen said:
Huck sounds to close to F*ck.
Click to expand...
I can get offended right back at those people - huckleberry is a bona fide berry that is delicious raw and in jam. No jam for the offenders!
1681493434100.png

Not to mention I live in an area where the stuff is actually popular...
 
Huck Fin was deemed offensive because of the N-Word. That it argued against slavery is irrelevant (for the snowflakes).
If you have high regards for civilisation, just google some kid's cartoon series + "problematic". That'll cure it. Or search for "sensitivity readers", which now are finished with Dr Seuss and take on Ian Fleming and Enid Blyton. Guess what'll happen to Astrid Lindgren. If we let them continue, there will be nothing left one day which may happen to cause discomfort in some deranged mind. In other words, nothing old and certainly nothing new will be there to be read. I buy books these days, some second hand and DVDs so my kids have a chance to read old classics how they were meant to be and see movies which may provoke thought. Interestingly enough, they do not redact some old texts which are full of violence, mass murder, child abuse and so on. That would make me stock up on popcorn!
 
Crivens thank you. That is exactly the point I was skirting around. I look back at the cartoons I watched growing up and "no way they'd make those from scratch now". Road Runner, Wiley E Coyote? Three Stooges?

My opinion, judging the past against "now" simply erases the past and noone learns the lessons that got us to here.

The past exists to learn from so you don't make the same mistakes.
 
mer said:
That is exactly the point I was skirting around. I look back at the cartoons I watched growing up and "no way they'd make those from scratch now". Road Runner, Wiley E Coyote? Three Stooges?
Click to expand...
Mel Brooks? Monthy Python? Thomas Sowell would be canceled today in seconds.
All this book burning was there in the past. Not only what you think of, but also the great library of alexandria, among other such occasions. I need to stop this now, my blood pressure is not compatible with a good night's sleep otherwise.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mer
Mel Brooks: Space Balls.
"They say" watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail will reduce your blood pressure. Especially "Castle Zoot and the Grail shaped beacon".
 
kpedersen said:
View attachment 10927
To complete the AT&T collection. This one is alive, just vastly unpopular ;)

I would say that UNIX as a design still represents the *only* system that has truly stood the test of time. So if operating systems do not adhere to its simplicity, they will disappear and be outlived by the UNIX "idea".

This MOTD change is pretty messy in my opinion. Since so few of us use its new functionality, it probably should have been a port. Not a massively big deal on its own but it does contribute to a slight unraveling of a clean, deterministic system.

As an aside, OpenBSD has managed to keep their traditional /etc/motd so it couldn't have been an absolute life changing improvement.
Click to expand...
Also essential from the addison wesley series:-

1681497991297.png


And

1681498097174.png
 
everyone needs the stuff differently

i since 1998 use motd to know where i am
with over 500 bsd servers it's good that way

because everything is so good with bsd
we have only so small stories

but it is one
 
Please 🙏 need to stop this motd:mad: , I tried removing the template and its still coming back also update_motd="NO" nothing stops this spam
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top