[TAG] Talkback:125/howell.html

[Benjamin A. Okopnik]

On Tue, Apr 11, 2006 at 05:43:21PM -0300, Andr? Fellows wrote:
> Hi folks!
> This IP Cop is another leaf of the Linux Firewall/Router/DHCP server 
> distros.
> I have to tell you that this IP Cop seems to me not good as BrazilFW.

Then the obvious thing to do is a bunch of research comparing the two
and presenting your results in an article. Otherwise, thank you for
telling us how it "seems" to you... but I'm not sure why you'd want to
share this information. [1]

> I used Coyote (http://www.coyotelinux.com/ ) but it was discontinued. The 
> BrazilFW (www.brazilfw.com.br) is the Coyote continuation.
> 
> Try there, its free, fast and painless!

I've used Coyote in the past on several occasions, and liked it a lot;
for basic routing and firewalling, it was quite a nice gadget. However,
IPCop has many more features than Coyote did - at least so I gathered
from the article.

DIfferent pieces of software, different purposes. One is not "better"
than the other - just different. Implying otherwise, especially without
supporting data, is rather inconsiderate toward the person/people who
took the time to write the software that you don't like.


[1] This is a (perhaps somewhat testy) way of pointing out that saying
"program $X is good" does NOT require adding "because program $Y sucks"
for the purpose of emphasizing the former; there's no subordinate clause
implied. Since this is not the world of proprietary software, in which
vendors are fighting tooth and nail to sell their latest crap-a-riffic
bugware, *we do not have to denigrate competing software* - it brings
us, as a community, no benefit, and may do damage to a fellow
programmer's reputation. So, yeah, this hits the rant button for me.


* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://linuxgazette.net *