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I discuss a new MaraDNS release, RMS being fired, and installing CentOS 8 inside a VMware virtual machine.

==MaraDNS 3.3.03 released==

I have released MaraDNS 3.3.03. This is an unstable beta release of MaraDNS; compared to MaraDNS 2.0.17:

• Updated numbering system to give MaraDNS the same version number as Deadwood.
• Deadwood updated to 3.3.03. Deadwood 3.3 adds “ip4” and “ip6”: The ability to specify an IP for a given name (both IPv4 and IPv6). Deadwood 3.3 now uses the Quad9 upstream DNS servers. Deadwood 3.3 has a compile time flag to use RadioGatún[64] instead of RadioGatún[32].
• Document how star records work.

It can be downloaded at the usual place.

Note that this release only has source code and does not have a Windows binary. For Windows users who want to try out the new features, there is a download of Deadwood 3.3.03 available.

==On RMS being fired==

RMS, a.k.a. Richard Stallman, who created the entire framework of free UNIX software which made Linux possible in the 1990s, has been forced to resign from his position at MIT and the Free Software Foundation he created. He was forced to resign because of some incorrect allegations that he supported Jeffrey Epstein.

The thing that upsets me about RMS’s forced resignation is that the #MeToo witch hunt, which started off as something noble, is expanding its reach to attacking people who have unusual opinions.

Note this: RMS has not been credibly accused of sexually harassing anyone since 1985, when he told a woman that he would kill himself if she didn’t go out with him. The issue is not his behavior, but his opinions, which are being quoted out of context by people who appear to have more interest in destroying a good person than in a rational objective look at facts.

Note also that RMS does not have racist or bigoted opinions. He does not believe in marginalizing someone because of the race, sexual orientation, nor gender.

He is quite left wing, from a culture a lot of young people these days have never seen and can not understand. He has some opinions about sexuality which seem shocking to young people, but which were within the realm of acceptable among geeks in the 1970s or 1980s. I emphatically do not agree with all of his opinions (I, for the record, believe sex should only be done inside of a lifetime monogamous commitment, but that’s neither here nor there). But I don’t think having had those opinions many years ago (the postings from his blog which everyone is up in arms about are from at least a decade ago) is grounds for termination either.

RMS is the father of Linux and open source software which keeps the internet (and, yes, this web site) running. It’s very ironic that the very technology he made widely available is being used to ruin him with accusations which are, at best, exaggerated.

See this: https://​sterling-​archermedes.​github.​io/ No, I did not write that page, but I agree with its content. Clickbait journalists more interested in generating outrage than in looking at objective facts have ruined a good man.

I should also mention https://​twitter.​com/​thomas_​lord/​status/​1174433656024092672 where Thomas Lord, who worked very closely with RMS, says that RMS was always seeking to be inclusive of women in technology, long before it became socially acceptable to do so.

Edit: I have observed, after writing the above, that MIT has a “F” grade for how they handle due process. Considering how they treated RMS, I am not surprised.

==CentOS 8 in VMware==

I managed to get CentOS 8 to work in VMware player.

I had to install the vm X11 driver to get resize to work. As root, I did this in the guest:

yum install xorg-x11-drv-vmware

To get suspend to work, I had to find the secret recipe online.

• Shut down the guest
• On the host, go in to the folder with the virtual machine and edit the relevant .vmx file
• Make sure the line controlling how suspend works looks like this:

powerType.Suspend = "hard"

• Suspend only works by clicking on the pause button and selecting suspend.

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