To continue with this ``let's waste bandwidth on misc'' trend, I could
not help but have a closer look at MicroBSD.

It appears that, despite the front page on www.microbsd.net saying that
"There is currently no [...] downloads available", you can still fetch
MicroBSD 0.6 on http://www.microbsd.com/MicroBSD/0.6 (yes, .com not
.net).

And if you download the etc06.tgz file
  (http://microbsd.net/MicroBSD/0.6/i386/etc06.tgz),
you might notice that it contains a /var/mail/root file. Given the
OpenBSD roots of MicroBSD, one can reasonably expect this file to be
somewhat similar to the same file in OpenBSD (/usr/src/etc/root/root.mail),
which greets the user and provides some information and tips on how to
get the system set up quickly.

With the installation procedure, the contents of this file are the first
impression someone will have from the system. You can expect it to be
accurate, and as helpful as possible.

Imagine my surprise when it started with:
  From: dingodo-not-reply.microbsd.net (Theo de Raadt)

Is this a proof that Theo de Raadt suffers from schizophrenia, or a bad
joke?

Let's ignore this for now, and proceed to read the contents of this
email.

Around line 30, it says this:
  You are STRONGLY urged to use ssh instead of telnet, rlogin, or rsh! ssh is
  included in all MicroBSD systems. The implementation is OpenSSH, which we are
  the developers of.

Gee. Since when is OpenSSH written by MicroBSD people? Talk about ego!

To be frank, it will be very hard to convince me that this has been an
honest mistake, or whatever. This file, while looking similar to the
equivalent OpenBSD file, has been modified (From: line, ``MicroBSD'' in
the text, removal of the package list section). The final file is 77
lines long.

I won't buy the fact that nobody has proofread a 77 line text file, or
that it has been proofread but such a false claim went unnoticed.

The more I look at the MicroBSD fiasco, the more I think the net effect
of this splinter is to seriously hit *BSD's credibility. Not so bad, for
a system that ``exist for the sole purpose of providing something that
doesn't currently exists'' (ezine.daemonnews.org/200302/microbsd.html).

Thank you very much, but BSD can very well live without being
discredited by careless people.

Miod

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