> -----Original Message-----
> From: netbsd-help-owner@netbsd.org
> [mailto:netbsd-help-owner@netbsd.org]On Behalf Of Richard Rauch
...
> Re. http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-help/2003/05/27/0006.html
>
> [Convention: I refer to a certain OS/company as "Evil Empire" primarily
> because someone has suggested in the past that naming them directly
> increases the number of "hits" that the mailing list gets when people
> go search for help with Evil Empire problems.  Every few months, someone
> wanders in asking us to send them a driver for their CD ROM in their
> Evil Empire computer.]

S'ok, I think of them as borg myself.

> Some general comments:
>
>  * You probably will learn more about running and using UNIX if you
>    hunker down and live with the command line.  That doesn't mean
>    that it's worthwhile for everyone to do, of course.  (^&

I had the same thought.

>  * vi is actually a fairly nice editor.  It does, like the rest of
>    the system, take some getting used to.  NetBSD ships with four
>    editors that I'm aware of:
>
>      ed  *really* primitive.  Useful in emergencies if your system
>          fails to boot multiuser.  (Though due to a change made since
>          the 1.3 days, ed is no longer runnable if you fail a multiuser
>          boot; you have to manually "mount -a"; I'm told that it is
>          then once more usable in singleuser mode.)
>
>      ex  A kind of souped-up, slightly incompatible, version of ed,
>          which I have never used.  (^&
>
>     sed  Stream EDitor, kind of like ed, but more intended to be used
>          by scripts to automatically do edits than for interactive use.
>
>      vi  A "visual" screen-editor that you have started to use.
>
>    I've had occasion to use every one of these except ex.  I think
>    that ed would be better if it would work (as it used to) even when
>    only / is mounted in a default config under singleuser.  My first
>    use of NetBSD ed was when I first installed NetBSD and forgot to tell
>    /etc/rc.conf that I wanted a multiuser boot.  ed let me view/edit
>    /etc/rc.conf comfortably.
>
>    I'm writing this email in vi on my (headless) web-/mail-server.
>    For some tasks I use GNU EMACS.

I've decided that for short sessions like changing minor things here and
there, I can live with vi. But if I have to do anything extensive I think
I'll just keep using Jen's File Editor and upload my changes. (i know, i'm
cheating ;)

>
>  * You probably don't *need* any of the packages for your firewall.
...
>  * You *can* use graphical applications remotely.  This is one of
>    the nice thigns about the X Window System.  X is network-trans-
>    parent.  If your firewall is headless, you won't get much benefit
>    from setting up X on the firewall, but if you have the libraries
>    installed you can run X applications.  If you have an X server
>    running on your Evil Empire computers, you can have the firewall
>    open windows remotely.  (The easiest, reasonably secure way to
>    do this is to ssh into the firewall and have ssh provide for
>    forwarding an X session.  On the firewall side, this is as simple
>    as modifying the config file for sshd.  On the Evil Empire side,
>    you are a bit more on your own.  Though the Cygwin project may
>    be helpful.  I don't know if Putty is of any help for this.)

I think I like _that_ idea best. Thanks Richard.

Fernando