TiVo hacks flourish

TalkBack 19 of 40:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

It is only applicable to Tivo (in this case)

Tivo is a product, it is a piece of hardware that records video content to a harddrive. Some years back there were Tivo hackers, though mostly they were just installing larger hard drives (what Tivo stores it's content on). Since they are not a distrib (such as RedHat, SuSE, Gentoo, etc.) and rather a product (a DVR), if you hack the box you void the warrenty.

An automotive example may help to illustrate this. If you purchase a new car (for a given model year) and start to alter the engine (aftermarket equipment additions to the engine, for example, or performance enhancing parts), the manufacturer is not responsible for damage. They don't know what alterations you have done or if you broke it during the process.

If you purchase a Linux distrib (or download the ISO images) and use it, odds are you will have a fairly custom configuration (/, /usr and swap sizes may vary, as with the software you choose to install). Since a distrib is just a collection of software that has been acquired and found to (or tested to) work together, they package that in a user friendly manner. Some distribs (Gentoo and Debian for example) presume that you are reasonable proficient with Linux and know what you are doing.

Who do you think is going to give you a warrenty for a given Linux distrib, since the distrib is a collection of works made by various developers for various projects? Case in point, with any give Linux distrib you could have for mail: Sendmail, Postfix, Exim or some other MTA (Mail server). This is not a product made by the distrib and they have no control over that!

If you make an alteration to a sendmail.cf file (consists of M4 macros) and make a mistake, is Sendmail responsible for your issue?

Posted by: B.O.F.H.   Posted on: 11/11/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Virtualization: Architectural Considerations And Other Evaluation Criteria VMware Of the many approaches to x86 systems virtualization available in the ... Download Now
• Five Steps to Determine When to Virtualize YourServers VMware Server virtualization isn't just for big companies. Entry-level ... Download Now
• Three Steps You Need to Know to Stop Data Loss Varonis Sensitive data exposed to misuse or loss... it is the stuff of nightmares ... Download Now