Nmap 5.00 Released, With Many Improvements 73
iago-vL writes "The long-awaited Nmap Security Scanner version 5.00 was just released (download)! This marks the most important release since 1997, and is a huge step in Nmap's evolution from a simple port scanner to an all-around security and networking tool suite. Significant performance improvements were made, and dozens of scripts were added. For example, Nmap can now log into Windows and perform local checks (PDF), including Conficker detection. New tools included in 5.00 are Ncat, a modern reimplementation of Netcat (with IPv6, SSL, NAT traversal, port redirection, and more!), and Ndiff, for quickly comparing scan results. Other tools are in the works for future releases, but we're still waiting for them to add email and ftp clients so we can finally get off Emacs!"
Bloat. (Score:2, Insightful)
So nmap went from a special purpose-built tool to a suite. Frack. Anyone here taking commissions on erecting a grave marker? UNIX is nice because it creates many little purpose-built utilities that can be strung together to perform complex tasks. This style of thinking seems to be going away in favor of integrated solutions that rather than doing one thing well do an umbrella of things passably okay. At least they haven't gone the approach yet of stuffing everything into a service that has to run all the time or the scanning engine will go stabby-bits on the user, which seems to be how "security" software runs on Windows... But it's only a matter of time.
Re:Bloat. (Score:3, Insightful)
Having to compete on feature sets, interoperability, and user satisfaction is a lot harder than claiming moral superiority. -_- This is why open source still isn't taken seriously by businesses -- the mindset of its adherents is still blatantly immature.
Nice troll you have there.
Open source gets lots of things right -- and -- lots of things wrong.
If you want to talk about competing on feature sets, interoperability and user satisfaction, well, there are quite a few packages out there that do exactly that. OF course, you always have to take into account your audience.
Development tools like gcc, autoconf, Python, Perl, Emacs, gdb, are all at the top of their class in terms of these three things. I know several people, for example, who have been using Emacs since 1984, including myself (off and on; it's a love/hate relationship for me. :)
But then again, these are tools written by developers, for developers, not by developers for marketeers. Say what you will about Visual Studio .NET, but I can point you at scores of people that absolutely despise it, and not for the fact that it's closed source. It's terrible bug-infested bloatware, and everyone who has ever used it knows that. (That being said, there are those that are forced to use it, of ocurse).
For user software, Firefox is definitely at the top of its class in those three categories, no doubt about it. Its constantly rising market share proves that.
Apache? Despite Microsoft's best efforts, more than 2/3rds of all websites are still running Apache. Again, specifically because of user satisfaction (webmasters love Apache), interoperability (everybody makes their stuff work with Apache), and feature sets (IIS can hardly compete with Apache today, considering how badly Microsoft has stagnated it.)
Sure, there's stuff open source gets wrong, but that's not my point. My point is this: your comment is either astroturfing, or you're Microsoft zealot, or you're a troll, plain and simple.