[Discuss] Dropping obsolete commands (Linux Pocket Guide)

[me at mattgillen.net (Matthew Gillen)]

On 11/9/2015 8:19 PM, Rich Pieri wrote:
>> 3. telnet
> 
> Use netcat. It's a better tool for the kinds of things you might use
> telnet for other than logins. Use ssh for logins.

telnet is better at one thing than netcat: telling you when you're
connected.  netcat is just silent and won't return errors for a long
time.  If you want to know quickly if all the firewalls are out of the
way, telnet is better, because as soon as it successfully connects it
tells you.

Everyone tells me socat is better than netcat, and perhaps it solves
that problem, but I'm too set in my ways to learn something that isn't a
drop-in replacement syntax-wise for netcat.

>> 5. write and talk
> 
> I still occasionally use wall (write all) to notify users of impending
> shutdowns.

You still have multi-user systems?   ;-)

write and talk were great in college for freaking people out in the lab,
but given my starting point with linux in the late 90s, I never saw an
actual legitimate use for them (excepting 'wall' for server announcements).

Matt