Posted by: Anonymous
[ip: 70.124.80.251]
on June 11, 2008 04:00 PM
My points were not ridiculous criticism. They're spot-on (no pun) and at the heart of differences touted as reasons to use Linux over Windows.
Take a look at any list of reasons given why users should choose Linux over Windows (like the one below) and right near the top of nearly every such list is "security." The difference being Unix permissions that separate what an administrator can do across a system or network versus what a user can do in his limited reach on the system or network. POS disregards that and chooses instead to function in a manner which even Windows recommends against and, by default, allows full and unencumbered access across each mountable filesystem and across a network. http://www.cae.wisc.edu/site/public/?title=whyuselinux
I would rather users choose to run Windows with separate admin and user accounts than POS as root -- it's much safer for them and for their data. That way they avoid local and remote exploits and any harm inflicted is limited to what the user account controls (which, if set up properly, isn't very much). It also greatly reduces their chances of becoming part of some botnet. Yes, Linux machines can be herded. Does Puppy come with SSH? Root only login? Wow. Nice. Not. http://lwn.net/Articles/222153/
All of this, though, is antithetical to POS because it means users have to learn about permissions and follow sound 21st-century computing principles -- principles even Microsoft now recommends! POS isn't Linux for smarties, it's Linux for dummies. POS doesn't appeal to experienced Linux users. Read their forums, read their information. POS targets inexperienced users like the reviewer who can't be bothered to RTFM to set up hardware properly (and note that even the stuff that was "set up" wasn't set up properly). Dumber users are gullible enough to believe that the kernel (Linux versus Windows) matters more than everything on top of it (Firefox, Flash, Open Office, etc.). Such naivete is what eventually leads to very serious trouble, especially when connected to a network (Internet=network) teeming with people ready to see what they can do to wrest control of various machines.
Sad that this kind of poor execution by any distro is DEFENDED on a Linux-oriented website, let alone reviewed in such glowing terms without one word about such a lapse in administering security. I stand by my dummies comment. Running as root only is stupid; only stupid people run as root. Clear enough?
And to the user who lumped in Knoppix and DSL with POS, take a little closer look at those: user knoppix and user dsl have sudo privileges but aren't root. While I'm not a big fan of wide-open sudo like they use, at least those two distros require first gaining user access before exercising root via sudo. At least DSL (Knoppix may also have it, I'm not going to look right now) has a "secure" cheatcode that prompts for both user and root passwords at boot. This is much better than logging in as root, much less running exclusively as root.
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pos is for dummies... i said it, i stand by it
Posted by: Anonymous [ip: 70.124.80.251] on June 11, 2008 04:00 PMTake a look at any list of reasons given why users should choose Linux over Windows (like the one below) and right near the top of nearly every such list is "security." The difference being Unix permissions that separate what an administrator can do across a system or network versus what a user can do in his limited reach on the system or network. POS disregards that and chooses instead to function in a manner which even Windows recommends against and, by default, allows full and unencumbered access across each mountable filesystem and across a network.
http://www.cae.wisc.edu/site/public/?title=whyuselinux
I would rather users choose to run Windows with separate admin and user accounts than POS as root -- it's much safer for them and for their data. That way they avoid local and remote exploits and any harm inflicted is limited to what the user account controls (which, if set up properly, isn't very much). It also greatly reduces their chances of becoming part of some botnet. Yes, Linux machines can be herded. Does Puppy come with SSH? Root only login? Wow. Nice. Not.
http://lwn.net/Articles/222153/
All of this, though, is antithetical to POS because it means users have to learn about permissions and follow sound 21st-century computing principles -- principles even Microsoft now recommends! POS isn't Linux for smarties, it's Linux for dummies. POS doesn't appeal to experienced Linux users. Read their forums, read their information. POS targets inexperienced users like the reviewer who can't be bothered to RTFM to set up hardware properly (and note that even the stuff that was "set up" wasn't set up properly). Dumber users are gullible enough to believe that the kernel (Linux versus Windows) matters more than everything on top of it (Firefox, Flash, Open Office, etc.). Such naivete is what eventually leads to very serious trouble, especially when connected to a network (Internet=network) teeming with people ready to see what they can do to wrest control of various machines.
Sad that this kind of poor execution by any distro is DEFENDED on a Linux-oriented website, let alone reviewed in such glowing terms without one word about such a lapse in administering security. I stand by my dummies comment. Running as root only is stupid; only stupid people run as root. Clear enough?
And to the user who lumped in Knoppix and DSL with POS, take a little closer look at those: user knoppix and user dsl have sudo privileges but aren't root. While I'm not a big fan of wide-open sudo like they use, at least those two distros require first gaining user access before exercising root via sudo. At least DSL (Knoppix may also have it, I'm not going to look right now) has a "secure" cheatcode that prompts for both user and root passwords at boot. This is much better than logging in as root, much less running exclusively as root.
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