On Sat, 2004-06-12 at 19:49, Damon Jebb wrote:
Ken Schneider wrote 12 June 2004 20:40
Makes me wonder who all of these so called authors are. Also makes me wonder how many M$ employees are on this and other linux lists for the sole purpose of trying to create a stink in the linux community.
Ken
What utter paranoia!! I have been using and working with Linux for manay years, have never had any connection with MS and have what I consider to be a better than average understanding of computers and operating systems. I feel that many Linux advocates are blind to what makes windows good and fail to understand why many users who hear of the wonders of free software don't stick with it - it's because it doesn't work easily, out of the box. OK, there are cases where XP and its apps don't either, but they're getting fewer for your standard office and internet uses.
Which of course begs the question when will Windows XP be ready for the desktop?
Accepted XP could be securer, could be ready patched out of the box. But SuSE 9.1 never will be (ready pathced). There will be 'security patches' to be downloaded if you want it to be secure against any newly discovered vulnerabilities, and there will be many of them before it is no longer available on the local computer store shelf.
Now the real question is, are these kernel patches, or are they sundry software vulnerabilities. I've been watching what security patches are available for SuSE 8.2, and if I were using a straight forward desktop, stripped to Windows desktop approach, my security vulnerabilities would be few and far between.
I'm not commenting to raise a stink in the linux community - I don't care much if it does though. I am trying to put a more measured perspective on the argument, from an experienced user of both operating systems. As I said on another thread, as far as I'm concerned Linux is great for servers, not for the desktop.
Unfortunately you haven't looked at all of the desktops versions available Damon. Like I mentioned before, there are those geared towards the type of situation you pose. You need to evaluate them. before concluding that GNU/Linux under X isn't suitable. Mike