Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (2803 mails)

[Sunny <sloncho@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 10:17 AM, Jim Henderson <hendersj@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Which is great until that backup fails.  I don't know how much data
> you've got, but if I ran two backups of all the computers in my house,
> I'd probably need a couple of TB drives.  I archive my DVDs and CDs and
> that takes a *lot* of space.

I do not consider ripped DVDs and CD "critical". Unless you are not
doing anything unlawful, you still have the original - better than any
backup :)

And, for that matter, such a data is not accessed regulary, and will
not suffer if they are placed on a RAID5 volume.

> It's good you can afford the time and the hardware to do this.  Many home
> users can't.  Do you really think people who are buying OLPC PCs are
> going to have the resources available to buy another hard drive or two
> for backup purposes?

Do you really think that OLPC will be able to perform "any" useful
work, if it has on-access file scan enabled?

> It's hard to say, but it seems to me it makes sense to prepare for that
> possibility - far less sense to have people go "oh crap, it *is*
> susceptible after all" once the desktop becomes popular enough to be a
> target.

As mentioned before - the only way an executable may appear on a
user's computer, and run therefor, is if the user put it there, and
change the execution permission. So, in order to file to appear on the
computer - it have to be downloaded (the browser may invoke AV after
download), received by email (on demand scan when message arrives), or
copied over from another medium - in such a case manual scan will be
enough.

Only the last case may kind of "require" on-access scan, as people are
lazy. And still there is possibility to use another means, like
monitoring a directory for changes, and scan on write, not on read.
And if somebody is stupid enough to run an executable out of removable
media (usb stick) w/o checking it - you know, one can never "outsmart"
the creative stupidity. You can not even prevent any user to delete
his own files by "mistake".

Anyway, I think that this thread should end already. Obviously the
discussion should not happen here, but on a kernel developer's list,
as this is the kernel devs that decided to not implement on-access
scan in the kernel in the first place.

Cheers

-- 
Svetoslav Milenov (Sunny)

Even the most advanced equipment in the hands of the ignorant is just
a pile of scrap.
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