On 11/12/09 23:46, Marcus Meissner wrote:
On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 11:27:38PM +1100, Basil Chupin wrote:
[pruned]
Yep, and I also have heard that there is no system which cannot be penetrated and that while at the moment things are "safe" there is nothing to say that a week, or so, from now someone will not come up with a way to circumvent security. However, with Linux, because there are many, many eyes examining the code - unlike the proprietary OSs - Linux OSs remains and will remain 'secure'.
But the bottom line is: have we been all living with the misconception put about by Linux fanatics that Linux systems are secure, unlike MS/Mac systems, and therefore we can go to sleep peacefully every night without a worry in the world ? :-) .
Well, the general thing here is that if you install Software from person X person X can gain total control of your system. This is not new.
That installing software is so easy these days and commonly done and suggested makes it more dangerous for the unexperienced administrator, who now needs to know which sources he can trust and which he cannot.
Ciao, Marcus
Fine, Markus, thanks for this - which I fully understand. Ok, the whole thing may be more dangerous for the inexperienced administrator, but what does it then become for the ordinary punter, the Joe-in-street, like myself? "Cataclysmic", "Disasterous", "Calamitous"? :-) The punter in the street installs oS then goes to Repositories and finds "openSUSE Build Service" where he also finds a repo covering the enhancement s/he is interested in; s/he selects it and then installs the software from it. This repo (or list of repos) is not only in a list provided by the vendor of oS but s/he expects that there is nothing to fear because s/he has heard time and time again that a Linux system is "Mr/s Security incarnate"...... Alright....enough, already :-) . The folk using MS/Apple have a thriving industry creating for their users software which is supposed to protect them from all sorts of nasties. May we now expect such a industry arising with respect to Linux-based systems? Is AppArmor designed to be the beginning of such protection for oS (I cannot find any dox for AppArmor in 11.2 for what it is supposed to do)? BC -- If you don't succeed you run the risk of failure. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org