Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (1760 mails)

[Basil Chupin <blchupin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 12/12/09 00:10, jdd-gmane wrote:
> Le 11/12/2009 13:27, Basil Chupin a écrit :
>
>   
> > From your response, and from other responses I have read, it seems that
> > all these responses are skirting around this very basic question of
> > security: is openSUSE impenetrable or not?
> >     
> of course not
>
>   
> > suffer the same hernia as any MS or Apple OS now can suffer from malware?
> >     
> I don't know for Apple, but on windows it's nearly impossible to run
> it securely, that is it's  much easier to compromise the system than
> on Linux. As there are also much more windows computers, we see quite
> often warnings on the TV about viruses. Did you see any for Linux?
>
> Linux is more secure by history. nearly no Linux run with user having
> raw root permissions. This makes it much more difficult for malware to
> work.

Agreed.

>  not impossible.
>   

THIS is the bit I been questioning.

All a person normally hears from Linux supporters is that Linux is
*secure* - not like MS products.

(DAMMIT! I just went to a stored URL where this is claimed [by a
Unix/Linux User Group] but the URL has changed ownership and contents.
DAMN!)


> Microsoft could never enforce the simple fact that no application
> should use an other place than the user account to store data, this is
> aid shortly why the viruses works. Msoft wants users to be as
> confident as they can on they computer, taking the risk. And users do
> like it.
>
> I remember one "windows virus" that was a simple letter saying:
> "search for this file (name was given in the mail), if you find it,
> you will see that his icon is a small bear. It's a virus, remove it!!"
>
> this file did exists, was perfectly normal and even mandatory to
> windows work, however, this couldn't prevent many users from removing
> it only on the faith of a mail and on thinking having a little bear as
> icon was a proof of being a virus.
>
> same thing can happen on Linux...
>   

Which is what I am asking about.

With MS and Apple you have a group (of many thousands, all over the
world) of programmers writing software. Anything which they write is not
vetted by their peers because they write code confined to a specific
"sandbox" or "module". So they can naturally produce crap which sooner
or later will lead to exploits.

We all know about this. All this is taken as a "given".

But this not what has been 'pushed' by Linux devotees re Linux and
generally understood by the punter.


BC

-- 
If you don't succeed you run the risk of failure.


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