-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Friday, 2008-10-24 at 08:10 -0400, Anton Aylward wrote:
If you want to make this a security issue then the whole thing of applications sending out alerts by mail is the security issue.
Why?
In a enterprise setting this is normally handled by a central syslog mechanism for the enterprise and there is some very sophisticated software supporting this.
On some enterprises. Actually, SNMP is a better method.
In a "user" setting where there isn't the IT support of larger business the GUI is the thing and as Microsoft has shown and I discuss more fully elsewhere in this thread an on-screen pop-up makes more sense.
I object to comparisons to M$. And I strongly object to having "alerts" popping up in my desktop. That's one of the reasons I dislike microsoft. Haven't you seen those machines in shops displaying a video from a central computer, with a windows pop-up to upgrade the antivirus, for example? It can stay there for days, till some employee unplugs the display. I have seen those pop-ups even on TV channels, for hours! No, thankyou. No popups.
Given that there is archaic and inappropriate software in openSUSE that reports via email, the best argument you can make is that there is a need for a mail forwarder, and running openSUSE on a laptop or workstation this should be a lightweight one with a small footprint and no unnecessary functionality. The "small is beautiful" and "do one thing, only one thing and do it well" are not only long standing UNIX adages, they are also good advice from the security point of view, since you raised the matter of security.
You have a point in that postfix or sendmail could be replaced with a smaller, local delivery only, smtp agent. However, ¿can you actually sugest such a package? Unless there is one, ready made, available and reliable, or you can convince some developper to develop it, I'm afraid the suggestion is useless. You can fill a enhancement request on Bugzilla. If you really want that feature, that's the only place Novell listens.
But more to the point while I *can* configure Postfix, the installation process should configure the mail forwarder.
You do not need to configure it at all. The default configuration as installed by openSUSE only listens internally. In fact, maybe you do not need to have the service running.
Personally, I still think that Microsoft have demonstrated with their
I object to comparisons to M$.
Having worked in IT & Security at large banks and telcos I can assert that syslog *is* a primary central monitoring tool in large
I too have worked in telcos, and I have seen mail even in the exchange software. And yes, I have also worked with syslog type of reporting. But remember that telcos and banks are old institutions, the new thing is SNMP.
For those that are just running a windowing workstation with no infrastructure at all, the 'one man SOHO/SMB', a pop-up notifier is a better alternative.
Again, I object to pop up notifiers. They are a no-no. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkkBxrUACgkQtTMYHG2NR9UiqACffxQWwVkhq8oAUngJEXluv8eH 4GEAnRw5wWR/9J7ymehC66ES+nUOzcrD =aOPO -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----