Hello,
I've been using Mandrake since version 6.0 (I switched from Redhat to
Mandrake). I really like Mandrake Linux. I also contributed
gnome-telnet-2.1 for Mandrake.
I have some requests before Mandrake 7.2 is released:
1) Security
I will be really glad if most of the unnecessary services are turned off
for default install, including but not limited to, inetd daemon. It
minimizes or prevents the chance any attacks such as Denial of service
and buffer overflow. Let's take a look at the last big security problem:
rpc.statd and wu-ftpd, 2 stuff that was turned on by default install.
Redhat finally decides to turn off services by default in 7.0 and let
the user selects it. I think this has some advantages:
- It speeds up the boot process
- Reduce some memory consumption
- Prevents unexpected crack
Other reasons why I am requesting this to be turned off is that I find a
lot of newcomers from Windows don't even know what a daemon is, and even
when DrakConf has made it super easy, some of them don't really get it.
I find a lot of people don't even update the packages that have security
problem because they don't even want to read the book too much (this is
what most average users are).
I really like Mandrake Linux and I really want to see it someday it can
be one of the most secure Linux distribution and that it can maintain
Linux's security reputation.
2) Stability
Mandrake is generally stable, except that there are some packages that
might still be in Beta and can cause lock up (only in X-Windows - you
can easily Ctrl-Alt-Backspace -- but newcomers from Windows might not
know about this), thus reducing the stability. I really hope that
Mandrake 7.2 is really stable so that newcomers from Windows won't
switch back. Linux has a good reputation of stability, and I really hope
that it will last for Mandrake and all other distros too :-)
Okay, aside from these 2 requests, I just have a quick question:
esd daemon by default in 7.1 has:
-rwxr-xr-- 1 root audio 30440 Jul 3 10:58 esd
and other esd____ files too. So, when I tried to install Mandrake 7.1 to
my friend's computer, it can't execute the esd until after I changed the
permission to executable by "others" owner. He's a newcomer and he told
me that Gnome sometimes hangs when the option "sound server" is enabled.
Is this my mistake or is it just the way it is?
I really hope that Mandrake 7.2 can be the best distro :-)
Thanks,
Prana
--
Prana <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
http://www.cyest.org
My GnuPG Key ID: 0x33343FD3 (2000-07-21)
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