On 2003.05.06 13:46 Dustin Puryear wrote: > Are we still discussing the failure of security in Linux desktops? This > seems to have moved to another topic altogether. :) > > In all honesty I agree that you need to reinstall a Windows 95/98/ME > machine often. I haven't needed to reinstall Win2k (well, I did install > Win2k over XP because of personal preference), but I haven't had this > laptop for a year either. Who knows, I may end up needing to. > > Oh, and yes, you can install Windows updates from local archives. By > Windows I mean Windows NT, Win2k, or XP. I don't even bother with Windows > 95/98/ME machines. They are junk. Junk I tell you! >
I don't think it's much of a drift. The difficulty of managing windows machines is a security flaw. Rebuilding your computer from a year old CD leaves it open to year old exploits. I must defer to others on the difficulty of running a local cache of updates and what that might add to the rebuilds. I also have to take people's word for it that those updates do or don't break unrelated things because I never used any of the updates as a desktop user. Contrast this to apt-get update and upgrade. When I rebuild a machine it's for fun, not because it did not work or there was some tool I could not use with my "version" of Debian. When upgrades get too combersome from a CD set, I spend $!5 or so on a new set. There are ways to avoid that purchase, but I'm lazy. Even if Microsoft's code was as good as free code, there's much less chance a Microsoft desktop being as good as it could be.
