Hi Paul,
I have run a stock Mandrake install since about 8.0. I keep my system up to date via URPMI and I also run Cooker on a separate partition. I have an always on Internet connection and AFAIK I have never been compsromised and I do nothing special.
If you are really paranoid, I guess you could configure IPTables to be more secure than standard Mandrake or use something like guarddog to help you configure them. However, I have never bothered and it seems to have worked. I guess it depends on just how secure you need your Linux to be. In my experience, my out of the box installs are miles more secure than even the most locked down Winders box.
This could then be another sales point for Linux that hasn't been successfully tapped. That of issues that Windows people face that they don't have to with Linux.
With all of the security worries that Microsoft is facing the people using Microsoft are faced with a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt about their own ability to secure their own machine.
Education of people about this far different nature of Linux by comparison really needs to be achieved.
-- Paul Wilkins
