On Tue, Sep 04, 2018 at 01:35:05PM +0000, Kevin Chadwick wrote: > Atleast with Windows you have a good idea before you install what risks > you are taking even in a bad case of some ancient sha1 signed file from > a http link. With OpenBSD, I hope that the packaging community is > security conscious. > > I tried OpenBSD with Linux for a work package but have found that > OpenBSD gives me great UNIX and security for most and all general tasks > and Windows gets best support, latest software features/options and > actually with Windows 10 a more secure kernel than Linux and with a > smart user, a reliable secure system. It also comes with native OpenSSH > and LibreSSL! by default in version 1803 and has the built-in option of > windows subsystem for linux. > > Windows updates do still take way too long though and perhaps they are > gathering usage information, not that I care much. I hear they are > working on the speed in insider previews. >
Yes, not only do they take way too long, but each major update has failed about 15 times before success (for me at least) . That has cost me hours and hours of wasted time. Even working in the background, it uses up all of my bandwidth so completely that I am unable to even get any other work done, i.e. YouTubeTV through Chrome, forget it. More disturbing, I have absolutely no choice about when an update is actually started. Just turn it on and wait hours for access. Especially if I wanted to just start Putty, check email and fly out the door. Windows 10 does send a lot of usage data, but they still refuse to fully disclose what that exactly is or to whom they share it with. No, no, bad Microsoft! Plus, being closed source, why assume that they can't fully read and write ALL filesystems? They don't need to tell us that. That would, from a fully business point of view (not a paranoid view), possibly reduce Windows usage. More people, due to the file sharing problem, would be likely to just stay with Windows. That is good business and I don't blame them for that at all. But security-wise, it's also worrisome. I first heard about them working on speeding up updates, but that was a long time ago and still nothing done. So, both for financial (as in not a lot of disposable income) and really wanting the speed of the built-in hard drive in my laptop, I successfully ditched Windows 10 yesterday. I'm thrilled about how great OpenBSD -current is running. I'm also sad that I can't run things like Netflix, YouTubeTV, Amazon Prime Video and some other stuff now. But between my Android phone and Amazon Fire 5 tablet, I can do that stuff anyway, so not really a big loss. I'm a bit paranoid, too. I freely admit it. I also might be too paranoid. Oh well. But I also agree, if you need to run a particular OS for your software, go for it. We all need to get things done at home and at work. Use whatever works. Never forget, OpenBSD had two remote access bugs. What will number three turn out to be? Could be serious or still unknown right now. So, no OS is perfect and no hardware is perfect either. IMHO, I'm very happy with my choice, but you don't need to follow my choices at all. Good luck and have good success, Chris Bennett
