On Fri, 13 May 2005 16:23:17 -0500
Tom disseminated the following:

>       It's all CD's, audio, data, or iso's.   BTW, I'm surprised 
> this is news to y'all. Specially those that subscribe to the cooker 
> ML.  BUT, there's also been articles about it on Newsforge, /., the 
> Inquirer an others. Months ago.

Okay, so I don't get to read much. I'm too busy causin' trouble here ;) I'll try
to keep up with this more so I don't end up lookin' like a tool. 

> AND it's not just cdrecord either, it's any app that needs to make kernel
> calls that affect security.

So, this could affect things such as gaming as well? ie., 3D hardware
acceleration? 

> It seems this is due to RSBAC and LSB compliance, and not really a 
> distro decision.

Fair enough. It just pains me to see an OS that I've finally grown comfortable
with pushing on friends and acquaintances take, as I see it, a step away from
attracting new users. Like someone else said here or on Expert, how do I explain
to someone I'm trying to convert to GNU/Linux that simple things such as burnin'
a CD are going to get more, not less, tricky.

>     [an addition to this reply; the kernel calls that are not 
> allowed as user/cdrecord are  (they do not appear as root):
>        .......
> cdrecord: Operation not permitted. WARNING: Cannot set RR-scheduler
> cdrecord: Permission denied. WARNING: Cannot set priority using 
> setpriority().
> cdrecord: WARNING: This causes a high risk for buffer underruns.
>        .......
>    ...and IME, it does. To the point of making a few coasters, even 
> with burnfree.  Others have reported even more severe problems. See 
> bugzilla #15955   http://qa.mandriva.com/wiki ]

The Bugzilla link seems to be dead...
 
>       OTOH, it seems ridiculous when Mandriva an other desktop 
> distros know damn well that the majority of their users are tainting 
> their kernel an systems by using nVidia or ATI drivers, installing 
> Flash, j2re and other proprietary bug attractors an security holes. 
> 'Course I'm amused when the same people on the ML's that are so 
> concerned with getting security updates for some obscure risk, turn 
> right around in other threads an give advice about how to install 
> proprietary drivers an apps.

Exactly. I think some people are throwing the baby out with the bathwater on
this one. Concerns about security are one thing, but taking a step backwards in
making GNU/Linux 'user friendly' isn't going to make anyone more secure, it's
going to drive them away.

Anyhow, I'm not tryin' to start a big tussle, I'm just curious to see where all
this is headed. In the end, I have a feeling someone will come up with a
solution to this that satisfies both sides (ie. security vs. ease of use).

-- 
JoeHill / RLU #282046 / www.freeyourmachine.org
17:45:32 up 81 days, 18:55, 8 users, load average: 0.04, 0.03, 0.00
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we teach
respect to those we have entrusted to enforce those laws." -- Hunter S. Thompson

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