On 03/03/15 14:15, someone wrote:
If X security is so bad, how can one run a GUI app, ex.: Firefox without
it?
you can't. Firefox was designed for a very few graphical interfaces --
Windows, X, and maybe whatever it is on Mac.
Using framebuffer? How can then someone use a GUI password manager to
copy the pwd to the Firefox in the fb?
you won't.
google doesn't gives too many answers, to be more precise, zero per hour
can someone at least give keywords to what to search for?
how does my computer work?.
This is one of those questions that if you understand how things
actually work, it's kinda self-explanatory.
Back in the very old days, every program was written to the hardware it
was run on. OSs provide a layer of abstraction, so you write your
application to the OS, and the OS deals with the hardware. Change your
hardware, you just reconfigure your OS, and the app doesn't have to
know. Plus now one app can use the OS to transfer data to another app.
In the days of PCs, the OS didn't support the graphics, so graphics apps
had to either support the hw directly or be written to a lower common
feature set (and boy, did the IBM PC have a very low graphics feature set)
X provides that layer of abstraction for graphical apps on Unix.
Windows provides that layer of abstraction for ... well, windows apps.
Both environments do a lot more than just put dots on the screen, both
also include handling data between apps (i.e., cut/paste). This is a
lot more than just a frame buffer.
You want to use an OS frame buffer for Firefox? ok, great...step 1,
write a common API usable on on multiple OSs (Solaris, *BSD, Linux, AIX,
HP/UX ...). Step 2: Implement on those OSs. Step 3: Rewrite a lot of
apps (including Firefox) to use your API instead of X or Windows. Step
4: wait for the world to say, yeah, but it doesn't run MY app, so I'm
not using it!. Step 5: listen to the few people who even tried it say,
Hey, this isn't nearly as fast as the GUI support on X or Windows!
Yes, X sucks. (See the fortune(6) files for some commentary on X) But it
IS the unix standard at this point, I can't even remember an also ran.
Changing it would be very very difficult.
Besides, if you are running Firefox, X is probably not your biggest
security problem. If your computer is a wooden ship, X is the termite
colony that might eat through the hull of your ship and sink it some
day. Firefox is the cluster of icebergs that are currently surrounding
your ship.
Nick.
