Re: [LUAU] Windows Vista will be an improvement in security and stability...
JFor those who may have an inclination to move to Vista, I strongly suggest considering SuSE 10.x. I know, I know, this breaches one of the most sacred Commandments in Linux (Thou Shalt not talk about distros, in addition to Thou Shalt not talk about KDE/GNOME). A few months ago, I had a chance to discuss the pros and cons of using Linux (as the corporate desktop OS) with one of my former students who was recently promoted to the IP chief of a major corporation in Taiwan (with 30,000+ employees). This got me thinking what should be the right Linux distro that I should keep handy in case I need to recommend one. Out of the CD/DVD, SuSE 10.0 has a lot of unpleasant surprises. I almost removed it from my hard disc had I not happened to have a cohort who was willing to try SuSE from a different angle ( with a different set of Linux-related experiences). On the desktop side, SuSE 10.0 works with all my hardware (which includes an assortment of seven desktops/notebooks, laser printer, inkjet scanner/fax/printer/copier all-in-1, USB sticks/harddiscs/DVD burner, USB wireless, mythTV-related periphery, FreeNX server/clients). VMWare-Player works flawlessly in SuSE. This guarantees that Windows XP users will have no problem running their critical business applications during the transition or for as long as they like. Also, for CJK users, from my own experience, the SCIM in SuSE is one order of magnitude better than the iiimf in Fedora Core/Red Hat. As I mentioned in a previous thread, I am trying to install a demo SuSE system at the Hawaii State Bar Association. I am sure some of our LUAU perusers, casual or careful, will eventually get involved. This will be a good learning experience for all of us. On 03/29/06, Judge Leslie Kobayashi of Hawaii Federal District Court will give a talk on Electronic Filing practice in Hawaii: http://hsba.org/Legal_Seminars/LegalSeries.pdf I am of the opinion that a proerly configured Linux/Solaris should be a better and, more importantly, more secured platform to do electronic filing than Vista. Wayne
Re: [LUAU] Windows Vista will be an improvement in security and stability...
Windows Vista In Vista, it should be much more difficult for unauthorized programs (like Viruses and Trojans) to affect the core of the OS and secretly harm your system. - http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1931914,00.asp To their credit, Microsoft has been dumping more resources into security over the past few years than any other company I know of. The Vista system introduced several new (to windows) architectural security features that should prove useful in containing security threats. For example, you can be logged in as an admin user (and lets face it, most windows users log in as admin) and be running with less than your full administrative rights, but still be allowed to elevate your privs when necessary (akin to su or more accurately sudo in unix systems). This is taken from a Slashdot user comment (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=178809cid=14821229). as much as I hate taking opinions from slashdot I'd just like to add that depending on the amount of new/re-written code introduced into the Vista operating system, you will not see any improvements to the state of Windows security. The consumer market is trained to demand something brand new and flashy. See also the 'disappointment' to Apple's recent announcement. The Windows market demands new features and therefore new code and therefore the accompanying new security holes/risks. This is more or less correct. There's a lot of new code in windows (there always will be) and that will definitely have an impact on security. Add to that -- retrofitting new security systems on to old systems is difficult. More so when you need to maintain backwards compatibility. The Windows security mechanisms were already quite complex. In Vista they are more so. Linux on the other hand follows a largely iterative process to software development. Hah! yah, linux security just keeps on getting better and better! ;-) - Julian Tim Newsham http://www.lava.net/~newsham/
Re: [LUAU] Windows Vista will be an improvement in security and stability...
The consumer market is trained to demand something brand new and flashy. See also the 'disappointment' to Apple's recent announcement. The Windows market demands new features and therefore new code and therefore the accompanying new security holes/risks. Linux on the other hand follows a largely iterative process to software development. The running joke with my kids every weekly update from Debian (mostly Etch) involves my announcing that I have made massive changes to their system. They respond, And we won't notice any difference. True, they won't. That's a good thing. My daughter's machine is the oldest in the house, and has gone through the most changes. If she went from the Linux she had when it was first installed (almost 4 years ago) directly to today's, she would notice right away. -- Hawaiian Astronomical Society: http://www.hawastsoc.org HAS Deepsky Atlas: http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky
Re: [LUAU] Windows Vista will be an improvement in security and stability...
Peter Besenbruch wrote:
The consumer market is trained to demand something brand new and flashy.
why else would they keep spending money on the same thing in a new package?
See also the 'disappointment' to Apple's recent announcement. The
Windows market demands new features and therefore new code and therefore
the accompanying new security holes/risks.
Linux on the other hand follows a largely iterative process to software
development.
The running joke with my kids every weekly update from Debian (mostly
Etch) involves my announcing that I have made massive changes to their
system. They respond, And we won't notice any difference. True, they
won't. That's a good thing.
Mostly. Until they make you redundant because all systems are on
auto-pilot. (You do run cron-apt, yes?)
Apple and Winders do the software update thing pretty well too. The
difference is that more of your system can come in the distribution
with linux (or {free,net,open}bsd), and therefore, more of it gets /
stays upgraded.
Most FOSS applications tend to not be full of Mystery Meat
(undocumented plist files, registry entires, etc.) These also tend to
break less than their OSX/Windows equivalents.
