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HP To Sell Custom High-Security GNU/Linux Distro

Posted by timothy on from the what-about-settling-on-debian dept.

bc90021 writes: "CNET has this story about Hewlett Packard's new secure version of Linux. Using 2.4.2, it can supposedly detect attacks as they happen. (At $3,000, I think it should counter-attack, too.) It will be available on HP servers (duh), or on servers that pass the RedHat 7.1 server qualification tests."

6 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. They ship a IDS ? by jneves · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is it really worth to pay $3,000 for a distro with an Intrusion Detection System like snort configured ?

  2. OEM Distributions by Torulf · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's really surprising that so few hardware manufacturers have their own Linux distributions. At least to me it would really just make sense for a hardware company to tailor a version of Linux (or maybe *BSD) to their own hardware and sell it pre installed.

    The costs in doing so would, as far as I can tell, not be too large and this could give them more bargaining power against software companies (MS).

  3. Service=money by peripatetic_bum · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In all honestly, I do hope the HP does well selling these $3,000 linux boxes. Not because of that its in there, but service/skill it took to actually took to configure the box right.
    (I assum of course that the box does what it says it does)

    Just like the thought that musicians will give their the music away (via the internet) but charge for real live preformances, the new economy (excuse me) may well be based very much on what the acutally person can do and what can not be replicated digitally. Ie, Doctors don't charge for the information they have and tell you, they charge for the skill in which they apply it to you. That is, all the information about treating asthma is in books, but I doubt ou would want to read the man page asthma and just treat yourself, but you pay the doctor to apply his skill to treat you.

    Thus HP is charging for the skill it takes to make more-secure internet boxes and perhaps, in this age, $3000 is a good start and in the future that skill may be worth even more.

    Anyway, thanks

    --

    Sigs are dangerous coy things

  4. Technical paper available by MikeCamel · · Score: 3, Interesting
    More information seems to be appearing (or I didn't find it on my original search): there's a technical discussion (pdf) with more information. Seems to be based on compartmentalisation: "The key concept of our trusted operating system is the compartment. Services and applications on the machine are run within separate compartments."

    This is the place to go for more information on the product. Quite a lot of technical information, including kernel information. It seems that it's intended to be installed over RedHat in a "layered installation" - diagrams included, as well as performance data.

  5. Re:HP-LX by Shirotae · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A search for "documentation security" on the HP site takes you to an interesting page - follow the hp-tlx link in the index for Administration Guide, Installation Guide and Release Notes.

    The paper "An Operating System Approach to Securing e-Services" published in Communications of the ACM Feb 2001 is also of interest since it describes some of the features of the system.

  6. I can do better than HP by defile · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Check this out..

    For $2,500/year, I can certify that your Linux box is 100% secure, and do whatever is necessary to make it secure and keep it secure.

    If your box is ever hacked, I will dole out $10,000 on the spot.

    There, beat that HP. :)

    I'm only half serious, but would be glad to work something like this out if there were any takers.

    The point of this exercise is to show that you don't need to buy Linux from a big slow vendor to get support. But most of you already knew that.