Desktop Linux Sliding in Under the Radar?

Posted by Cliff on Thursday July 31, 2003 @10:48AM from the stealth-penguinistas dept.

Paul Johnson asks: "This article at ComputerWorld describes a sysadmin's discovery that many people in his company are installing Linux on their desktops without consulting IT. The writer is concerned with the security implications, but there is a wider issue. At present the 'official' penetration of Linux into the desktop market is something around 1%. The writer of this article doesn't give figures, but it sounds like he may have stumbled on several times that percentage of desktop Linux installations. If so then this is an important trend. Linux got its foot in the datacentre door in exactly the same way a few years ago, with unofficial installations doing odd server jobs. If you are a sysadmin, in an organization that runs Windows on the desktop, have you stumbled on many unofficial Linux installations?"

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Ignoring the standard MS shot... by el-spectre · 2003-07-31 11:53 · Score: 5, Informative

The point is, a sysadmin can patch and update winders machines remotely and en masse. If he doesn't know about the linux machine, then he obviously has a hole in his security plan.

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"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.