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Automatix 'Actively Dangerous' to Ubuntu
exeme writes "Ubuntu developer Matthew Garrett has recently analyzed famed Ubuntu illegal software installer Automatix, and found it to be actively dangerous to Ubuntu desktop systems. In a detailed report which only took Garrett a couple of hours he found many serious, show-stopper bugs and concluded that Ubuntu could not officially support Automatix in its current state. Garrett also goes on to say that simple Debian packages could provide all of the functionality of Automatix without any of the problems it exhibits."
Automatix only exists because there is a need for it. If it's so simple to make the package provide the functionality, why hasn't anyone done it? Automatix seems to be the (only?) ones who have tried to do something that many people need.
You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
Given that I'm the one who wrote that article, and given that most of the code I've recently written is designed to avoid the need for users to touch the command line, that doesn't seem likely.
I used Automatix in my first Ubuntu install. No problems, but I took the warnings seriously, and for my second I simply hunted through the Ubuntu wiki and other places and installed all the codecs, etc., myself. The point is that all the unsafe stuff Automatix does is unnecessary -- why take the risk? The files are out there, not "in" Automatix -- just go get them and install them properly.
Sent from the iPad I found in your car.
I don't think the summary is claiming Automatix is illegal. It just has to do with the parsing of the sentence. I think the original intent was:
"illegal software" installer
and not
illegal "software installer"
being vague is almost as cool as doing that other thing...
If you were to learn Linux you would not need Automatix,
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