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Nominum Calls Open Source DNS "a Recipe For Problems"

Raindeer writes "Commercial DNS software provider Nominum, in an effort to promote its new cloud-based DNS service, SKYE, has slandered all open source/freeware DNS packages. It said: 'Given all the nasty things that have happened this year, freeware is a recipe for problems, and it's just going to get worse. ... So, whether it's Eircom in Ireland or a Brazilian ISP that was attacked earlier this year, all of them were using some variant of freeware. Freeware is not akin to malware, but is opening up those customers to problems.' This has the DNS community fuming. Especially when you consider that Nominum was one of the companies affected by the DNS cache poisoning problem of last year, something PowerDNS, MaraDNS and DJBDNS (all open source) weren't vulnerable to."

17 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah, Like Closed Source is better. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Yeah, because the poster child of closed source - Windows - is *so* secure...

    1. Re:Yeah, Like Closed Source is better. by Spazztastic · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, because the poster child of closed source - Windows - is *so* secure...

      I resent that, Mr. Anonymous Coward. Windows is the most secure system in the entire world as long as you leave the system unplugged from the network and inside of a Faraday cage. With the USB ports disabled and no CD-ROM/Floppy drive. And armed guards at the door.

      It's a feasible option for any business.

      --
      Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
    2. Re:Yeah, Like Closed Source is better. by JohnBailey · · Score: 4, Funny

      I resent that, Mr. Anonymous Coward. Windows is the most secure system in the entire world as long as you leave the system unplugged from the network and inside of a Faraday cage. With the USB ports disabled and no CD-ROM/Floppy drive. And armed guards at the door. It's a feasible option for any business.

      Until you turn it on...

      --
      It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
    3. Re:Yeah, Like Closed Source is better. by Spazztastic · · Score: 5, Funny

      I resent that, Mr. Anonymous Coward. Windows is the most secure system in the entire world as long as you leave the system unplugged from the network and inside of a Faraday cage. With the USB ports disabled and no CD-ROM/Floppy drive. And armed guards at the door.

      It's a feasible option for any business.

      Until you turn it on...

      I NEVER TOLD YOU TO DO THAT! YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL!

      --
      Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
    4. Re:Yeah, Like Closed Source is better. by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 2, Funny

      Personally I never use any computer with a monitor output just in case there's a TEMPEST rig nearby..

    5. Re:Yeah, Like Closed Source is better. by Tanktalus · · Score: 2, Funny

      He's obviously saying that "Freeware" is the only way that malware can attack your system, so therefore he thinks that Windows is "Freeware"!

      Maybe he lives in China?

  2. So, then, to sum up... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...proprietary software company says you should buy their product instead of using something else.

    I'm shocked, I tell you. Just shocked.

  3. Sturgeon General's warning: by DiscountBorg(TM) · · Score: 2, Funny

    90% of everything (you read) is horsepucky.

    --
    "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." George Bernard Shaw
  4. Summary can't be right. by Anonymusing · · Score: 3, Funny

    The summary says " Nominum was one of the companies affected by the DNS cache poisoning problem of last year".

    But in the interview, I just read this:

    Q: People's reaction to that may be: 'He would say that, wouldn't he, because he's just trying to sell his product'. How would you answer them?

    A: I would respond to them by saying, just look at the facts over the past six months, at the number of vulnerabilities announced and the number of patches that had to made to Bind and freeware products. And Nominum has not had a single known vulnerability in its software.

    See? The summary can't be right.

    --
    Liberal? Conservative? Compare perspectives at Left-Right
  5. Re:Even if what they say is true... by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 2, Funny

    When someone on /. Reads TFA and links a Car analogy - does that cancel each other out?

  6. 1970 Called by Prototerm · · Score: 3, Funny

    1970 called: they want their "Security Thru Obscurity" argument back.

    --
    "My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." --Senator Carl Schurz (1872)
  7. It's like meat by CopaceticOpus · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have the same problem with using local butchers. They buy their meat on the open market, and it is possible to track that meat down to the farm where the cow came from. Those cows are kept outdoors, where anyone can see them. Lord knows what toxins people might be injecting into those cows.

    That's why I only eat meat from MeatCorp. All of MeatCorp's meat is made behind closed doors, in a giant, guarded metal building. Nobody knows what happens inside, and that makes me feel safe when I eat MeatCorp brand Meat Circles.

  8. I'll let you finish by RiotingPacifist · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yo Nominum, im really happy for you, and imma let you finish, but microsoft is one of the best trolls of all time!

    --
    IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
  9. Is this the same Nominum? by Minwee · · Score: 4, Funny

    Isn't Nominum that company that was formed about ten years ago for the purpose of developing the open source BIND and DHCP for ISC?

    Yeah, these guys.

    And now they're turning around and saying "Don't use that open source BIND because it's crap. We should know, we wrote it!"

  10. Re:Blow more smoke up our posteriors... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does the word "cloud" have any particular meaning?

    "Cloud" means "in our data centers", so that you're paying us money. If you're still using your own servers, you're not in the "cloud", and you're not paying us money.

    Obviously, it is absolutely imperative that you migrate all your services to the cloud.

  11. Re:Blow more smoke up our posteriors... by sconeu · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  12. Cloud computing, cloud cities, sunny days! by tremaine.lea · · Score: 2, Funny

    Lando Calrissian approves.

    --
    Paranoia for hire.