Our customers mainly use Solaris 8 as a server platform, but for desktop software, they're split between Win3.1/NT/2000, with most of them still on NT. If it's been working fine for 10 years, why change it. That said, the last of the Win3.1 people are either moving or about to move to something newer to take advantage of software that's not available on Win3.1.
Today's xp computer can become completly unusable within a month or 2 of internet surfing, and downloading by an average non-technical computer user because of all the spyware/addware/malware etc...
Sounds like "Today's XP Computer" is not yet ready for the masses then.
I'm not saying that something else it more ready than it is, but your statement makes it clear that XP isn't ready.
I just tried it on Solaris 9 after creating a new user called "test"...
penfold% pwd /export/home/test penfold% rm -rf ~ rm: Cannot remove any directory in the path of the current working directory /export/home/test penfold% rm -rf ~/* zsh: sure you want to delete all the files in/export/home/test [yn]? y zsh: no matches found:/export/home/test/* penfold% ls -a ...
It handled it quite cleanly as well. "test" was then able to run KDE applications without getting any error messages. This is just down to how well the software has been written.
The "Administrator" account on Windows XP Pro is not the same as root either. The "System" account is more like root, and Windows does not normally allow people to log in as this user. If a normal user changes permissions on his/her files so that only he/she can delete them, then Administrator can't delete them either, can he?
Not quite as cool, but I bet this was Scotland's fastest web server at the point when the photo was taken, travelling at 70mph with the web pages stored on a Palm m100, and the uplink to the Internet via a Nokia 7110.
On the Sharp Zaurus if you hold down the app button that's second from the right, it turns the backlight on or off. The functionality of these is configurable by the user. This also seems to be very much like what MS is patenting.
Do a fresh install of the original edition of Windows XP, and do a fresh install of Red Hat from the same time period. Which has more known security holes? They're probably quite similar.
Apply all known patches to each installation. Now which has more known holes? I think you'll find a list of things still currently broken in Windows, but Red Hat (and therefore other Linuxes too) will have their problems patched already.
The parent post looks initially like just another one of those Linux has no holes and Windows is full of them posts, but if you're looking at the situation five days after a security hole is announced, it's perectly true.
AFAIK, the JVM keeps the JAR file open when using it, meaning that even if someone deletes it (on most filesystems this is just unlinking the inode), the JVM will still be able to read the file.
Or no risks if the required interpreter is either not installed or is disabled.
How many "average" users require VB scripting in their e-mail? How many "average" users use Perl?
There are always ways around these problems. The only thing that can't always be solved until it's too late is vulnerabilites due to buffer overflows in server applications. But then, what average user requres server applications connected to the Internet?
For that price you could get a dual 500MHz Sun Blade which would probably get more operations per second than a 2GHz Athlon (although nowhere near dual Opteron performance). Memory and hard disks would be the same price for either of these systems.
Also, I wouldn't be able to cook my breakfast on a Sun or a Mac;-)
I agree with the reply above me. If I was purchasing a new machine, I'd be looking for something that is a good quality reliable workstation, prefereably a 64-bit CPU, a Unix-based operating system. I'd like to be able to run Openoffice, GCC and a web browser (ideally either Phoenix/Firefox or Safari), and support for MP3 and OGG music formats.
I use Suns at work, but a Mac looks like it might fit in better in a home environment. If I was using a Sun at home, I'd put KDE 3.2 on it (I have KDE 2.x at work, and don't have time to get 3.2 compiling, and I use 3.2 on my PC at home). I'd probably use OSX on a Mac.
There is a simple way around that too, which I'd recommend for any end-user workstation type setup (but perhaps not for software developers as it could be annoying to them).
It's fairly common to have users files[1] on a seperate disk partition from the operating system. If you were to set the options for the/home and/tmp filesystems so that nothing could ever be executed from it [2], and only the root/Administrator user could write to other parts of the disk (as is default on most systems), then there would be no way for a user to unwittingly execute anything.
I've just tried it with my/mnt/usbdrive partition [3] and I get the following error if I try to run a script, even if it has the execute bit set...
[sandyd@localhost usbdrive]$./a.sh bash:./a.sh:/bin/bash: bad interpreter: Permission denied
So, yes, you can lock down a system so that people will have to log in as root to allow a virus to run. Then we just need to make sure that the root's environment doesn't let them do anything other than install software, and people won't be tempted to log in as root all the time:-)
[1] the/home or/export/home filesystem on Unix [2] don't choose "defaults" and don't sepcify "exec" in the options in/etc/fstab [3] stored on a Compact Flash card in a USB card reader, and has the following options in/etc/fstab: noauto,users,rw
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Outside of the US, we have the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) instead of the RIAA.
Our customers mainly use Solaris 8 as a server platform, but for desktop software, they're split between Win3.1/NT/2000, with most of them still on NT. If it's been working fine for 10 years, why change it. That said, the last of the Win3.1 people are either moving or about to move to something newer to take advantage of software that's not available on Win3.1.
Today's xp computer can become completly unusable within a month or 2 of internet surfing, and downloading by an average non-technical computer user because of all the spyware/addware/malware etc...
Sounds like "Today's XP Computer" is not yet ready for the masses then.
I'm not saying that something else it more ready than it is, but your statement makes it clear that XP isn't ready.
Does C# count since its "based on Java"? ;-)
The "Administrator" account on Windows XP Pro is not the same as root either. The "System" account is more like root, and Windows does not normally allow people to log in as this user. If a normal user changes permissions on his/her files so that only he/she can delete them, then Administrator can't delete them either, can he?
Not quite as cool, but I bet this was Scotland's fastest web server at the point when the photo was taken, travelling at 70mph with the web pages stored on a Palm m100, and the uplink to the Internet via a Nokia 7110.
Surely you mean file://C%3A/bl~1/bl~1/bl~1 ?
What are you talking about? I've got 3 versions of fontconfig installed right now and it wasn't a problem.
We use FCAL on Solaris boxes. Does SATA give any better performance?
The patent: Time based ardware button for application launch
My highlighting points out that the patent is for hardware. You post seems to have missed that point.
The patent talks about hardware buttons. What do they have to do with syluses?
It would be much better if elevators ignored people who press the button multiple times just to piss them off! ;-)
On the Sharp Zaurus if you hold down the app button that's second from the right, it turns the backlight on or off. The functionality of these is configurable by the user. This also seems to be very much like what MS is patenting.
It's also an acronym not related to the company in question.
Unless you are nerd.....
:-)
Some of us eradicate bugs fairly often.
Do a fresh install of the original edition of Windows XP, and do a fresh install of Red Hat from the same time period. Which has more known security holes? They're probably quite similar.
Apply all known patches to each installation. Now which has more known holes? I think you'll find a list of things still currently broken in Windows, but Red Hat (and therefore other Linuxes too) will have their problems patched already.
The parent post looks initially like just another one of those Linux has no holes and Windows is full of them posts, but if you're looking at the situation five days after a security hole is announced, it's perectly true.
AFAIK, the JVM keeps the JAR file open when using it, meaning that even if someone deletes it (on most filesystems this is just unlinking the inode), the JVM will still be able to read the file.
$ cp /bin/date /tmp /tmp/date
$
Sun Apr 4 21:17:22 BST 2004
Aargh! That's not meant to work!
Or no risks if the required interpreter is either not installed or is disabled.
How many "average" users require VB scripting in their e-mail? How many "average" users use Perl?
There are always ways around these problems. The only thing that can't always be solved until it's too late is vulnerabilites due to buffer overflows in server applications. But then, what average user requres server applications connected to the Internet?
For that price you could get a dual 500MHz Sun Blade which would probably get more operations per second than a 2GHz Athlon (although nowhere near dual Opteron performance). Memory and hard disks would be the same price for either of these systems.
;-)
Also, I wouldn't be able to cook my breakfast on a Sun or a Mac
I agree with the reply above me. If I was purchasing a new machine, I'd be looking for something that is a good quality reliable workstation, prefereably a 64-bit CPU, a Unix-based operating system. I'd like to be able to run Openoffice, GCC and a web browser (ideally either Phoenix/Firefox or Safari), and support for MP3 and OGG music formats.
I use Suns at work, but a Mac looks like it might fit in better in a home environment. If I was using a Sun at home, I'd put KDE 3.2 on it (I have KDE 2.x at work, and don't have time to get 3.2 compiling, and I use 3.2 on my PC at home). I'd probably use OSX on a Mac.
I've got nothing against OSX. I don't own a Mac, but if I needed to replace my PC, it would either be with a Mac or a Sun.
The thing about windows is that everybody has learned to deal with all of its crazy "idiosyncracies", not that it is any better.
Pop quiz:
If you drag a floppy disk into the trash can, does it:
A) Delete everything on the disk
B) Destroy the disk
C) Eject the disk
There is a simple way around that too, which I'd recommend for any end-user workstation type setup (but perhaps not for software developers as it could be annoying to them).
/home and /tmp filesystems so that nothing could ever be executed from it [2], and only the root/Administrator user could write to other parts of the disk (as is default on most systems), then there would be no way for a user to unwittingly execute anything.
/mnt/usbdrive partition [3] and I get the following error if I try to run a script, even if it has the execute bit set...
./a.sh ./a.sh: /bin/bash: bad interpreter: Permission denied
:-)
/home or /export/home filesystem on Unix /etc/fstab /etc/fstab: noauto,users,rw
It's fairly common to have users files[1] on a seperate disk partition from the operating system. If you were to set the options for the
I've just tried it with my
[sandyd@localhost usbdrive]$
bash:
So, yes, you can lock down a system so that people will have to log in as root to allow a virus to run. Then we just need to make sure that the root's environment doesn't let them do anything other than install software, and people won't be tempted to log in as root all the time
[1] the
[2] don't choose "defaults" and don't sepcify "exec" in the options in
[3] stored on a Compact Flash card in a USB card reader, and has the following options in