We're fooling ourselves if we honestly believe that the NSA can't crack any crypto out there. The idea that their technology is antiquated and insufficient is simply ridiculous. By the very nature of what the NSA and similar organizations do we must assume that we have no idea what they can and cannot do. We can assume this for two reasons: 1. They're a secret organization. Why would they tell us anything? 2. They're a covert organization. Why would we believe anything that they tell us?
The relevance of all of this is subtle but important. The US is so unrestricitve on cryptography because they are fairly confident in their ability to crack said cryptography. It's an undertone that you see a great deal in the IT world in the US. US citizens are given a great deal of technological freedom...because the government is confident in their ability to control the technology.
Disclaimer: I'm a paranoid infosec nut, which tends to make me a conspiracy theorist.
I could've written this article after some of my first experiences with RedHat 5.2. The biggest reason that I'm hesitant to help new people get started with Linux is that you never know what kind of community support they're going to get. You can't just tell people to use the resources available on the Internet to help them out...because there's probably an 80% chance that they'll get flamed for asking any question of remote relevance.
We, the Linux community, need to grow up...in more ways than one. I also totally agree with putting your money where your mouth is. If you support Linux, pay for it every once in a while.
A point that seems to have been missed here is cost. I work for a pseudo-government agency that runs Windows almost exclusively, and I can tell you that it constantly irks me to watch us spend thousands of dollars to upgrade licenses for what I consider to be an inferior operating system. When you're talking about taxpayer dollers, a responsible government entity will review the more cost-effective possibilites when considering an operating system. If I can deploy Linux for free and spend $75.95/copy for Star Office 6.0 as opposed to $299/copy for Windows XP and $579/copy for Office XP, the as a government entity I should save my taxpayers money and do it. Sure, it may take a bit more work, but it's the responsible thing to do IMO.
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We're fooling ourselves if we honestly believe that the NSA can't crack any crypto out there. The idea that their technology is antiquated and insufficient is simply ridiculous. By the very nature of what the NSA and similar organizations do we must assume that we have no idea what they can and cannot do. We can assume this for two reasons:
1. They're a secret organization. Why would they tell us anything?
2. They're a covert organization. Why would we believe anything that they tell us?
The relevance of all of this is subtle but important. The US is so unrestricitve on cryptography because they are fairly confident in their ability to crack said cryptography. It's an undertone that you see a great deal in the IT world in the US. US citizens are given a great deal of technological freedom...because the government is confident in their ability to control the technology.
Disclaimer: I'm a paranoid infosec nut, which tends to make me a conspiracy theorist.
I could've written this article after some of my first experiences with RedHat 5.2. The biggest reason that I'm hesitant to help new people get started with Linux is that you never know what kind of community support they're going to get. You can't just tell people to use the resources available on the Internet to help them out...because there's probably an 80% chance that they'll get flamed for asking any question of remote relevance.
We, the Linux community, need to grow up...in more ways than one. I also totally agree with putting your money where your mouth is. If you support Linux, pay for it every once in a while.
A point that seems to have been missed here is cost. I work for a pseudo-government agency that runs Windows almost exclusively, and I can tell you that it constantly irks me to watch us spend thousands of dollars to upgrade licenses for what I consider to be an inferior operating system. When you're talking about taxpayer dollers, a responsible government entity will review the more cost-effective possibilites when considering an operating system. If I can deploy Linux for free and spend $75.95/copy for Star Office 6.0 as opposed to $299/copy for Windows XP and $579/copy for Office XP, the as a government entity I should save my taxpayers money and do it. Sure, it may take a bit more work, but it's the responsible thing to do IMO.