Given enough time, it is possible to secure *ANY* OS to make it almost uncompromisable. Also, if the system is a completely closed system (that is, no files come in), then it is far easier to close it up. However, a real environment is not like that - in an environment when people work and send files and receive files from clients, friends etc, it is far more difficult to lock down the system.
However, on Windows, the problem really is that most apps run at the highest possible security level - if that weren't the case, it would be difficult for users to install apps (for an example). That is, most windows machines run with administrative previleges.. unlike in the case of Linux, where by default the users are required to run on a lower previlege. Distributions such as Ubuntu don't even have a root user.
Having said that, I fully concede that a windows system *CAN* be made secure, but by default it is far less secure than a linux machine. Please note that a Linux machine *CAN* also be made more secure.
By the way, something like OpenBSD is virtually uncompromised for the past several years - there have been only 2 possible vulnerabilities in OpenBSD.
To answer your query - I am sure there are ways and means of securing Linux (using SELinux, removing root user, shutting down most ports, setting up a strong firewall and intrusion detection mechanisms etc) to get the kind of security rating that you have indicated.
By the way, I am Indian.. and am writing from India right now. So I guess no one is about to take my job soon.
Window's primary problem is that it is prone to viruses. At work we have developers dual booting linux and windows. When we have work that is primarily Linux related, most developers would be using Linux.. and during those months we have noticed drops in bandwidth usage which indicates to me that there may be viruses and spyware on the windows partitions (which will ofcourse only show up when the users are using windows and not linux). This is despite the fact that we lock down our computers using anti-virus software, anti-spyware etc.
There amount of effort we expend on securing windows PCs against these viruses far outweighs the time we spend on linux PCs. Also, the costs are much lower on Linux because we don't even need to use an anti-virus software for the most part.
So I don't fully buy your claim that windows is more secure than Linux overall. However, I do agree that when it comes to management tools available on Windows for managing file and system security, they are far better than the Linux equivalents. Except for the sniffers and intrusion detection tools which are more commonly available on Linux.
Having said that, I do concur with you that the usual comments about the blue screen of death is based on pretty dated info and no longer relevant.
There are still some real issues with Linux which must be fixed before Linux is really ready for the desktop (atleast on enterprise desktops).
1. Device Management - The ability to install drivers for devices without requiring kernel compilation. Couple this with the ability to retrieve updated drivers from a trusted repository. IMHO, a sorely needed feature. Device management on Linux can be a real problem if your linux distribution does not already have the specific driver compiled in or available as a shared module. Else, you will have to download the kernel source and then somehow determine if your hardware is supported.. and then you will have to go through the elaborate process of selecting the device to be compiled in or as a loadable module. After which the kernel compilation and the installation process must happen. This is enough to stop pretty much any non-geek (atleast 95% of the world's population) in their tracks.
2. Display device management - This follows from point 1. X-Windows really sucks when it comes to working with different device hardware available. Changing resolutions etc is a real problem if your resolution was not automatically probed by X. The same applies to the selection of the monitors. This is currently being fixed with X0rg, but we are still some way off.
3. Audio - Something a lot of people know is broken. ALSA daemon does lock up audio hardware making the hardware unusable to other applications in the system occassionaly.
4. Configuration Management - You have dozens of different config files each with their own format spread out across the system. Also, different distributions store their configuration in different places. Managing the configuration of the system becomes a real challenge especially if you have hundreds of such computers to manage. Linux needs a system which allows the apps to store and retrieve the configuration using an API in a standard way. There are existing projects on Linux which do this, but they haven't received much traction yet.
If you couple a system such as this with a trusted domain controller concept whereby a system administrator can change the configuration on any PC on the network from a central location using an automated tool without actually having to log into each individual PC, it would really make Linux more suitable in the enterprise. This can be used for things such as centralized software updates etc.
Windows has had something like this for years - for example, the System Management Server from windows allows thousands of computers to be managed from a single console.
5. Package Management - No, slapt-get, apt-get, yum etc are not easy to use. Users want to be able to click to install any app. They expect the OS to handle dependencies etc.
6. Application / Configuration Updates - The ability to roll back updates. Required in Enterprise desktops. This also includes configuration updates. Again, available in Windows for years.
7. Some sort of class library or system-wide API usable in scripts, apps etc for things such as: - Configuration management (given above) - Something like JNDI or COM allowing for a system-wide name space for reusable objects. - A automation interface which uses this object name space. Example: If OpenOffice is already installed on the Linux PC, it should be possible for a python script to be written which can query for the OpenOffice's writer object. This writer object can then be then used in the python script for reading/writing ODT files etc. Another example, would be if the python script can instantiate an object which can then be used for sending out emails (without requiring special configuration of the SMTP server settings as the object is preconfigured by the system with the correct settings from the system-wide configuration management API) - Directory services - Alerts, notifications - Scheduling - GUI management - Compression/Decompression - Access controls management - Device Driver management - File system managem
Thanks a lot! You need to be modded right up! HTML really needs to be modified to include the controls such as the one you have suggested - date fields, time fields etc.. browsers can easily degrade the display to show just a text field (if they don't have built-in support for handing these fields).
Also, I agree with you about the usage of tables. The well kept secret (which paradoxically most people seem to be aware off but will not admit) is that CSS layouts are very difficult to do correctly. Also, it may work on one browser but will break on every other browser.
I don't understand all this nonsense that tables are not suitable for the blind etc.. Any content within a table can be assigned ids / class names or any other semantic markup to define what they actually mean - and this can be used for interpreting data for text-to-speech applications.. I don't see how CSS is going to do a better job of that.
All this talk about table-based layouts requiring soo much more verbose markup is also nonsense. For one thing, if the choice is between simplicity and saving disk space, simplicity wins. Tables gets the work done, CSS is for those with a lot of time and who consider their time worthless.
I have personally developed HTML browser controls used in embedded ticketing terminals in Scandinavia. CSS is bloody difficult to get right.. which is why most browsers still don't do it properly. Tables, on the other hand, are much easier to implement and do EVERYTHING that CSS does, without the headache.
Do you honestly believe that political problems exist only in the middle-east? Don't you know that nations like India (hindu-dominated) have a lot of problems but don't use the same tactics used by the muslims from the middle-east to solve their problems?
I am quite frankly sick and tired of how the muslim world justifies the terrorism it perpetrates under the excuse of "circumstances"... they have just the same responsibility as the rest of the world to solve their problems peacefully rather than going around killing every dissenting voice in sight.
The truth of the matter is that - not all muslims are terrorists, but pretty much all suicide-bomber type terrorists are muslims.
This argument does not apply to music or for that matter any digital ware because the copy retains the *exact* quality of the original. You associate a value with a Gucci original suit because you know the Gucci knock-off suit will be of lower quality. This is not true for music/movies/software copied off CDs, DVDs, harddisks, websites etc.
There is this small thing that you cannot always be with your kids 24/7. Kids disobey even when they are under direct supervision. If you don't understand this, then you must be from a completely different planet.
But assuming that your kids *NEVER* disobey you while under your supervision, will your kids never disobey you when they are not under your supervision? Are you claiming that your kids will *ONLY* do what you have asked them to do at all times even when not under your direct personal supervision? Have you told your kids the entire list of do's and don'ts? Do your kids never, ever do anything wrong? Can you claim truthfully that your kids will *NEVER* *EVER* feel any draw towards drugs, violence..
Governments do things occassionally to protect the people. You may be the ideal parent, but there are millions who aren't. Therefore the government cannot make the assumption that parents are all ideal - which is why we have the child protection wing of the government, which is also why the government monitors the welfare of children under foster care etc.
If you claim that you are the ideal parent and the government must therefore cater to just your case, then will you be willing to take personal accountability for the millions of kids in this country who are abused, have no one to fend for them, have very little mentoring and even less hope?
Games are far too immersive to consider them equivalent to non-interactive art. Would you be ok with Child Abuse games? I don't know about you - but if you have played games like Half life long enough, one tends to be some what more spatially aware when walking down the road; you kinda tend to look around corners, and have a generally higher sensitivity in all 360 degrees of direction.
I wonder if it is just the spatial awareness which is enhanced - somehow, I don't think so.
This discussion has been going on for some time, I think it may be a good time to end it. If you need to reach me, I can be reached on pkphilip (at) gmail.com
To state my point of view:
All people groups across the world have done evil at some point in history - no matter how you define a people group; whether it is by religion, language, region etc. Followers of *ALL* religions have done evil at some point or the other - Christians have (example: the crusades), Muslims have, the hindus have, etc.
And it is also true that as long as individuals are not perfect, that people will continue to be imperfect. We will all continue to do things which are children may be ashamed off.
Again, it is also true that people will believe in very different things; what seems right to one is completely unacceptable to others.
So it is not my intention to point faults in your belief or in the beliefs of organizations that you support. But I do feel that we we should be free to disagree with each other. I am not implying in any way that we should stop trying to convince others of our own view point; I think we should have the freedom to use any decent means to engage in conversation, but the use of force to enforce ones belief on others should not be allowed.
I am against any use of force; I am against forced conversions (and re-conversions), I am against dharnas being called up anytime anyone is criticized, I am against militancy, I am against rule by a mob. If anyone is criticized, the supporters of the person who is criticized can debate the issue with the person raising the criticism without calling for violence. Ex: if RSS has a problem with the Pope, they should be able to criticize publicly without anyone/any organization attacking the RSS.. and similarly if any one criticizes anyone in the Sangh Parivar, the Sangh Parivar should be able to deal with it in a civilized manner.
I am not a marxist (by the way, Karl Marx was a jew) and my opinions have nothing to do with Marx.
By the way, only Koenraad Elst can believe that the statements that Golwalkar made glorifying the German action of "purifying" the race does not make him (Golwalkar) a fascist. What happenned in Germany was ethnic cleansing; and Golwalkar did glorify it. In Golwalkar's opinion and that of the RSS, the minorities must give up *any* rights of a citizen to continue in India. If that is not fascism, I don't know what is.
It is just a nature of the RSS that it can take widely contradictory stances - on the one hand they say that Germans were right in pursuing the path of "purifying" the race, but at the same time they say they support the Jews. The fact that Koenraad Elst can't see the problem with this indicates that his opinion on the subject may not be entirely objective.
Also, by the way, the RSS did withdraw the book after years of publication. But the fact that Golwalkar wrote the book is not disputable.
As to whether G_d promised the land of Israel to the Jews - ofcourse, I believe that. What Israel has managed to achieve is unimaginable considering that some of the best brains were killed during the holocaust.
Palestinians have given the Israelis a very hard time. However, it is also true that some of the actions of the Israeli government weren't right. That is the case in almost any conflict - no one party is entirely right in their actions towards the other.
The problem I have with the ultra-radical hindutva movement is this - they see that minorites are always at fault and must be subjugated. They believe that the minorites are trying to subdue the hindus because of inaction on the part of the hindu. They believe that if the hindu started to love himself/herself and took pride in the fact that he is hindu (and also simultaneously look down on the religion of others), then he/she will somehow escape the "tyranny" imposed on the hindus by the minority.
Hedgewar as well as Golwalkar thought that the low self-esteem and the self-hatred of the hindus is responsible for the fact that a small group of people from Britain were able to hold the entire India under slavery. They miss one obvious fact - the millions of Indians were controlled by a small group of kings, zamindars and leaders. All the British had to do was to topple these small groups of leaders and then they could control the entire country.
The deeply ingrained caste system had ensured that the average Indian had very little control over his own destiny - the vast majority had no access to education, was in bondage to the higher caste and condemned to work in the fields and in the villages with no hope for improving their future.
As far as the common man went, the kings were tyrannically well before the British ever came to India and to have one group of tyrants replaced by another group of tyrants wasn't such a bad deal for them.
One of the good things that RSS tried to do was to treat the people equally no matter what their caste. The caste system was so pervasive that it has even infiltrated christianity in India. if they had stuck to destroying the caste system, we may have had a much better India now. However, the weakness was that they got caught up with seeing themselves as hindus and not as Indians.
It is good and fine to talk about how Israel formed a nation though the jews had been persecuted so much. However, you cannot fully understand it unless you see what the jews themselves did.
The jews had come from different parts of the world and in pretty much every part they had been heavily persecuted. Even after the end of World War 2, Britain still continued to persecute the jews and were unwilling to let the jews have the land of Israel. Even before the nation of Israel could be formed, the jews were already battling to stay alive against the Arabs who were trying to drive them from Israel. Many thousands died in these battles.
One disclaimer right at the start - I have some Jewish ancestry.
About Rediff.com - you cannot seriously be quoting rediff as a reliable source. Buffalo.edu and BBC - when did they state that there is a global conspiracy against Hindus?
Talking about the Dalit Voice, the Dalit Panther etc - these are fringe groups with well known biases. This is similar to quoting Fox News as a reliable source for accurate analysis on the Iraq war. Is it any surprise that these websites spout venom?
And what about Slasat, Milla-whatever - these are similar to Dalit Voice; that is, these are not mainline media sites. These are fringe groups.
Do you want a list of groups who spout venom against the Christians: Consider the following: www.christianaggression.org,
On the topic of anti-semitism - the primary problem the Communists have always had with the Jews is because they see jews as backers of the capitalist western nations. Partnering with a capitalist system, is seen by the communists, as putting down the labour class. By the way, it is true that a large part of the financial systems in the world are controlled by people with jewish roots. JP Morgan, Citigroup, Chase Manhattan (the three primary bankers who own controlling interests in the Federal Bank of the US) were all started by jews and are still controlled by Jews. Also, organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, BIS etc have a large number of jews on their boards.
The anti-semitism comes from this mistaken notion that since jews are backers of the capitalist nations, that they must inherently be evil.
The communist leaning towards muslim nations (though these nations are far less friendly towards the labour class than are western nations) comes from the fact that the muslim nations have seen jews as the enemy. This animosity that muslims feel towards the jews goes back hundreds of years. The nation of Israel has done many things over the past decades to further antagonize the muslims.
For the communist, the dictum "enemy of my enemy is my friend" applies and therefore they see muslim nations as friends and partners.
The same dictum applies for ultra-radical hindu outfits such as the RSS. RSS sees muslims as their enemy and therefore they see Israel (which is seen as opposed to the muslim nations) as their friend. It is in this context that the RSS spouts pro-israeli statements.
About your note about "self-hating" Indians. I am an Indian. It is just a little strange that I also do have Jewish roots and am a Christian. I have a lot of friends who are Hindus - incidentally, I also have a friend who is an office bearer in the RSS. I also have a lot of muslim friends as well as jewish friends.
The reason I look upon the Shiv sena with contempt is not because I am a self-hating Indian who is ashamed of his existence. But it is because they think it is ok to preach against violence using violence. They also concoct stories if required.
If the RSS/ABVP/BJP/whatever believes that something on Orkut is against their beliefs/their leader etc, they have the freedom and the right to put up documents countering the claims. Instead, they prefer to intimidate and rough up people, destroy businesses etc. And after all that, they expect no one to criticize them.
I also find it strange that organizations such as RSS which talks about the criminal activities of SIMI, regularly trains their cadres in the use of arms. They practise regularly using sticks, swords etc. I know this from first hand experience of seeing them. If you are a peaceful organization, why do you need to arm your cadres?
By the way, trusting the Gujarati government report on Godhra because they have the best roads makes as much sense as expecting the Nazis to give a non-partisan report on the jews because they had the best
I think we need to take this discussion outside Slashdot as it is apparently only viewed by both of us.
One big problem with a lot of these so-called news sites is that they imply that there is some sort of a global conspiracy on to somehow subjugate the Hindus. They believe that a lot of people are now part of this conspiracy.
The problem with this theory is this: There is simply no motive.
Let me illustrate:
1. About the Godhra massacre - many of the so-called leftist news sites which you claim to have whitewashed these incidents are all run by Hindus. Most of the journalists who portrayed the facts as it occurred and from the ground (ex: Bharka Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai etc..) are all Hindus. What do you think they stand to gain by whitewashing a massacre? These same organizations also chronicled the problem at Marad.
Come to think of it - how many news organizations do you know which are run by non-hindus in India? Name a single major paper, TV news channel etc. How many journalists and news anchors do you know who are not hindus? Are you claiming that *ALL* these hindus (who I am sure still maintain their hindu customs) have all sold their soul and have turned against their own religion? The odds of this happening is very, very small.
Consider the more probable case - that these people are actually stating the facts. I think this is far more probable than the case when hundreds of journalists and media people who belong to competing organizations becoming a part of a single global conspiracy against hindus.
About Godhra - why are you ignoring the evidence that this definitely did not happen the way the Gujarat government stated it did? Aren't you aware that multiple investigations conducted by the government, and by an independent group of engineers (which included mostly hindus) all pointed out that the Gujarat government was basically stating a lie? The only group of people who are stating the Gujarati governments story are the Gujarat Police, the Gujarat government and these so-called news sites.
Consider the fact that many human rights groups both Indian and foreign have pointed fingers at the Gujarat government. Consider the fact that hardly anyone has been convicted even though so many people were killed in broad daylight. Consider also the fact that the Supreme Court considered a petition to transfer the Godhra cases out of Gujarat. Consider also the statements made by the Supreme Court justices against the Gujarat government and against Modi specifically.
2) The allegation of being "leftist" has been used a lot in the past to justify violence against minority groups worldwide. For instance, this allegation is used by the Republicans and the Christian Right in the US to rubbish the articles put out by papers such as the Washington Post, New York Times etc against the Iraq war etc. The same allegation was used in the past against moderates in places like Germany (during the holocaust), by the US administration in the McCarthy witchhunts and it is now being used by the ultra nationalist forces in India to subjugate moderates. Please do not fall for this trap.
I am not in anyway stating that the media is somehow magically without any bias or any hidden agendas. But a simple fact of life is that people only hold onto agendas which benefit them directly; for instance, it is fairly well known that the media is willing to intrude on the privacy of people, and conduct sting operations - what if the same were to be done to them? they would cry out about restricting press freedom etc. But when it comes to your suggestion that they hold an agenda against the largest demography in India (Hindus) in favour of the minorities who form a very small part of the population (under
Please do not go by such "reports".
6. A lot of people are being killed across the world by various madmen. For instance, some muslim militants are targeting buddhists in Thailand now. We also have clear stories of persecution against any other religion in the Islamic
You are buying this BJP propaganda and drinking too much of their Kool-Aid. The media in India can be hardly called communist. Except for two states in India, the communists are pretty much a washed out bunch everywhere.. and even in these two states, their relevance is under question and they no longer enjoy the kind of control they had earlier.
About these sites which you claim to be giving the truth - these were the very same states which whitewashed the Gujarat massacre.. and which continue to paint Narendra Modi as if he is some sort of a hero and messiah - we are talking about the man who has so much contempt for the law and the judicial process that the supreme court had to intervene to decide if the Gujarat massacre cases should be tried outside the state.
Talking about the sumptuary laws in Afghanistan - we are talking about a muslim country with *no* law or order; actually, most muslim countries do not tolerate any other religion other than islam.. Christians/Hindus/Buddhists are all regularly persecuted. But lets talk about India.
The only organizations in India which target people based on their religion are organizations such as the ABVP, Bajrang Dal, RSS, Shivsena etc and one or two extreme muslim groups in specific parts of the country (J&K, sometimes in muslim dominated areas like Hyderabad etc).
The naxals are a different problem altogether - they target everyone - whether muslim, hindu, parsi whatever. Then there are militant groups like the ULFA which are more regionalistic and target people from other states and regions.
But these so-called news sites will depict any attack against any person (who may be Hindu) as an attack against hinduism.. even when it is mounted by groups such as the Naxals, the ULFA etc. At the same time, these very same sites will paint all attacks against non-hindus by groups such as ABVP/BSP/RSS/BD/Shiv sena as a "retaliation" against injustice, as a "drive" against "illegal" activities etc. That is, these sites will try and whitewash the crimes of these hindu organizations while painting every other non-hindu organization as anti-hindu.
You cannot argue that the hindus are being persecuted in India - how is that even possible considering that the hindus are an overwhelming majority in pretty much all parts of India? you cannot also argue that BJP/BSP/ABVP/BD are not actively targetting and assaulting people from other religions - they have even released CDs/DVDs and pamphlets with very anti-muslim content which have been broadly publicised.
This is not an issue of hindus taking pride in themselves (which sounds a lot like the case of the Germans taking pride in their ancestry - you know when this happenned) but it is rather about wanting to dominate and subdue everyone else.
I fully agree with the parent poster that the non-resident indian community has completely lost touch with ground realities in India and are quick to jump to the support of fascist organizations such as the Shiv sena, Bajrang Dal etc.
By the way, I don't know how CPI/Communists even feature in this discussion - they are not at all strong in Maharashtra where Shivsena rules.
Shivsena and the Bajrang Dal are the two organizations which assume a Hindu identity - when actually, most hindus in India are embarrased by the very existence of these organizations. These organizations are known to beat up and vandalize citizens, and are widely considered the must corrupt organizations in India run on the lines of a mafia; the only way they keep their hold on power is by whipping up resentment against some community or the to other. Muslims and Christians are common targets - and then ofcourse anyone who is not from Maharashtra is also a target; anyone who purchases a valentine card or attends a valentines day bash is also an enemy.
I really recommend that you get an education on India and that you stop spouting the hateful statements that fill the NRI's so-called "news" sites.
And why should they listen? Linux users certainly don't form the majority, and so they can't really demand that these manufacturers release the drivers in a specific form?
And by the way, I don't think the fact that Linux users really don't have much of a say is that obvious to the Linux folk. We assume that the manufacturers must respond to our demands because we assume that we matter to them.
Why would the whitehouse consider stopping this? You assume that you have the power to stop it, but you perhaps should sit down and consider if that is really the case.
If it looks like you are going to get the political backing and the people's support to stop this wiretapping, they can get the dirt on you and try and shut you down. Or they could get the dirt on someone in your family and force your hand. Or they can *place* some dirt on you and then ship you out to some prison where you have no access to legal help.
Whitehouse already has a private army. They *can* keep the armed forces and the law enforcement under check. They can use this private army against you or against any other dissenter.
Does windows run on the santarosa chipset? The chipset on the older Macbook Pros is supported on windows, but I am not sure about this new Santarosa chipset.
Though one may argue that having the source for a driver may result in the driver becoming more stable over time as a lot of people contribute changes/fixes to it, I feel that this may be overstated.
Consider Nvidia/ATI drivers on Windows or Mac OSX - these binary-only drivers are feature rich (are they more feature rich than their binary-only drivers on Linux?) and most users are quite happy. Bugs do occasionally show up, but they are normally fixed by Nvidia/ATI within a reasonable time frame.
However, I have noticed that these same manufacturers take forever to fix bugs which show up only on Linux.
That indicates to me that the reason that these binary drivers are not that stable on Linux is not because of the binary nature of these drivers but because the Linux user community matters less to Nvidia/ATI than the Windows user community.
So it is understandable that a hardware manufacturer prioritizes bug fixes for their larger user base (windows) rather than for the Linux users.
Unless Linux gains the kind of market share which will force hardware manufacturers to take it seriously, we can expect less than stellar drivers and support from them.
Indeed! and what about the cruelty of subjecting the poor infants to vaccination without their consent?!.. and later when they are still kids, the parents send them to school - again, without taking their consent?!
Thanks for dropping by. Your decision to post anonymously indicates that you are probably a scientologist sent here to astro turf. I guess this will post will give you a discount during your next dianetics session.
First a few facts:
1. No religion in existence goes after dissenters the way the church of scientology does; yes, it is true that in some third world countries and in the middle east, turning away from islam can get you killed. But in the west and in most westernized nations, there is the rule of law and the law protects people from being targetted by proponents of their religion. But CoS is able to pervert even this system of law in western nations to target even influential dissenters via harassment, and even death.
2. Scientology is perhaps the only religion in the world where the only way to get to its "cures" is by paying a lot of money. Any other religion - Islam, Christianity etc - it is possible to become a muslim or a christian without paying any money.
3. Scientology is also the newest religion on this planet created by Ron Hubbard - a known criminal. LRH's views on using harassment as a way of quelling dissent is well documented.
4. Scientology also copyrights its "scriptures" - the only religion in the world to do that.
In short - you guys are just scamsters trying to pass off what is really a scam as a religion; scientology was created by LRH with the explicit purpose of scamming people.
18 hours a day without electricity?!! where do you live? I live in Chennai, India and we have round-the-clock power here.
Another question - is there anything that can be done to solve this problem? get in touch with me, perhaps - we can do something about this. prem AT songbirdtech.com
Just in case you haven't guessed already, I am an Indian too.
REXX in OS/2 could interact with the GUI objects. You could also use IPC mechanisms such as semaphores, communicate over sockets etc. But yes, you are right. I remember that you could create "install" scripts in REXX which would create icons on the desktop, setup shortcuts etc using the OS/2 presentation manager objects.
Unfortunately no such thing exists on Linux/Unix. You are right - most of the shells we have on Unix/Linux are not substantially different from what was available in the 1970s.
Slashdot Mirror
Given enough time, it is possible to secure *ANY* OS to make it almost uncompromisable. Also, if the system is a completely closed system (that is, no files come in), then it is far easier to close it up. However, a real environment is not like that - in an environment when people work and send files and receive files from clients, friends etc, it is far more difficult to lock down the system.
However, on Windows, the problem really is that most apps run at the highest possible security level - if that weren't the case, it would be difficult for users to install apps (for an example). That is, most windows machines run with administrative previleges.. unlike in the case of Linux, where by default the users are required to run on a lower previlege. Distributions such as Ubuntu don't even have a root user.
Having said that, I fully concede that a windows system *CAN* be made secure, but by default it is far less secure than a linux machine. Please note that a Linux machine *CAN* also be made more secure.
By the way, something like OpenBSD is virtually uncompromised for the past several years - there have been only 2 possible vulnerabilities in OpenBSD.
To answer your query - I am sure there are ways and means of securing Linux (using SELinux, removing root user, shutting down most ports, setting up a strong firewall and intrusion detection mechanisms etc) to get the kind of security rating that you have indicated.
By the way, I am Indian.. and am writing from India right now. So I guess no one is about to take my job soon.
Window's primary problem is that it is prone to viruses. At work we have developers dual booting linux and windows. When we have work that is primarily Linux related, most developers would be using Linux.. and during those months we have noticed drops in bandwidth usage which indicates to me that there may be viruses and spyware on the windows partitions (which will ofcourse only show up when the users are using windows and not linux). This is despite the fact that we lock down our computers using anti-virus software, anti-spyware etc.
There amount of effort we expend on securing windows PCs against these viruses far outweighs the time we spend on linux PCs. Also, the costs are much lower on Linux because we don't even need to use an anti-virus software for the most part.
So I don't fully buy your claim that windows is more secure than Linux overall. However, I do agree that when it comes to management tools available on Windows for managing file and system security, they are far better than the Linux equivalents. Except for the sniffers and intrusion detection tools which are more commonly available on Linux.
Having said that, I do concur with you that the usual comments about the blue screen of death is based on pretty dated info and no longer relevant.
There are still some real issues with Linux which must be fixed before Linux is really ready for the desktop (atleast on enterprise desktops).
1. Device Management - The ability to install drivers for devices without requiring kernel compilation. Couple this with the ability to retrieve updated drivers from a trusted repository. IMHO, a sorely needed feature. Device management on Linux can be a real problem if your linux distribution does not already have the specific driver compiled in or available as a shared module. Else, you will have to download the kernel source and then somehow determine if your hardware is supported.. and then you will have to go through the elaborate process of selecting the device to be compiled in or as a loadable module. After which the kernel compilation and the installation process must happen. This is enough to stop pretty much any non-geek (atleast 95% of the world's population) in their tracks.
2. Display device management - This follows from point 1. X-Windows really sucks when it comes to working with different device hardware available. Changing resolutions etc is a real problem if your resolution was not automatically probed by X. The same applies to the selection of the monitors. This is currently being fixed with X0rg, but we are still some way off.
3. Audio - Something a lot of people know is broken. ALSA daemon does lock up audio hardware making the hardware unusable to other applications in the system occassionaly.
4. Configuration Management - You have dozens of different config files each with their own format spread out across the system. Also, different distributions store their configuration in different places. Managing the configuration of the system becomes a real challenge especially if you have hundreds of such computers to manage. Linux needs a system which allows the apps to store and retrieve the configuration using an API in a standard way. There are existing projects on Linux which do this, but they haven't received much traction yet.
If you couple a system such as this with a trusted domain controller concept whereby a system administrator can change the configuration on any PC on the network from a central location using an automated tool without actually having to log into each individual PC, it would really make Linux more suitable in the enterprise. This can be used for things such as centralized software updates etc.
Windows has had something like this for years - for example, the System Management Server from windows allows thousands of computers to be managed from a single console.
5. Package Management - No, slapt-get, apt-get, yum etc are not easy to use. Users want to be able to click to install any app. They expect the OS to handle dependencies etc.
6. Application / Configuration Updates - The ability to roll back updates. Required in Enterprise desktops. This also includes configuration updates. Again, available in Windows for years.
7. Some sort of class library or system-wide API usable in scripts, apps etc for things such as:
- Configuration management (given above)
- Something like JNDI or COM allowing for a system-wide name space for reusable objects.
- A automation interface which uses this object name space. Example: If OpenOffice is already installed on the Linux PC, it should be possible for a python script to be written which can query for the OpenOffice's writer object. This writer object can then be then used in the python script for reading/writing ODT files etc. Another example, would be if the python script can instantiate an object which can then be used for sending out emails (without requiring special configuration of the SMTP server settings as the object is preconfigured by the system with the correct settings from the system-wide configuration management API)
- Directory services
- Alerts, notifications
- Scheduling
- GUI management
- Compression/Decompression
- Access controls management
- Device Driver management
- File system managem
Thanks a lot! You need to be modded right up! HTML really needs to be modified to include the controls such as the one you have suggested - date fields, time fields etc.. browsers can easily degrade the display to show just a text field (if they don't have built-in support for handing these fields).
Also, I agree with you about the usage of tables. The well kept secret (which paradoxically most people seem to be aware off but will not admit) is that CSS layouts are very difficult to do correctly. Also, it may work on one browser but will break on every other browser.
I don't understand all this nonsense that tables are not suitable for the blind etc.. Any content within a table can be assigned ids / class names or any other semantic markup to define what they actually mean - and this can be used for interpreting data for text-to-speech applications.. I don't see how CSS is going to do a better job of that.
All this talk about table-based layouts requiring soo much more verbose markup is also nonsense. For one thing, if the choice is between simplicity and saving disk space, simplicity wins. Tables gets the work done, CSS is for those with a lot of time and who consider their time worthless.
I have personally developed HTML browser controls used in embedded ticketing terminals in Scandinavia. CSS is bloody difficult to get right.. which is why most browsers still don't do it properly. Tables, on the other hand, are much easier to implement and do EVERYTHING that CSS does, without the headache.
But yes, the purists won't agree.
Do you honestly believe that political problems exist only in the middle-east? Don't you know that nations like India (hindu-dominated) have a lot of problems but don't use the same tactics used by the muslims from the middle-east to solve their problems?
I am quite frankly sick and tired of how the muslim world justifies the terrorism it perpetrates under the excuse of "circumstances"... they have just the same responsibility as the rest of the world to solve their problems peacefully rather than going around killing every dissenting voice in sight.
The truth of the matter is that - not all muslims are terrorists, but pretty much all suicide-bomber type terrorists are muslims.
This argument does not apply to music or for that matter any digital ware because the copy retains the *exact* quality of the original. You associate a value with a Gucci original suit because you know the Gucci knock-off suit will be of lower quality. This is not true for music/movies/software copied off CDs, DVDs, harddisks, websites etc.
Miguel - congratulations! you are one of the few people who can pull off something like this in such a short time!!
There is this small thing that you cannot always be with your kids 24/7. Kids disobey even when they are under direct supervision. If you don't understand this, then you must be from a completely different planet.
But assuming that your kids *NEVER* disobey you while under your supervision, will your kids never disobey you when they are not under your supervision? Are you claiming that your kids will *ONLY* do what you have asked them to do at all times even when not under your direct personal supervision? Have you told your kids the entire list of do's and don'ts? Do your kids never, ever do anything wrong? Can you claim truthfully that your kids will *NEVER* *EVER* feel any draw towards drugs, violence..
Governments do things occassionally to protect the people. You may be the ideal parent, but there are millions who aren't. Therefore the government cannot make the assumption that parents are all ideal - which is why we have the child protection wing of the government, which is also why the government monitors the welfare of children under foster care etc.
If you claim that you are the ideal parent and the government must therefore cater to just your case, then will you be willing to take personal accountability for the millions of kids in this country who are abused, have no one to fend for them, have very little mentoring and even less hope?
Games are far too immersive to consider them equivalent to non-interactive art. Would you be ok with Child Abuse games? I don't know about you - but if you have played games like Half life long enough, one tends to be some what more spatially aware when walking down the road; you kinda tend to look around corners, and have a generally higher sensitivity in all 360 degrees of direction.
I wonder if it is just the spatial awareness which is enhanced - somehow, I don't think so.
This discussion has been going on for some time, I think it may be a good time to end it. If you need to reach me, I can be reached on pkphilip (at) gmail.com
To state my point of view:
All people groups across the world have done evil at some point in history - no matter how you define a people group; whether it is by religion, language, region etc. Followers of *ALL* religions have done evil at some point or the other - Christians have (example: the crusades), Muslims have, the hindus have, etc.
And it is also true that as long as individuals are not perfect, that people will continue to be imperfect. We will all continue to do things which are children may be ashamed off.
Again, it is also true that people will believe in very different things; what seems right to one is completely unacceptable to others.
So it is not my intention to point faults in your belief or in the beliefs of organizations that you support. But I do feel that we we should be free to disagree with each other. I am not implying in any way that we should stop trying to convince others of our own view point; I think we should have the freedom to use any decent means to engage in conversation, but the use of force to enforce ones belief on others should not be allowed.
I am against any use of force; I am against forced conversions (and re-conversions), I am against dharnas being called up anytime anyone is criticized, I am against militancy, I am against rule by a mob. If anyone is criticized, the supporters of the person who is criticized can debate the issue with the person raising the criticism without calling for violence. Ex: if RSS has a problem with the Pope, they should be able to criticize publicly without anyone/any organization attacking the RSS.. and similarly if any one criticizes anyone in the Sangh Parivar, the Sangh Parivar should be able to deal with it in a civilized manner.
I hope that clears up my stand.
I am not a marxist (by the way, Karl Marx was a jew) and my opinions have nothing to do with Marx.
By the way, only Koenraad Elst can believe that the statements that Golwalkar made glorifying the German action of "purifying" the race does not make him (Golwalkar) a fascist. What happenned in Germany was ethnic cleansing; and Golwalkar did glorify it. In Golwalkar's opinion and that of the RSS, the minorities must give up *any* rights of a citizen to continue in India. If that is not fascism, I don't know what is.
It is just a nature of the RSS that it can take widely contradictory stances - on the one hand they say that Germans were right in pursuing the path of "purifying" the race, but at the same time they say they support the Jews. The fact that Koenraad Elst can't see the problem with this indicates that his opinion on the subject may not be entirely objective.
Also, by the way, the RSS did withdraw the book after years of publication. But the fact that Golwalkar wrote the book is not disputable.
As to whether G_d promised the land of Israel to the Jews - ofcourse, I believe that. What Israel has managed to achieve is unimaginable considering that some of the best brains were killed during the holocaust.
Palestinians have given the Israelis a very hard time. However, it is also true that some of the actions of the Israeli government weren't right. That is the case in almost any conflict - no one party is entirely right in their actions towards the other.
The problem I have with the ultra-radical hindutva movement is this - they see that minorites are always at fault and must be subjugated. They believe that the minorites are trying to subdue the hindus because of inaction on the part of the hindu. They believe that if the hindu started to love himself/herself and took pride in the fact that he is hindu (and also simultaneously look down on the religion of others), then he/she will somehow escape the "tyranny" imposed on the hindus by the minority.
Hedgewar as well as Golwalkar thought that the low self-esteem and the self-hatred of the hindus is responsible for the fact that a small group of people from Britain were able to hold the entire India under slavery. They miss one obvious fact - the millions of Indians were controlled by a small group of kings, zamindars and leaders. All the British had to do was to topple these small groups of leaders and then they could control the entire country.
The deeply ingrained caste system had ensured that the average Indian had very little control over his own destiny - the vast majority had no access to education, was in bondage to the higher caste and condemned to work in the fields and in the villages with no hope for improving their future.
As far as the common man went, the kings were tyrannically well before the British ever came to India and to have one group of tyrants replaced by another group of tyrants wasn't such a bad deal for them.
One of the good things that RSS tried to do was to treat the people equally no matter what their caste. The caste system was so pervasive that it has even infiltrated christianity in India. if they had stuck to destroying the caste system, we may have had a much better India now. However, the weakness was that they got caught up with seeing themselves as hindus and not as Indians.
It is good and fine to talk about how Israel formed a nation though the jews had been persecuted so much. However, you cannot fully understand it unless you see what the jews themselves did.
The jews had come from different parts of the world and in pretty much every part they had been heavily persecuted. Even after the end of World War 2, Britain still continued to persecute the jews and were unwilling to let the jews have the land of Israel. Even before the nation of Israel could be formed, the jews were already battling to stay alive against the Arabs who were trying to drive them from Israel. Many thousands died in these battles.
Because there was nothing left, every
One disclaimer right at the start - I have some Jewish ancestry.
About Rediff.com - you cannot seriously be quoting rediff as a reliable source. Buffalo.edu and BBC - when did they state that there is a global conspiracy against Hindus?
Talking about the Dalit Voice, the Dalit Panther etc - these are fringe groups with well known biases. This is similar to quoting Fox News as a reliable source for accurate analysis on the Iraq war. Is it any surprise that these websites spout venom?
And what about Slasat, Milla-whatever - these are similar to Dalit Voice; that is, these are not mainline media sites. These are fringe groups.
Do you want a list of groups who spout venom against the Christians: Consider the following: www.christianaggression.org,
On the topic of anti-semitism - the primary problem the Communists have always had with the Jews is because they see jews as backers of the capitalist western nations. Partnering with a capitalist system, is seen by the communists, as putting down the labour class. By the way, it is true that a large part of the financial systems in the world are controlled by people with jewish roots. JP Morgan, Citigroup, Chase Manhattan (the three primary bankers who own controlling interests in the Federal Bank of the US) were all started by jews and are still controlled by Jews. Also, organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, BIS etc have a large number of jews on their boards.
The anti-semitism comes from this mistaken notion that since jews are backers of the capitalist nations, that they must inherently be evil.
The communist leaning towards muslim nations (though these nations are far less friendly towards the labour class than are western nations) comes from the fact that the muslim nations have seen jews as the enemy. This animosity that muslims feel towards the jews goes back hundreds of years. The nation of Israel has done many things over the past decades to further antagonize the muslims.
For the communist, the dictum "enemy of my enemy is my friend" applies and therefore they see muslim nations as friends and partners.
The same dictum applies for ultra-radical hindu outfits such as the RSS. RSS sees muslims as their enemy and therefore they see Israel (which is seen as opposed to the muslim nations) as their friend. It is in this context that the RSS spouts pro-israeli statements.
There is a satirical note on this which you might find funny:
http://www.satirewire.com/news/may02/hinjews.shtml
About your note about "self-hating" Indians. I am an Indian. It is just a little strange that I also do have Jewish roots and am a Christian. I have a lot of friends who are Hindus - incidentally, I also have a friend who is an office bearer in the RSS. I also have a lot of muslim friends as well as jewish friends.
The reason I look upon the Shiv sena with contempt is not because I am a self-hating Indian who is ashamed of his existence. But it is because they think it is ok to preach against violence using violence. They also concoct stories if required.
If the RSS/ABVP/BJP/whatever believes that something on Orkut is against their beliefs/their leader etc, they have the freedom and the right to put up documents countering the claims. Instead, they prefer to intimidate and rough up people, destroy businesses etc. And after all that, they expect no one to criticize them.
I also find it strange that organizations such as RSS which talks about the criminal activities of SIMI, regularly trains their cadres in the use of arms. They practise regularly using sticks, swords etc. I know this from first hand experience of seeing them. If you are a peaceful organization, why do you need to arm your cadres?
By the way, trusting the Gujarati government report on Godhra because they have the best roads makes as much sense as expecting the Nazis to give a non-partisan report on the jews because they had the best
I think we need to take this discussion outside Slashdot as it is apparently only viewed by both of us.
One big problem with a lot of these so-called news sites is that they imply that there is some sort of a global conspiracy on to somehow subjugate the Hindus. They believe that a lot of people are now part of this conspiracy.
The problem with this theory is this: There is simply no motive.
Let me illustrate:
1. About the Godhra massacre - many of the so-called leftist news sites which you claim to have whitewashed these incidents are all run by Hindus. Most of the journalists who portrayed the facts as it occurred and from the ground (ex: Bharka Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai etc..) are all Hindus. What do you think they stand to gain by whitewashing a massacre? These same organizations also chronicled the problem at Marad.
Come to think of it - how many news organizations do you know which are run by non-hindus in India? Name a single major paper, TV news channel etc. How many journalists and news anchors do you know who are not hindus? Are you claiming that *ALL* these hindus (who I am sure still maintain their hindu customs) have all sold their soul and have turned against their own religion? The odds of this happening is very, very small.
Consider the more probable case - that these people are actually stating the facts. I think this is far more probable than the case when hundreds of journalists and media people who belong to competing organizations becoming a part of a single global conspiracy against hindus.
About Godhra - why are you ignoring the evidence that this definitely did not happen the way the Gujarat government stated it did? Aren't you aware that multiple investigations conducted by the government, and by an independent group of engineers (which included mostly hindus) all pointed out that the Gujarat government was basically stating a lie? The only group of people who are stating the Gujarati governments story are the Gujarat Police, the Gujarat government and these so-called news sites.
Consider the fact that many human rights groups both Indian and foreign have pointed fingers at the Gujarat government. Consider the fact that hardly anyone has been convicted even though so many people were killed in broad daylight. Consider also the fact that the Supreme Court considered a petition to transfer the Godhra cases out of Gujarat. Consider also the statements made by the Supreme Court justices against the Gujarat government and against Modi specifically.
2) The allegation of being "leftist" has been used a lot in the past to justify violence against minority groups worldwide. For instance, this allegation is used by the Republicans and the Christian Right in the US to rubbish the articles put out by papers such as the Washington Post, New York Times etc against the Iraq war etc. The same allegation was used in the past against moderates in places like Germany (during the holocaust), by the US administration in the McCarthy witchhunts and it is now being used by the ultra nationalist forces in India to subjugate moderates. Please do not fall for this trap.
I am not in anyway stating that the media is somehow magically without any bias or any hidden agendas. But a simple fact of life is that people only hold onto agendas which benefit them directly; for instance, it is fairly well known that the media is willing to intrude on the privacy of people, and conduct sting operations - what if the same were to be done to them? they would cry out about restricting press freedom etc. But when it comes to your suggestion that they hold an agenda against the largest demography in India (Hindus) in favour of the minorities who form a very small part of the population (under
Please do not go by such "reports".
6. A lot of people are being killed across the world by various madmen. For instance, some muslim militants are targeting buddhists in Thailand now. We also have clear stories of persecution against any other religion in the Islamic
You are buying this BJP propaganda and drinking too much of their Kool-Aid. The media in India can be hardly called communist. Except for two states in India, the communists are pretty much a washed out bunch everywhere.. and even in these two states, their relevance is under question and they no longer enjoy the kind of control they had earlier.
About these sites which you claim to be giving the truth - these were the very same states which whitewashed the Gujarat massacre.. and which continue to paint Narendra Modi as if he is some sort of a hero and messiah - we are talking about the man who has so much contempt for the law and the judicial process that the supreme court had to intervene to decide if the Gujarat massacre cases should be tried outside the state.
Talking about the sumptuary laws in Afghanistan - we are talking about a muslim country with *no* law or order; actually, most muslim countries do not tolerate any other religion other than islam.. Christians/Hindus/Buddhists are all regularly persecuted. But lets talk about India.
The only organizations in India which target people based on their religion are organizations such as the ABVP, Bajrang Dal, RSS, Shivsena etc and one or two extreme muslim groups in specific parts of the country (J&K, sometimes in muslim dominated areas like Hyderabad etc).
The naxals are a different problem altogether - they target everyone - whether muslim, hindu, parsi whatever. Then there are militant groups like the ULFA which are more regionalistic and target people from other states and regions.
But these so-called news sites will depict any attack against any person (who may be Hindu) as an attack against hinduism.. even when it is mounted by groups such as the Naxals, the ULFA etc. At the same time, these very same sites will paint all attacks against non-hindus by groups such as ABVP/BSP/RSS/BD/Shiv sena as a "retaliation" against injustice, as a "drive" against "illegal" activities etc. That is, these sites will try and whitewash the crimes of these hindu organizations while painting every other non-hindu organization as anti-hindu.
You cannot argue that the hindus are being persecuted in India - how is that even possible considering that the hindus are an overwhelming majority in pretty much all parts of India? you cannot also argue that BJP/BSP/ABVP/BD are not actively targetting and assaulting people from other religions - they have even released CDs/DVDs and pamphlets with very anti-muslim content which have been broadly publicised.
This is not an issue of hindus taking pride in themselves (which sounds a lot like the case of the Germans taking pride in their ancestry - you know when this happenned) but it is rather about wanting to dominate and subdue everyone else.
I fully agree with the parent poster that the non-resident indian community has completely lost touch with ground realities in India and are quick to jump to the support of fascist organizations such as the Shiv sena, Bajrang Dal etc.
By the way, I don't know how CPI/Communists even feature in this discussion - they are not at all strong in Maharashtra where Shivsena rules.
Shivsena and the Bajrang Dal are the two organizations which assume a Hindu identity - when actually, most hindus in India are embarrased by the very existence of these organizations. These organizations are known to beat up and vandalize citizens, and are widely considered the must corrupt organizations in India run on the lines of a mafia; the only way they keep their hold on power is by whipping up resentment against some community or the to other. Muslims and Christians are common targets - and then ofcourse anyone who is not from Maharashtra is also a target; anyone who purchases a valentine card or attends a valentines day bash is also an enemy.
I really recommend that you get an education on India and that you stop spouting the hateful statements that fill the NRI's so-called "news" sites.
And why should they listen? Linux users certainly don't form the majority, and so they can't really demand that these manufacturers release the drivers in a specific form?
And by the way, I don't think the fact that Linux users really don't have much of a say is that obvious to the Linux folk. We assume that the manufacturers must respond to our demands because we assume that we matter to them.
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=237723&th
Read more here:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=237723&th
Does windows run on the santarosa chipset? The chipset on the older Macbook Pros is supported on windows, but I am not sure about this new Santarosa chipset.
When did circumcision cause your body part to fall off?
Though one may argue that having the source for a driver may result in the driver becoming more stable over time as a lot of people contribute changes/fixes to it, I feel that this may be overstated.
W indows_and_Linux/ and Linux users probably account for about 3% to 4% for all computer users.
Consider Nvidia/ATI drivers on Windows or Mac OSX - these binary-only drivers are feature rich (are they more feature rich than their binary-only drivers on Linux?) and most users are quite happy. Bugs do occasionally show up, but they are normally fixed by Nvidia/ATI within a reasonable time frame.
However, I have noticed that these same manufacturers take forever to fix bugs which show up only on Linux.
That indicates to me that the reason that these binary drivers are not that stable on Linux is not because of the binary nature of these drivers but because the Linux user community matters less to Nvidia/ATI than the Windows user community.
And that is understandable - the number of windows users is roughly 93% http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_
So it is understandable that a hardware manufacturer prioritizes bug fixes for their larger user base (windows) rather than for the Linux users.
Unless Linux gains the kind of market share which will force hardware manufacturers to take it seriously, we can expect less than stellar drivers and support from them.
Indeed! and what about the cruelty of subjecting the poor infants to vaccination without their consent?!.. and later when they are still kids, the parents send them to school - again, without taking their consent?!
The sheer cruelty of this all is shocking!
Thanks for dropping by. Your decision to post anonymously indicates that you are probably a scientologist sent here to astro turf.
I guess this will post will give you a discount during your next dianetics session.
First a few facts:
1. No religion in existence goes after dissenters the way the church of scientology does; yes, it is true that in some third world countries and in the middle east, turning away from islam can get you killed. But in the west and in most westernized nations, there is the rule of law and the law protects people from being targetted by proponents of their religion. But CoS is able to pervert even this system of law in western nations to target even influential dissenters via harassment, and even death.
2. Scientology is perhaps the only religion in the world where the only way to get to its "cures" is by paying a lot of money. Any other religion - Islam, Christianity etc - it is possible to become a muslim or a christian without paying any money.
3. Scientology is also the newest religion on this planet created by Ron Hubbard - a known criminal. LRH's views on using harassment as a way of quelling dissent is well documented.
4. Scientology also copyrights its "scriptures" - the only religion in the world to do that.
In short - you guys are just scamsters trying to pass off what is really a scam as a religion; scientology was created by LRH with the explicit purpose of scamming people.
18 hours a day without electricity?!! where do you live? I live in Chennai, India and we have round-the-clock power here.
Another question - is there anything that can be done to solve this problem? get in touch with me, perhaps - we can do something about this. prem AT songbirdtech.com
Just in case you haven't guessed already, I am an Indian too.
REXX in OS/2 could interact with the GUI objects. You could also use IPC mechanisms such as semaphores, communicate over sockets etc. But yes, you are right. I remember that you could create "install" scripts in REXX which would create icons on the desktop, setup shortcuts etc using the OS/2 presentation manager objects.
Unfortunately no such thing exists on Linux/Unix. You are right - most of the shells we have on Unix/Linux are not substantially different from what was available in the 1970s.