Surprisingly thourough coverage of the subject, but it lists to port under too much scrutiny. We "small villagers" have something that native remote tribespeople don't: instant global access to every one of our kind. If I wanted to spread a Linux-only virus, I could find dozens of handy places to plant it like rpmfind.net or linuxquestions.org. Or the Debian package repository. Automated package management would ensure that my trojan would find it's way to most machines without the sysadmin ever seeing it. And if my virus only needs a POSIX-type file system, my target is broadened to encompass Linux, Unix, Solaris, and BSD. Trust me, they'd be easy enough to ferret out (simply put up a web page and grep the access logs, for instance). And since "Unix runs the Internet", I would think it would be twice the attractive target that Windows was. In fact, given that Linux has a larger server share, and runs on everything from XBoxes to mainframes to cellphones, something that could spread itself using *anything* running Linux would probably bring civilization to a screeching halt, if it was devious enough. It could nuke Windows machines as an afterthought, after it infiltrated everything else.
I'm going to stop right there, because I'm giving myself ideas...
Windows gets more attacked because it's just more popular?
You know, all the times I've seen this argument, I never asked what that scenario's like. K-Rad Script-kiddie discovers a security exploit that he could write a worm for which would shut down every server at Novell, but he decides not to use it because Linux isn't popular enough? Or he could enslave every MacIntosh on the planet, but he decided not to because Mac's too small and he should pick on somebody his own size?
with.so's and a much worse dependency nightmare than windows.
You do realize that Linux libraries have version numbers in the names, so that we can have like five different versions of a library to keep five different programs happy and suffer no conflict?
it's on my complaint list right next to the linux directory deployment structure.
I'm afraid you won't see that go away any time soon. We count it as one of our strongest features. Where are the library files? In the/lib directory, right where I'd expect them to be. Also, it helps with security. Which system program did the executable that I downloaded attack? None of them, because nothing in my home directory has write permissions in/sbin. Computers should be organized.
God, don't know how that happened. As the only person in this entire thread with firsthand knowledge who speaks English clearly, could *you* answer some of the questions in this thread for us? China have libraries? Lots of books? Alternative research from Wiki? Available to the poorest, most disadvantaged citizen?
And of course, you have an explanation for the fact that before Microsoft had such enormous market share (check here: http://www.osdata.com/kind/history.htm : computer history DID NOT begin with MS-DOS), security holes were virtually unknown?
I read to the bottom of the page, reflected that it was a pretty well-argued article, and then my eyes bugged when I got to the "Slate" box at the bottom. I damn near fainted! Imagine finding a pithy article on quantum physics in a back issue of "Vogue". I even checked out "The End of Moore's Law" and *it* seemed too high-quality to be on the old Slate.
Is this only a surprise because absolutely nobody has ever gone back and tried to read an old disc?
Could be because some of us only use a CD burner to make Linux distro discs. After two years, there's been a new release, so you ditch the old disc and burn a new one...
And have you even TRIED to access a 10-year-old drive in todays machines?
I see nobody's told you about Linux yet. As we speak, I have an IBM (as in manufactured by, not just cloned of) hard drive which I originally pulled from a Windows 3.0 box, which dates it around the early 90's? Capacity: 179MB. It's now a swap drive for a bigger machine, although I did at one point have it as the only hard drive for a Frankenputer I tossed together once, and successfully installed and ran Damn Small Linux from it! Maybe I boss my BIOS into better shape? All my mobos are brand-new this last year.
Thank you, professor. I will consider myself reassured. OLE...ActiveX...DLL...boy, I forgot all about those words during these years of exclusive Linux use. That's right, there's darn near no such thing as a stand-alone MS executable...even the dangerous stuff.
I come here because I'm essentially curious, get a quick lead on some of the most important stories thanks to the peer-reviewed analog RSS system (with meat eyeballs instead of spiders and fingers instead of formatting code). And I *used* to come here to be part of the conversation with fellow geeks like myself, but apparently 90% of those have moved on to somewhere else that I don't know about yet, to be replaced by - and worse, moderated by - the AIM/MySpace mentality.
Nevertheless, you don't see me carping about how it's run. It's just one out of billions of websites, and any day is just another day on the Internet.
If there were nothing to the beatles-beatles conspiracy theories, how do you explain the fact that since the uproar over his stories, the submissions have stopped?
Hey...wait a minute. Do you mean Net apps like in "Visual Basic Script-Kiddies EZ Virus Kit"? Maybe this isn't something to dance in the streets about after all...
I do not want to live isolated: I want to live in society.
Despite the complete ass who replied to you and the inexplicable +5 insightful mod he/she/it garnered, I see the common sense of your view.
PS to responders: Yes, having a phone is a RIGHT. Do you pay taxes for police and fire service? Do you have a choice NOT to pay taxes for their services? So, when you're shot at or your house catches fire, how do you summon these services?
And I would rather be spammed for all eternity while being forced to use a Windows box while chained to a boulder and up to my pecker in lava in hell than get any "help" from GW for it.
*And I love how this virtual trailer-park full of shiftless vagabonds took matters into their own hands and rose up to shatter their bonds, yet I cannot convince a Slashdotter to solve their Windows woes by inserting a knoppix CD and rebooting because it's toooooooo haaaaaaaaaard.
I hope people are finally Getting It that if we are to subjugate ourselves entirely to technology, if we are content to surround ourselves with gadgets and gizmos, that than perhaps it's not a good idea to leave every single last scrap of control over technology, from space stations to digital watches, in the hands of about five trillionaires worldwide. Can anybody see a problem there?
Holy Christ. I apoligize. I take it back. You're not an asshole. You're insane.
Aw, they're so cute when they're bewildered! How can I resist? Hey, I'll spare this much for you: I know a secret. It's a secret you only find out after programming for a while. It's one you obviously don't know. You might as well have included a screen shot a couple posts back showing you googling for "programming language". Congratulations, you now know the names of several.
There is this public perception, unanimous in user-land, and even permeating to the very depths of Slashdot, which goes: "Computers are only hard because evil computer programmers deliberately set out to make them hard." And the secret is: that that's a falsehood. Computers are not made artificially difficult. It does no good to tell you this; this is a special kind of secret that you can only learn through experience.
The experience of struggling to design a usable user interface for your own system. The struggle to overcome the barriers of closed systems, lack of documentation, and misinformation everywhere you turn. The exasperation of dealing with users who come to you with the attitude that your program broke on purpose, you should fix it without knowing what the error was, and it's too hard to learn anyway because you make it difficult, because you're "evil".
Programming experience erases that mental line drawn between user and programmer. You get experience on both sides of the fence, and eventually you see that there is no such thing as artificial complication. Interfacing with a machine upon which we have taught electricity to think and where we hope to make it sing and dance for us is inherently complicated TO START WITH, and the various tools we use to perform our tasks - why, each and every one was written by average people like you and me who also sat down with a clean file and furrowed their brow and wondered "How can I do this? How can I make it so people will use it?"
No, you still have that mental mindset that there are programmers who deliberatly design things to be difficult, that it's all in spite, that they're laughing at you. Who, except as a joke, would deliberately make a programming language "hard to learn"? To fail at your task and blame your tool is simply a form of denial so that you don't have to face the fact that you have given up on trying to use something (no matter if it's COBOL or Javascript or Perl or freaking TECO, even!) that hundreds of other people have used successfully.
There is no "easy". There is no "hard". There is only "Task".
Count me in with the many users who say they *still* see Windows bluescreen, crash, etc, and explorer crash, too. Within days of each other, one at the public library and one at the Internet cafe. I've been hearing this "Windows has no troubles anymore" so much, I guess I'm supposed to doubt my own eyes, now. Can somebody out there please run to their nearest public Windows computer with a calendar nearby and use a digital camera of the phenomena?
I just tried Dyne:bolic 1.4.1 and was quite well impressed with it. It's a distro with a soul! I gave it a decent review in my blog. That being said, even I wouldn't rank it above Knoppix. But I can see where it deserves recognition: the project aims to aid in those areas of multimedia freedom that we're all wringing our hands over this past year, so maybe it got hedged in for being topically current.
Fellow Slashdotters, do keep in mind when I am discourteous, as in the case with this gentleperson, I only insult those who have already insulted the entire human race with their misinformation and belittling opinions of what humans are capable of. It's for the greater common good.
See if you can go through my history and find one instance of a flamewar between me and somebody who had a POSITIVE, UPLIFTING, BENEFICIAL worldview. Now count how many times I've hammered somebody who had the "EVERYTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE, WE'RE ALL TOO STUPID, WE'RE DOOMED! WAAAAHHHH!" mentality. Know me by my enemies, God love 'em!
Slashdot Mirror
I'm going to stop right there, because I'm giving myself ideas...
You know, all the times I've seen this argument, I never asked what that scenario's like. K-Rad Script-kiddie discovers a security exploit that he could write a worm for which would shut down every server at Novell, but he decides not to use it because Linux isn't popular enough? Or he could enslave every MacIntosh on the planet, but he decided not to because Mac's too small and he should pick on somebody his own size?
You do realize that Linux libraries have version numbers in the names, so that we can have like five different versions of a library to keep five different programs happy and suffer no conflict?
it's on my complaint list right next to the linux directory deployment structure.
I'm afraid you won't see that go away any time soon. We count it as one of our strongest features. Where are the library files? In the /lib directory, right where I'd expect them to be. Also, it helps with security. Which system program did the executable that I downloaded attack? None of them, because nothing in my home directory has write permissions in /sbin. Computers should be organized.
Morris Worm...Cuckoo's Egg...yes, I knew about those! I said "virtually". Two != dozens per year.
God, don't know how that happened. As the only person in this entire thread with firsthand knowledge who speaks English clearly, could *you* answer some of the questions in this thread for us? China have libraries? Lots of books? Alternative research from Wiki? Available to the poorest, most disadvantaged citizen?
And of course, you have an explanation for the fact that before Microsoft had such enormous market share (check here: http://www.osdata.com/kind/history.htm : computer history DID NOT begin with MS-DOS), security holes were virtually unknown?
I read to the bottom of the page, reflected that it was a pretty well-argued article, and then my eyes bugged when I got to the "Slate" box at the bottom. I damn near fainted! Imagine finding a pithy article on quantum physics in a back issue of "Vogue". I even checked out "The End of Moore's Law" and *it* seemed too high-quality to be on the old Slate.
"GIMP"
*runs and hides behind chair, watches warily...*
Could be because some of us only use a CD burner to make Linux distro discs. After two years, there's been a new release, so you ditch the old disc and burn a new one...
I see nobody's told you about Linux yet. As we speak, I have an IBM (as in manufactured by, not just cloned of) hard drive which I originally pulled from a Windows 3.0 box, which dates it around the early 90's? Capacity: 179MB. It's now a swap drive for a bigger machine, although I did at one point have it as the only hard drive for a Frankenputer I tossed together once, and successfully installed and ran Damn Small Linux from it! Maybe I boss my BIOS into better shape? All my mobos are brand-new this last year.
Thank you, professor. I will consider myself reassured. OLE...ActiveX...DLL...boy, I forgot all about those words during these years of exclusive Linux use. That's right, there's darn near no such thing as a stand-alone MS executable...even the dangerous stuff.
Nevertheless, you don't see me carping about how it's run. It's just one out of billions of websites, and any day is just another day on the Internet.
If there were nothing to the beatles-beatles conspiracy theories, how do you explain the fact that since the uproar over his stories, the submissions have stopped?
NNNYYYYAAAAHHHH!-8P
Hey...wait a minute. Do you mean Net apps like in "Visual Basic Script-Kiddies EZ Virus Kit"? Maybe this isn't something to dance in the streets about after all...
Despite the complete ass who replied to you and the inexplicable +5 insightful mod he/she/it garnered, I see the common sense of your view.
PS to responders: Yes, having a phone is a RIGHT. Do you pay taxes for police and fire service? Do you have a choice NOT to pay taxes for their services? So, when you're shot at or your house catches fire, how do you summon these services?
And I would rather be spammed for all eternity while being forced to use a Windows box while chained to a boulder and up to my pecker in lava in hell than get any "help" from GW for it.
YOW! Another FLAMEBAIT mod! Are we coating PRINCESS LEIA with a coat of DURALL yet?
*And I love how this virtual trailer-park full of shiftless vagabonds took matters into their own hands and rose up to shatter their bonds, yet I cannot convince a Slashdotter to solve their Windows woes by inserting a knoppix CD and rebooting because it's toooooooo haaaaaaaaaard.
YEAH, even PEOPLE who TALK LIKE they're ZIPPY THE PINHEAD! YOW! Is my KELLOGG"S POP TART on a dream DATE with CHER yet?
I hope people are finally Getting It that if we are to subjugate ourselves entirely to technology, if we are content to surround ourselves with gadgets and gizmos, that than perhaps it's not a good idea to leave every single last scrap of control over technology, from space stations to digital watches, in the hands of about five trillionaires worldwide. Can anybody see a problem there?
Aw, they're so cute when they're bewildered! How can I resist? Hey, I'll spare this much for you: I know a secret. It's a secret you only find out after programming for a while. It's one you obviously don't know. You might as well have included a screen shot a couple posts back showing you googling for "programming language". Congratulations, you now know the names of several.
There is this public perception, unanimous in user-land, and even permeating to the very depths of Slashdot, which goes: "Computers are only hard because evil computer programmers deliberately set out to make them hard." And the secret is: that that's a falsehood. Computers are not made artificially difficult. It does no good to tell you this; this is a special kind of secret that you can only learn through experience.
The experience of struggling to design a usable user interface for your own system. The struggle to overcome the barriers of closed systems, lack of documentation, and misinformation everywhere you turn. The exasperation of dealing with users who come to you with the attitude that your program broke on purpose, you should fix it without knowing what the error was, and it's too hard to learn anyway because you make it difficult, because you're "evil".
Programming experience erases that mental line drawn between user and programmer. You get experience on both sides of the fence, and eventually you see that there is no such thing as artificial complication. Interfacing with a machine upon which we have taught electricity to think and where we hope to make it sing and dance for us is inherently complicated TO START WITH, and the various tools we use to perform our tasks - why, each and every one was written by average people like you and me who also sat down with a clean file and furrowed their brow and wondered "How can I do this? How can I make it so people will use it?"
No, you still have that mental mindset that there are programmers who deliberatly design things to be difficult, that it's all in spite, that they're laughing at you. Who, except as a joke, would deliberately make a programming language "hard to learn"? To fail at your task and blame your tool is simply a form of denial so that you don't have to face the fact that you have given up on trying to use something (no matter if it's COBOL or Javascript or Perl or freaking TECO, even!) that hundreds of other people have used successfully.
There is no "easy". There is no "hard". There is only "Task".
Count me in with the many users who say they *still* see Windows bluescreen, crash, etc, and explorer crash, too. Within days of each other, one at the public library and one at the Internet cafe. I've been hearing this "Windows has no troubles anymore" so much, I guess I'm supposed to doubt my own eyes, now. Can somebody out there please run to their nearest public Windows computer with a calendar nearby and use a digital camera of the phenomena?
I just tried Dyne:bolic 1.4.1 and was quite well impressed with it. It's a distro with a soul! I gave it a decent review in my blog. That being said, even I wouldn't rank it above Knoppix. But I can see where it deserves recognition: the project aims to aid in those areas of multimedia freedom that we're all wringing our hands over this past year, so maybe it got hedged in for being topically current.
See if you can go through my history and find one instance of a flamewar between me and somebody who had a POSITIVE, UPLIFTING, BENEFICIAL worldview. Now count how many times I've hammered somebody who had the "EVERYTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE, WE'RE ALL TOO STUPID, WE'RE DOOMED! WAAAAHHHH!" mentality. Know me by my enemies, God love 'em!