Re: gEDA-user: which linux?

["hoyuka hoya" <hoyuka@xxxxx>]

Hello,

I agree with your explanation. But the human beeings rather use directly
Windows for there every day work/pleasure than computer systems made for
doing critical things.

But imagine that the most common desktop OS would be Unix based and user
friendly /very confortable to use and maintaine (since it's an important
requirement for a desktop OS). There were a lot of user who would use this
system always as root. There were mailing clients which allowed to run
scripts/binaries comming with e-mails. Same terrible things would happen
with these Unix machines like Windows machines now.

People can hear from many sources that the Unicies are safer than MS
stuffs. But I don't know. Even if Linux is Open Source I haven't reviewed
every source line in the kernel and in the suid applications. So I don't
know what is behind the surface. And I haven't compiled every application
myself, I have downloaded it from somewhere. What if the Linux
"originally" safe, but I downloaded a hacked package from somewhere and
the hacker may know every steps what I do with the machine?

I think it's even possible to simulate a DNS which would map
www.kernel.org to an other machine where the site would looks like exactly
www.kernel.org, but would contain hacked kernel sources. I think ISPs can
do it easily. Maybe it's not the aim of the ISP, but can be the aim of an
individual who is working there.

We can believe that our system is safe. But it's not sure :) :(

I have a little story about a similar thing (I don't know that it's true
or not, I have seen it on the TV news):

Once uppon a time an American Herkules airplane visited Hungary. And the
Americans and Hungarians played a game. Hungarians had to find the flying
Herkules with MIG 29 fighters. During the seeking Hungarian pilots
experienced bizzare behaviours of the MIG's electronic systems. (They have
seen funny pictures on the HUD etc.)
Pilots said that the Herkules "_disturbed_" the MIG's electronic systems.
But I think disturbance is not a right term for this. Americans simple
used the "undocumented features" :) of the MIG's electronic systems.
How funny! :))))) Who has developed those electronic systems? Americans?
Russians? All components were developed by Russia? Who is American? Who is
Russian? Was the cold war a circus directed by some (business) friends? I
have heard that i80486 were used in MIG 29 but it's not sure.

Regards,
hoyuka

McGuire said:
> hoyuka hoya  wrote:
>> It's sad, but now MS is better for many purposes. Ok there are many
>> security holes and viruses, but if Linux were as popular as WinXP,
>> Linux
>> would also suffer from similar things.
>
>    I also have to disagree with this (I'd missed this earlier)...The
> notion that Windows is full of holes because it's "more popular" is
> absurd.  There are a LOT of computers in the world, and just because
> you see a lot of Windows machines ON DESKS certainly doesn't mean
> they're in the majority in the *entire* computing world.
>
>    For example...Contrary to what those pillars of honesty in
> Microsoft's marketing department would have the world believe, the vast
> majority of the Internet *does not* run on Windows PCs sitting in
> computer rooms with keyboards, mice, and monitors.  You rarely hear
> about the true "workhorses" of the real computing world because, most
> of the time, they just keep doing their jobs quietly without blowing up
> or getting cracked...Managing your bank accounts, handling your online
> purchases, routing your telephone calls, delivering mailing list
> traffic, etc.  People don't use Windows for stuff like this...and if
> they try, they invariably don't do it for very long.
>
>             -Dave
>
> --
> Dave McGuire            "You'll have to be a lot more specific than
> 'that
> Cape Coral, FL              girl last night.'"    -Ted McFadden
>
>

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