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Re: [Asrg] News Article - Editorial on spam by Bill Gates

2003-06-27 21:05:58
On Tue, Jun 24, 2003 at 06:55:25PM -0400, Barry Shein wrote

 > None of the O/S platforms in use today scores well on the security front.

Nonsense, several score quite well if just reasonably configured and
administered (and I don't mean heroics.)

  I agree 100% with this, but it's really a motherhood statement.
Today's major problem is newbies.  They want to *USE* their computers,
not *ADMINISTER* them.  Actually, they *DON'T KNOW* how to administer
systems.  The question we should be asking is not how safe a
well-administered system is; rather, how safe is a system out-of-the-box
for an end-user not running any public servers?  In that category, Mac
wins hands-down.  After I install Redhat Linux, I run "netstat -tupan"
and use the output to tell me which services need to be shut down.
After I've finished that and set up a paranoid iptables firewall behind
an equally paranoid firewall ruleset on my Netgear router, my linux box
is right up there with a Mac in terms of compromise resistance.

The problem is there is nothing you can do with any current windows
system to make it secure from viruses, short of active avoidance
(shut it off and it won't ever get a virus, proceed from there to
your risk comfort level.)

  Agreed.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes(_at_)waltdnes(_dot_)org>
Email users are divided into two classes;
1) Those who have effective spam-blocking
2) Those who wish they did

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