Re: [TCLUG:5721] ADSL, servers, etc.

[James Raney <seumas@mad-seumas.net>]

What he was probably referring to was the main admin/manager, Mike
Horwath, doesn't like linux.  He considers it immature and insecure and
can't be convinced otherwise and he's very fond of Sun.  He considers it
insecure due to the number of linux colos that have been rooted as opposed
to other UNIX colos that have been rooted and immature since it (as a
"brand") hasn't been around for 15 years.  I don't know how he considers
it technically (other than immature).  I don't know what the rest of the
staff there thinks of it but I wouldn't consider them anti-linux.  They
have no problems with customers using linux (hell, they'd be dumb to
refuse business just on that point), its just that Mike will not (or
probably ever) use linux as a Vector OS.

As far as the insecurity he does have a good point, although its not
linux's fault.  Its more that many of the packages are immature/ports
where there are holes that haven't been found yet.  However the linux
community's response time is a hell of a lot better than, say, Sun's or
Sco's.  Some distros (like Red Hat 5.0-5.2; haven't seen 6.0 yet) pretty
much install with thier pants down around thier ankles and take some
tweaking to lock down.  Debian seems pretty good about that with most of
the vulnerable services already locked down.  Some corporate security people 
I've been dealing with lately (couple of crackers using dialups where I
work) said that almost every case where they were attacked the first hop
back was a rooted RedHat box where the owner had no idea he'd been
"owned".

I would say that security problems aren't an issue of an "immature" linux
but "immature" admins (as in inexperienced).

-- 
Jim Raney

"I poured spot remover on my dog.  Now he's gone."	--Steven Wright
	
"At no time is freedom of speech more precious than when a man hits his
thumb with a hammer."    			-- Marshall Lumsden


On Sat, 1 May 1999, Daniel M. Debertin wrote:

> 
> "Scott K. Johnson" wrote:
> > 
> > I had a lot of good experiences with Vector Internet (visi.com), also
> > Bob Tanner's real-time company seems quite good (from all the help Bob
> > has given me!!!)
> Hmmm ... someone on the list earlier mentioned that visi.com was somehow
> anti-linux -- have you noticed this?
> 
> ~Dan 
> katdan@mninter.net
> 
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