fc5: install everything?

[Mikkel L. Ellertson]

Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-05-09 at 01:18, Michael A. Peters wrote:
>>> Why install a multiuser OS if only one user will ever use
>>> it?  
>> OK - install what your users are going to use.
>> You certainly don't want everything under the sun with multiple login
>> users - multiple login users increases the chances of a compromised
>> local account, and a compromised local account with everything installed
>> increases the chances that something installed has an exploit that can
>> be taken advantage of by the system cracker.
> 
> That might be a useful comment if you mentioned the parts that
> are dangerous to install - and perhaps why they are included
> on the CD if no one should install them.
> 
That is the point - you don't know what packages have exploits that
have not been found yet. If they were known, chances are they would
have already been fixed. But if you have everything installed, the
chances that you have a package with an exploit installed goes up.

On the other hand, if it will never be run with root privileges,
chances are it will only mess up the user's files, and not the
system. From a security standpoint, it makes sense to load the
packages that you use. If a machine is not going to be a server,
then you only need a few of the server apps. If it is not going to
be used for development, and especially if it is going to be a
server that can be accessed from the Internet, you do not want the
ability to compile programs. (Compile them on another machine, and
install them on the server.)

This is sounding a lot like the what I heard a few years ago when
distributions started shipping with services disabled by default, or
only accessible on the loopback interface. You have to go in and
configure them before you could run them. But it sure cut down on
boxes that were hacked before they were updated, and the owner
learned what was going on. Experienced users know how to get the
services going, and newbies usually end up doing a bit of research,
or asking on a list, and hopefully learn about the risks involved in
running the server, and how to configure them.

The distribution should be as safe as possible for a newbie to
install. If they ever put the install everything option back, I hope
it is only available as an advanced install option. A newbie doing
an install should not see it.

What might be a good idea is that when you install from CD/DVD, is
to have an option to set up a Yum repo that uses the install media
and asks for the CD/DVD needed to be inserted when installing
software if there is not a newer package in the other repos. That
way, if you find you want/need more packages after install, it will
not download everything from the Internet if you have a slow
connection, or a bandwidth limit. This would be especially true in
you are shipping a machine with Linux pre-installed. Otherwise,
depending on the lag between when you built the system, and when the
costumer receives it they may end up with a large update needed when
they get the machine with an everything install. Not too bad of a
problem if you do the install, update the machine, and then ship it
directly to the costumer, but a big problem if you are building in
quantity. Especially if you don't update your install image on a
regular basis, or are shipping to a retail location.

Mikkel
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!