[Fedora] Seeing input on Securing the Linux system from intrusions and attacks.

[Tim]

Craig White:
> Actually, anyone who has set up Windows 2003 Server in the last year has
> noticed that this shouldn't happen anymore because the firewall is
> automatic during initial setup phase and user is clearly aware that
> during initial setup phase, this firewall remains until updates are all
> installed or the user opts out.

That's hardly an OS for a user.  In this case, it would have been 2000
or XP, most likely.

> Let's give Microsoft a little credit (not much, but a little).

Only as being a successful software *pusher*, not for being a good
software creator.

My laptop came with Vista, there was virtually no avoiding it.  Not
unless I wanted to mail order in some computer that I'd never been able
to physically inspect in a shop before purchase.  And that's not
something I'll do with a purchase of that price.

I can see they've smartened up a bit, but only a bit.  Yes, at long
last, you don't have to login as the admin to do some admin tasks.  Just
give an admin password at the right moment, just like when we try to use
one of the various system-config- whatever GUIs.  But it doesn't give
you an option to keep that authentication for the next one, you're
forever typing in the password.  Eventually users are going to turn off
the security, in one way or another.

It doesn't always work, either.  Not everything will run as a user, or
let the user run it as an admin.  For example, I thought I'd have a look
at the BBC's / Patrick Moore's "Sky at Night" [1].  There's no way that
I can make use of the view on-line feature.  It wants to install some
Real Media software, and I can't.  It fails, because the run-as an admin
doesn't work, and you can't actually log in as an admin (well you
probably can, but I can't find a way to do it).  And why did I try this
in Vista?  Because I couldn't get it to work in Linux.  The on-line
thing was a no-goer.  I used mplayer to stream-dump, but that gives me
audio-only playback.

1:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spaceguide/skyatnight/

-- 
[tim at bigblack ~]$ uname -ipr
2.6.23.1-10.fc7 i686 i386

Using FC 4, 5, 6 & 7, plus CentOS 5.  Today, it's FC7.

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