Downloaded .deb safe?

[Michael Leone]

Martin Laberge wrote:

> Unless you read all the source, understand it, and compile
> it yourself, with a compiler that you trust (compiled by you)
> it is absolutely impossible to be sure of the program
> you install.
> 
> BUT, no-one is able to read all the source code of all the
> parts of all the programs who compose a system.
> 
> You are left with the possibility to trust someone, and do not 
> trust others.
> 
> At least in linux you have this possibility, to random check a 
> couple of programs, if you wish. With other systems (Win, Mac,...)
> you do not have that possibility, and you are left with
> trust, (or distrust).

Not exclusively; there are many open source programs for the Win 
platform, as well. OpenOffice, GiMP, all the GNU utilities are available 
for Windows (I know, I use them in my scripts, sometimes). So it's not 
*impossible*, but it is vastly harder.