[Off Topic] Re: Linux security

[Michael Richter]

> > Windows
> > is available to anybody with a half a brain cell to spare.

> Of course, it could be argued that Linux is now also available to the
> similarly endowed.

It could, I guess, but not very successfully.  There's too many calls for
"open a CLI and type the following Mystic Incantations<tm>" when problems
are reported.  Often the Mystic Incantations<tm> in question are not readily
found by reading available documentation -- you have to go deep into design
docs or, worse, source code to figure them out.  (ALSA, I'm looking at you
here.)

For all its myriad flaws, Windows still kicks ass on any Linux distribution
-- even Ubuntu, so far the easiest distro I've found in terms of the
end-user experience -- for ease of use.

> I snipped all the (very interesting) material you've exchanged with Alan
> because most of it sailed several kilometres over my head. in my usual
> fashion, I'm adding some rather generalised musings to the discussion...

That's what happens when grognard geeks recognise each other and start
conversing, I'm afraid.  I'm getting the impression that Alan's about the
same age as me with the same breadth of experience, but with overlapping
sets.  We have lots to talk about.  ;-)

> ( Yes, thank you, Topic Police, you are probably right that this belongs
> on "Sounder" - I have this subversive tendency to introduce the
> occasional non-Ubuntu thought process into the narrows. Log jams are not
> always counter-productive )

Talking about things outside of a narrow scope is not always a bad thing.
Forcing everybody to adhere to a single line of conversation merely reduces
the meme pool and impedes evolution.

> I compare the easy availablity of powerful computing to the general
> populace with allowing a 17 year-old to drive around town in a Ferrari;
> potentially dangerous without adequate training.

Well, that's an almost-apt analogy.  The problem, however, is that focus on
"powerful computing".  The overwhelming majority of end-users will use the
following on their computers:

   - a word processor;
   - a spreadsheet;
   - a web browser;
    - email;
   - instant messaging;
   - music and video;
   - games.

That's about it.  And most users will only use a subset of even that short
list.  The "more power" meme comes from geeks (who have a legitimate need
for it) and marketroids (who also have a legitimate need for us to buy more
power -- it makes them money).  But for most things that an average user
will use the seven things up there give it all.

So the average user?  Isn't a 17-year-old who wants a Ferrari.  It's a
17-year-old who wants a Honda Civic but is being forced to drive that
Ferrari.

> * Hey, I can't edit this file! What a pain!
> $ sudo chmod -R 777 /some/crucial/directory/tree
> The rest is left as an exercise for the reader...

For this, however, I blame the system designer.  If a file that needs
end-user editing more than once in a blue moon is protected like that, it's
just begging for this "solution" to be inflicted on it.

> 2) Most people *hate* computers. At work, they have constant problems,
> either of their own making or due to incompetent admins, or hardware, and
> so on. At home, their computer suddenly "Doesn't Work". For them it is an
> appliance, a black box. They have no interest in how it works, and usually
> no concept of its complexity and power.

I hate computers too -- and they've been a constant feature of my life (and
a major obsession of it) since about... 1976?  '78?  I don't even recall
when I started down this path.

Now my hatred of computers stems from an informed idea of what they're
capable of compared to the hideous pieces of shit that they actually are.
And I reserve much of that hatred not for the computers -- gentle idiots
that they are -- but for the incompetents who insist on making them as
difficult to use and as complicated as possible partially from a lack of
actual ability to do better and partially from a lack of desire to do better
(the "job security" angle).

> I see this as a sad commentary on the education system.

I don't.  People should not have to be molded to the machine.  The machine
should be molded to the people.  That's been my creed since I started this
long, dark path to my current level of cynicism and hatred.  :-)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/attachments/20060501/e3d16d91/attachment.html>