Re: NFS nightmare - Windows on the street: "I have a wallet!"

[Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

The fact that you must _explicitly_enable_ RPC services on UNIX/Linux,
and they do not use broadcast (announcements) and _always_ require both system and user authentication,
is a primo numero uno security difference between Windows and UNIX/Linux.

Who is more secure?
The guy on the street who announces he has a wallet and allows people to look through it by default?
Or the guy who doesn't let alone doesn't talk to you by default? 
Surely if you want to legally exchange information, the former is faster and easier,
you have his wallet so you can not only get his business card, but drop yours off.
The latter still won't talk to you by default, until he is configured to say: A) Who are you? And B) How can I trust you _before_ we even get to "what do you want?"

Now Microsoft _does_ offer the latter on servers.
Just not by default on desktops (and is still more friendly by default than the guy who won't talk at all by default).

-- 
Bryan J. Smith (currently mobile)
b.j.smith@ieee.org

-----Original Message-----
From:  Richard H. Fifarek
Date:  05-2-1 9:50
To:  silug-discuss@silug.org
Subj:  Re: NFS nightmare

On Mon, 31 Jan 2005, bentley_rhodes wrote:

> no offense, but i'm starting to see why Windows is so popular!

< begin soapbox, random musings, preach-to-the-choir >

	None taken, at least by me.  It's a common, and IMNSHO, valid
comment.  Linux requires a learning curve, and in deference to Bryan, it's
primarily because most of us were brought up on Windows, which requires
different (less?) thought than UNIX/Linux.  (Part of Windows
simplicity-of-use is why it's such a security hazard to run.) A lot of
folks find Mac OSX to be a good compromise between the two.

	The flip side of that, and part of the reason I tend not to opt
for GUI/point-and-click type of interaction with my computer is that I
know FAR more about computing because of Linux, that I doubt I would have
learned if I stuck with Windows.  If you've ever parsed through the output
of dmesg, you'll see my point.

</end soapbox>

-- 
Richard H. Fifarek
rfifarek@fifarek.net


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