Re: [Security] Re: Windows: insecure by design?

Date view Thread view Subject view Author view Attachment view

From: Lucas Rockwell (lr_at_socrates.berkeley.edu)
Date: Wed Aug 27 2003 - 11:20:25 PDT

Michael,

Thanks for pointing this out for everyone! It is great for everyone to
know that our DNS runs on FreeBSD.

Also, anyone using Mac OS X is using a version of BSD (via Darwin, the
core of OS X):

Q. Where does Darwin fit into the BSD family?

A. The purpose of Darwin is to provide the core system software for Mac OS
X. It is not designed to be an alternative to other excellent BSD options
such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. Darwin is simply BSD tweaked in ways
we think will help Apple deliver the next great version of the Mac OS. We
should note, however, that apart from a few architectural differences
(such as our use of the Mach kernel), we try to keep Darwin as compatible
as possible with FreeBSD (our BSD reference platform).

The above is from
<http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/darwin/faq.html>.

I am a very firm supporter of diversity, both with people and with
computing systems. And UC Berkeley's commitment to diversity, in terms of
computing systems, is very much lacking. We need more OS diversity here on
campus. A whole system of Windows-based PCs would be a disaster waiting
to happen. And to think, the UC Berkeley Information Technology
Architecture Committee (ITAC) at one point recommended that the campus
replace all Macs with Windows-based PCs:

http://itac.berkeley.edu:4259/itatf/pubs/macs.html

Thanks to Michael Sinatra (and others...I assume) for opposing this:

http://itac.berkeley.edu:4259/itatf/pubs/mike.txt

Also, thanks to Gordon Vrdoljak for pointing out that there are lots of
government entities that are replacing MS products with alternatives. In
fact, just yesterday c|net news.com had an article about how Shanghai just
threw MS Office out the window:

http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-5068050.html?tag=cd_mh

Brazil and Germany in particular are actively replacing MS systems with
Linux and other OS software.

Also, I found this gem yesterday about MS insecurity. Please keep in mind
that this is a *joke*, but one with many grains of truth. The author is
the former Chief Information Security Officer for Network Solutions:

The Microsoft Security Bulletin They Forgot To Issue
http://www.infowarrior.org/articles/2003-02.html

-lucas

On Wed, 27 Aug 2003, Michael Sinatra wrote:

>
>
> On Tue, 26 Aug 2003, Steve Sizemore wrote:
>
> > On Mon, Aug 25, 2003 at 04:54:11PM -0700, Mike Hunter wrote:
> > >
> > > Stanford has developed its own distribution of linux for their user
> > > community:
> > >
> > > http://linux.stanford.edu/
> > >
> > > It'd be awesome to have a non-windows OS specifically rolled for Berkeley.
> >
> > This is a great idea! I even have a name for it - "Berkeley Software
> > Distribution". It would be a unix system, derived from the years
> > of computer science research done here at Berkeley and other
> > institutions, and based totally on open source software. It would
> > also be free (as in beer), and run on commodity hardware. We could
> > even arrange for it to run apps written for linux.
> >
> > Oh, wait, it's been done...
> > The problem is that almost no one at Berkeley even uses it.
> >
> > http://www.freebsd.org
>
> Actually, EVERYONE at berkeley uses freebsd. Since you basically need to
> use DNS to access the network, and berkeley.edu's dns is handled by
> freebsd, then you are using freebsd to access the network, which just
> about everyone does.
>
> If you think that's a silly argument, keep in mind that a huge portion of
> internet services are provided by freebsd and other bsds.
>
> But I get your point. It's a great OS, and more people should know about
> it and the other BSDs.
>
> michael
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> The following was automatically added to this message by the list server:
>
> For information about Micronet, including subscribing to
> or unsubscribing from its mailing list and finding out
> about upcoming meetings, please visit the Micronet Web site:
> <http://micronet.berkeley.edu/>.
>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following was automatically added to this message by the list server:

For information about Micronet, including subscribing to
or unsubscribing from its mailing list and finding out
about upcoming meetings, please visit the Micronet Web site:
<http://micronet.berkeley.edu/>.

Date view Thread view Subject view Author view Attachment view

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Aug 27 2003 - 17:35:47 PDT