[SGVLUG] Penguin vs monopolist systems and safety

[Matt Campbell]

I knew there was a reason that I always take the non-PC path of downloading
my software from the source instead of a mirror site.  Until know I just
didn't know the reason.  ;)

Matt

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sgvlug-bounces at sgvlug.net [mailto:sgvlug-bounces at sgvlug.net] On
> Behalf Of Sean O'Donnell
> Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 10:35 AM
> To: SGVLUG Discussion List.
> Subject: Re: [SGVLUG] Penguin vs monopolist systems and safety
> 
> I was going to reply to this thread, but apparently pretty much what I
> was going to say, has now been turned into a slashdot article, so I'll
> spare you all.
> 
> http://it.slashdot.org/it/08/07/10/227220.shtml
> 
> This was the main reason why I used Slackware (and compiled most of my
> apps from the source) for the last 8 years. It's no wonder why I've
> felt
> so 'dirty and lazy' this last year using Debian and aptitude. =p
> 
> -x0d
> 
> Robert Leyva wrote:
> > For what it is worth:
> >
> > I have never been compromise (to my knowledge?) using 'Debian stable'
> and
> > rountine scans with clamav on my home workstation.
> >
> >
> >
> >> I was just asked a very interesting question in the breakroom -- "is
> it
> >> safer to use linux without any sort of anti-virus software compared
> to
> >> windows running stuff like Norton when doing online banking?"
> >>
> >> To be honest, I don't exactly know how to answer that.
> >>
> >> He was also a bit concerned about converting an openoffice document
> to a
> >> microsoft office format and somehow picking up a "macro" virus in
> the
> >> process (i.e., it would be "clean" on a Linux system in OpenOffice,
> but
> >> "dirty" once converted, and therefore capable of infecting a windows
> >> system)
> >>
> >> Again, I stumbled a bit trying to figure out HOW to answer that --
> my
> >> mind kept coming back to a line from Star Wars: "The FUD is strong
> in
> >> this one..." -- Sure, I know WHAT the answer is (it is essentially
> >> imposible(*)) but I don't know how to answer it in a way that would
> make
> >> sense to him.
> >>
> >> Anyone else encounter situations like this?  What was your answer?
> What
> >> would you tell this guy?
> >>
> >> Tom
> >>
> >> (*) or "highly improbable" -- that would mean that the version of
> >> Openoffice on a linux system was deliberately injecting viruses when
> >> converting to/saving as "Microsoft Office" formats -- certainly not
> >> impossible for this to happen, but given the "peer review" nature of
> >> open source, you'd have to be damn clever to get it in to the active
> >> codebase without anyone noticing.  [well, I suppose you could get
> >> "everyone on-board" on the idea that it /should/ do this, but that
> is
> >> only marginally easier -- refer to Dustin's post, to do wo would be
> >> ethically wrong, and we like to think we're above all that, right?
> ;) ]
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >