Downloaded .deb safe?

[Michael Leone]

Stanislas Breton wrote:

> If security's a paramount concern, follow long-standing Unix security
> practice and inspect the source code. If you're unable to inspect the
> source code, or don't consider yourself technically competent to inspect
> the source code for possible malware content, then don't install it.

If he didn't feel competent to examine the source code, he'd never run 
*ANY* OS. This includes Linux. Even if the source code is available (and 
it i), I'm certainly not a competent programmer to examine everything 
from the kernel on upwards,to things like Fireforx and OpenOffice. Since 
I'm not technically competent to inspect the source code for possible 
malware, then I wouldn't run Linux.

By the practices you advocate above, I take it then that you've examined 
all the source code of every application that you have installed? :-)

(I'm only teasing, but doing so to point out that the above is probably 
not a practical answer ...)