China subsidizing Linux

[Liam Proven]

Since Doug mailed me directly, I think by mistake...

On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 7:03 PM, Douglas Pollard <dougpol1 at verizon.net> wrote:
> Liam Proven wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 3:05 PM, Scott <sclewin at sgaming.ca> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>
>>> I tried Puppy Linux recently and love it.  I love how Puppy Linux saves
>>> everything to RAM so the whole operating systems runs amazing fast.
>>>
>>
>> The snag with Puppy is an absolute doozy, though. Everything runs as
>> root; there is no out-of-the-box support for ordinary non-privileged
>> users. Result, Windows-95 like levels of protection. It's about as
>> robust and secure as a wet paper bag.
>>
>> The creator came from Windows 95 and sees nothing wrong with this. In
>> other words, he is dumb. Smart enough to create a very clever little
>> product - it's very impressive - but not smart enough to listen to his
>> elders and betters when they tell him that what he is doing was
>> discovered to be a Very Bad Idea 30Y ago. Unfortunately, he is
>> arrogant and dumb enough to tell them - and his users - to FOAD.
>>
>> http://www.puppylinux.org/manuals/puppy-40/english/security/root
>>
>> This is so stupid that any half-credible Unix type, when I tell them
>> this, looks at me with utter incredulity and instantly loses any
>> interest whatsoever in the product.
>>
>> I think a lot of the world would be able to use and benefit from a
>> very very cut-down Ubuntu or Debian that required the same level of
>> system spec as Puppy, but with proper installability, upgradability
>> and security. Several projects have tried, but ultimately didn't
>> attract enough support to fly:
>>
>> http://u-lite.org/
>>
>> http://rule-project.org/ - now essentially dead, they recommend U-Lite.
>>
>>
>
> All you say may be but true but my wife is using on a netbook and is happy
> as a clam.  IF there is a problem with it she will take it out and put it
> back in, then keep right on going.  This is not a program to run your
> business on but a tool to play a few simple games and send and relieve
> E-mails. It  works greaet on an Old e-machine I use in my workshop. It does
> all the things I want to do. Nobody uses it but me and it doesn't go on
> line.  It does interact with my my computer.   Works great for what it is
> used for as a matter of fact it's perfect.

It is very good at what it does, and given that there is currently no
real Linux malware in the wild, it's an acceptable risk. However, it
has some /very/ serious flaws, which for many people, rule it out.
Some of these could be fixed quite readily, if only the designer saw
sense - some, less so.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
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