Disappointed with Ubuntu Server, could be used by such a wider audience

[Mackenzie Morgan]

On Thu, 2008-07-31 at 09:23 -0700, George Farris wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-07-31 at 10:18 -0500, Tony Yarusso wrote:
> > On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 8:14 PM, Anthony Watters
> > <tonyozwatters at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > The Ubuntu server should come in two offerings; i.e. the unfriendly existing
> > > Ubuntu server, and, more importantly to the masses, a friendly
> > > pre-configured Ubuntu server that uses SME Server (http://smeserver.com) and
> > > ClarkConnect (http://clarkconnect.com) as a starting point only not
> > > crippled, and much better.
> > 
> > a)  It's not unfriendly to those who run servers and know how these
> > things are supposed to work.
> > b)  Servers absolutely should not come pre-configured, as that would
> > mean that they were full of bloat and unnecessary applications (along
> > with the security risks of having too many ports open), and would
> > likely not be correctly configured for anyone.
> > c)  I don't know what SME Server even is, since they don't have a
> > functional web site.  Why would I trust anything like that?
> > d)  ClarkConnect looks largely like what I mentioned in b) -
> > installing everything by default so you have as much bloat and open
> > entry points as possible, something no server admin would touch with a
> > 20-foot pole.
> > 
> 
> Wow, this response seems to completely missed the entire point.
> 
> Lets start again.  Yes, contrary to popular "geek" culture, there are
> people that would like to:
> 
> A) Install a home server from CD
> B) Login and be presented with a list of options for configuring that
> server
> C) Not have to understand how to run the server at the "guts" level.

You forgot:
D) Want to be cracked within a week

Because as he said, if you pre-configure everything to
super-duper-easy-peasy, you've also pre-configured it to
super-duper-easy-peasy-to-crack.  I'm personally disappointed by
firewalls that allow outbound by default, because something could phone
home if I put my trust in an application I shouldn't, but they're
easy-peasy for users, so that's what people do.  I can manually go
through and fix it myself, but if some application is running about
opening who knows how many ports and setting god-knows-what services to
auto-start and mucking about with insecure options in config files...how
many months is it going to take me to track all of that down?  No way.

-- 
Mackenzie Morgan
http://ubuntulinuxtipstricks.blogspot.com
apt-get moo
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