APPLEVISION Monitor

From: Christopher Smith <csmith_at_amdocs.com>
Date: Wed May 1 12:41:50 2002

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris [mailto:mythtech_at_mac.com]

> specifying that on this list, I opened the comment to compare
> them to a
> slew of machines that would blow Apple out of the water.

I imagined you would be comparing them directly to peesees, but
I couldn't pass that up.

> Sorry it was my
> Mac Evangelist side popping out too quickly.

That's ok. I like to evangelize VMS once in a while.

> Ok... I was thinking security as in how often we loose or
> destroy your
> files. Not how often we let someone steal your files. No

That's different. I've seen it happen, of course, but I'd
rather handle the MacOS "corrupt preferences" problem that is
so common than the windows "I just stomped on the wrong DLL"
counterpart. :)

> Apple doesn't
> excel at keeping the files intact, but they are no worse than
> many others.

I often think that windows machines should come with a VAX/PDP-like
"Write protect fixed disk 0" button. :)

> In terms of allowing someone to steal or alter your files, I
> agree, short
> of encrypting the files, there is nothing acceptable on the
> Mac pre-OS X

Of course, PGP is fine for that, but I wasn't counting it since
it's third-party.

> I have seen few even half way decent security systems to keep
> people off
> your Mac. And even the half way decent ones tend to be easy
> to bypass if
> you have sufficient access to the machine (ie: steal it and take your
> time)

Even if not, I've seen far too many that can be disabled by hitting "shift"
during boot-up.

> Although, in the Mac's defense, in terms of "hacker" access
> from over the
> internet, I will trust my Mac running any pre-OS X version of the OS
> before I will trust ANY other OS (even well configured Unix). In that

Are you certain? If the Mac was running the same network services as
that Unix box, I'd bet your chances of a problem are even -- if not
worse on the Mac, due to their popularity among "home users," which
unix isn't...

> line, then I stand by my overly stated statement saying that
> the Mac has
> far better security.

I think that the closer-to-default Mac configuration is better by virtue
of it's not running unnecessary network services. The Unix one needs a
lot of help in that respect. Now, if a given system must run these
services, or if you want to compare a Unix set up to be "Mac like" in
this respect to a Mac, it's a whole different thing.

Chris


Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL

/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
 
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Received on Wed May 01 2002 - 12:41:50 BST