So will the latest RPC/Windows hole make people consider non windows OS?

[halik]

I was laughing the whole day today because that thing is spreading like crazy. My mac never had any problems and i keep my windows machines behind a firewall (windows is most secure when not plugged in...).

So im curious is anyone getting fed up with the security holes to the point of trying out an alternative system? Linux/BSD/OSX ...you name it

 

[Flatline]

That's only part of the reason I switched

 

[owensdj]

There are security holes in other operating systems.

 

[Mitzi]

No! A virus which affects a known about exploit and one where a patch has been available for some weeks will not make me consider using a non Windows OS as my primary OS. If users don't want to keep their own systems up-to-date and secure then tough, they get what they deserve. In my opinion you can't blame Microsoft for PBKAC issues

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

That (security) is the main reason why I'm switching my (small) office from Windows.

 

[Flatline]

Frankly, anyone with broadband should be behind a firewall anyway. Even a software-based firewall could block this quite handily. Virus infections are usually (in my experience) a result of users not being careful enough with their machines.

 

[AmigaMan]

Nope because you can't play all the cool games on your mac or linux machine. Sucks but it's true. Until Linux takes over the game market, people will still have PC's to play their games on. Then if that ever happened, you'd have to convince everyone that OpenOffice or whatever is as good as MS Office. I'm not saying that your Office suite of choice isn't as good as MS Office, but you have to convince the drones and lemmings out there that it is.

 

[Flatline]

If only the game companies would release a linux port of their games (like RTCW, Quake, etc. have).

 

[jacktesterson]

There are holes in Linux and Mac too...why would somebody spread a virus through them though when you got 2 billion people using Microsoft

 

[Macro2]

A $10 router would stop it. I didn't realize so many anandteckers were so vulnerable and unprepared.

 

[SpeedFreak03]

From experience about switching from Windows 2000 pro to Mandrake Linux 9.1 (I just finished switching a few days ago), Linux is so much faster, stable, secure, free , etc. It's great not to have to run Windows Update every day.

 

[owensdj]

SpeedFreak03, do you realize that there are Linux security patches being released just like with Windows 2000? Are you saying you just going to ignore them? It's great that you like Linux, but don't fool yourself into thinking it's perfect.

 

[Jonitus]

The thing to realize about running Linux is that, for some people, it is a target of opportunity. If someone with less than ideal morals finds out you are running Linux, a rootkit is not a really hard thing to have installed on your machine. Once that happens, it is somewhat of a b!tch to get rid of. Wouldn't it be nice to have some other user using your machine to launch DOS attacks?

Linux is not the end-all be-all of security. It takes diligence to secure just like Windows. A system is only as secure as the administrator makes it.

Yeah, Windows has some nasty exploits...but so does Linux. If neither are taken care of, both systems are in a world of hurt.

I run both Linux and Windows. I've never had a problem with either...because I am diligent in adminstering my systems. I am behind a hardware firewall connected to the broadband connection. My Windows box runs ZoneAlarm, and my Linux box is running IPTables. I don't go willy-nilly downloading things, and I check my downloads when I do grab something. All things downloded go to a reserved partition or physical drive, so that if I do have a problem, the damage is minimal. It took me about a day and a half to get Windows to the point where I felt reasonably comfortable to be connected to the outside world. It took approximately the same amount of time to "secure" my Linux box.

A system is only as secure as the administrator makes it.

 

[oupei]

what about win98se?

has it just proven itself more secure than the almight xp?
or are the virus programmers first to drop support of this sooner-or-later-to-be-obsolete OS?

 

[Nothinman]

I'm not saying that your Office suite of choice isn't as good as MS Office, but you have to convince the drones and lemmings out there that it is

Convincing isn't usually required, if they pay for Office tell them Open Office is free and they'll try it. They may not like it, but most people are willing to atleast download and install something that's free.

There are holes in Linux and Mac too...why would somebody spread a virus through them though when you got 2 billion people using Microsoft

Even when they tried (there was a bind worm just like a year or two back) it didn't do any damage, only a handfull of machines got hit because the majority of people running bind keep it secured.

SpeedFreak03, do you realize that there are Linux security patches being released just like with Windows 2000? Are you saying you just going to ignore them? It's great that you like Linux, but don't fool yourself into thinking it's perfect.

What was the last remote root hole? There was a local ptrace bug fairly recently but that required a local account to exploit.

If someone with less than ideal morals finds out you are running Linux, a rootkit is not a really hard thing to have installed on your machine.

If it's not hard I'm sure I would have been hit a long time ago, I've been running a web and mail server on Linux for quite some time now. If you want I'll give you my home IP and you can have at it.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

If someone with less than ideal morals finds out you are running Linux, a rootkit is not a really hard thing to have installed on your machine.

If it's not hard I'm sure I would have been hit a long time ago, I've been running a web and mail server on Linux for quite some time now. If you want I'll give you my home IP and you can have at it.

Yeah, but you know what you're doing.

I would say that a stupid user is less likely to get hacked on a linux machine, but it's still very possible. It doesn't even need to be an exploit, it could just be related to how the machine is configured.

 

[kylef]

I would say that a stupid user is less likely to get hacked on a linux machine, but it's still very possible. It doesn't even need to be an exploit, it could just be related to how the machine is configured.

A stupid user on a linux machine is much worse than on a Windows machine, where at least automatic critical updates are turned on by default.

A friend of mine had an old RedHat 7.0 Cd that he thought he'd install because "it wasn't THAT old, and he wanted to give it a try." His box was rooted in less than two days by that old lprng hole, which gets installed and turned on by default in RH 7.0. But it wasn't patched automatically. If it were, he might have had a chance.

Stupid users are vulnerable no matter what they do. But at least in Windows, updated patches put some pressure on you to install them...

 

[Nothinman]

I would say that a stupid user is less likely to get hacked on a linux machine, but it's still very possible. It doesn't even need to be an exploit, it could just be related to how the machine is configured.

I know, I just get tired of hearing the Windows people screaming "but Linux has problems too" like we don't know that. And maybe I've not been keeping tabs on things enough recently but I really can't think of any remote exploits recently.

A stupid user on a linux machine is much worse than on a Windows machine, where at least automatic critical updates are turned on by default.

But you need atleast Win2K SP3 for automatic updates. And if he had installed RH8 or 9 there is the automatic, nagging up2date thing running automatically.

 

[halik]

well on average there are lot less security holes in unix systems.
I cant remember the last hole in darwin that will let you get root access. The last major one in linux was glibc if i remeber right and thats about it.

If you look at bsd though, they guarantee the security (some waht 3 years on default instal) so dumbass using bsd sshould be safer than dumbass using windows

 

[clicknext]

Nah, gaming was and is the only reason I've stuck to Windows, and am going to stick with Win.

 

[Twista]

no! windows was made to stay.

 

[RVN]

If I were to fall victim, I would be more inclined to never get online again than to give up my Windows!

 

[Nothinman]

If I were to fall victim, I would be more inclined to never get online again than to give up my Windows!

That's just sad.

 

[RVN]

Sad for you MF (my friend) ...except for Macintosh ...everything else out there leaves much to be desired! What's so hard about understanding that?

 

[xcript]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

If I were to fall victim, I would be more inclined to never get online again than to give up my Windows!

That's just sad.

I concur.

Quite pathetic.