[TriLUG] Rant: VISTA OMG PLEASE SHOOT ME

[Andy]

> So security pro's and cons.
> But I was talking about a desktop system, not a server farm, and there
> having just sudo and no root, and the sudo password being the same as
> the user's one which is the ubuntu default, is a sacrifice in security
> that is hard to justify in my opinion.
> I just prefer it differently, and these are my reasons. Honestly, I
> might be completely wrong about this (ubuntu could have changed this
> since my last experience with it), if so feel free to correct me. It's
> my opinion based upon my experiences, nothing more. Hell, as you said
> I might be behind the times.
>
>   
Sudo == bad because you pick bad passwords?  Install a password checker 
that forbids this for multi-user systems.
>> Yeah eschew wireless
>> and be like braveheart screaming freeedom while the rest of us enjoy
>> 802.11a/b/n .. Or its way more satisfying to install wireless drivers
>> etc by copying them manually over sneakernet because you don't have
>> network so that your distro can be "pure"...   (the above may contain
>> sarcasm)
>>     
>
> Avoiding sudo when it's not necessary and using less proprietary
> software doesn't mean no wifi. An insane amount of wireless cards are
> supported nowadays without having to use ndiswrapper; from atheros to
> ralink to prism. My issue is that it's too easy to take the non-free
> road with ubuntu, even when free alternatives are right there in the
> repository.
>
>   
ndiswrapper == open source wifi?  You have a different definition of 
non-proprietary than I do.  So say the atheros cards include the binary 
blobual with the driver and allow free as in kittens distribution of it 
even if the rest of the driver is proprietary.  With the ndiswrapper 
you're installing the binary blobual from a windows driver by yourself.  
Neither is more or less proprietary but the atheros and co drivers are 
at least giving free as in kittens distribution of the blobual and 
providing at least some deliberate support for linux.  I fail to see how 
your purity of essence is higher than mine because you installed a 
windows driver on your linux box.
> In my case I do a 'su-to-root -x wifi-radar' on my xfce startup to
> connect to wireless, so I do use a password prompting temporary root
> access utility for a gui and don't just edit my interfaces file. I do
> consider sudo inappropriate for elevating preferences in this case.
>
> It's all a matter of preference, these were my reasons against
> choosing ubuntu. And they are not all that strong, it all doesn't
> matter that much.
>
> I wanted to give a shout out to the non-ubuntu/non-fedora xfce desktop
> people like me, as ubuntu and fedora were the only two that were named
> as vista alternatives in the thread.
>
> m
>