[H-GEN] Debian v Mandrake

Greg Black gjb at humbug.org.au
Wed Mar 20 20:15:35 EST 2002


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Jimmy Freese wrote:

| I really don't like
| administration, probably because I suck at it. I have heard that once
| installed debian takes better care of itself? 

Nothing takes care of itself, no matter what people might tell
you.  Whether that matters or not is for you to decide -- more
on that below.

| Another thing I don't really like is updating things. In the past I have
| usually always till Mandrake comes out with another release and do it all
| at once and between releases just stick with what I got. [...]

If your machines are not connected to the rest of the world, you
don't need to worry unless you need an update for something you
use that is broken in some way that affects you.

But if your machines are connected to the Internet, even for
brief periods of time, it's folly not to apply updates for any
security issues as soon as they are announced.  The bad guys
read all the announcements and start on their exploits without
delay.  Since Linux is now fairly popular, it's a natural target
for these people and they will come knocking on your door.

My machines record dozens of attempted Linux exploits every day.
This doesn't bother me because none of them are running Linux.
But I do make it a point to immediately apply security updates
when they come out for my chosen operating systems (unless I
know for certain that they don't apply to my networks).

This might be a pain, but it's unavoidable in the real world.
And it makes no difference at all what operating system you're
running.  It will have bugs that affect its security and the bad
guys will come after you.

Greg

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