From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([140.105.134.102] helo=robin.gentoo.org) by nuthatch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.62) (envelope-from ) id 1H9HwJ-00062D-TH for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 23 Jan 2007 09:27:40 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.8/8.13.8) with SMTP id l0N9Q6tS016949; Tue, 23 Jan 2007 09:26:06 GMT Received: from mirus.exceedtech.net (ns0.exceedtech.net [70.151.169.5]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id l0N9K1Eg007748 for ; Tue, 23 Jan 2007 09:20:02 GMT Received: from [65.144.10.133] (0-1pool10-133.nas2.greenwood1.ms.us.da.qwest.net [65.144.10.133]) by mirus.exceedtech.net (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id l0N9JvqQ008878 for ; Tue, 23 Jan 2007 03:19:58 -0600 Message-ID: <45B5D33C.9030704@exceedtech.net> Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007 03:19:56 -0600 From: Dale User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.0.9) Gecko/20070105 SeaMonkey/1.0.7 Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Good arguments to use Gentoo Linux? References: <131821.55040.qm@web52615.mail.yahoo.com> <342e1090701221853q1887e63eh6d3ff8de8a571555@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <342e1090701221853q1887e63eh6d3ff8de8a571555@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: ab04ad49-3ab9-4f86-9f9c-c9cc3b627815 X-Archives-Hash: e98711b02048ea9625c473ecd5fcbc24 Daniel da Veiga wrote: > On 1/22/07, Eric Bohn wrote: >> In the US, I'm almost certain you wouldn't be able to get away with >> running Gentoo, and more specifically, Portage, the way you >> apparently do in a secure govt environment. There's probably a >> federal directive or regulation somewhere that prevents machines >> being run in govt organizations from using non-standard or officially >> unapproved technology and/or procedures, and for good reason... >> > > I know of many universities, not only from Brazil, but around the > world, that use Gentoo. There are many security features in portage, > and I believe Gentoo servers and mirrors have some security also, else > it would be too easy to compromise thousands of installations around > the world, and no cracker would miss this opportunity. > > Non-standard and officially unapproved technology sounds more like > "put someone in control of all tech used in the public sector of IT", > more like antitrust than standardizing. > >> I've had Portage hose my Gentoo install twice before to the point >> that I could no longer run Portage, and I run stable, not testing. >> Using Portage you're putting yourself at the mercy of any Joe Schmoe >> with a proxy connection to a Gentoo server that wants to compromise >> your machine. Even most commercial organizations, for job critical >> computing, have administrators that establish mirror servers for >> software testing prior to internal distribution. >> > > As I mentioned before, I don't think we are at the mercy of any > cracker around by using Gentoo. Of course some level of security would > be needed, any OS requires that, but lets not hijack this thread, as > the OP was talking about DESKTOP installations. > >> It didn't sound like the OP was intending for anyone to do sys admin >> tasks with Gentoo either, I imagine that could prove to be risky >> using any Linux distro. >> > > Yeah, that's one more reason for a Gentoo install. And just for the > record, ANY OS needs sys admin tasks once in a while, if not for > initial install, because of breakage, and believe me, I had my quota > of breakage before using Gentoo. > As someone who started out using Mandrake, I have to say that using Gentoo has been a LOT easier. Yea, I had to learn how to use Gentoo and it is different from Mandrake by far but it is a whole lot easier to manage. I have been using Gentoo for about 2 or 3 years for my desktop and I would not consider switching to any other distro. I spend a lot less time messing with my Gentoo install that I did Mandrake. The upgrade process with Mandrake was . . . . a disaster. From what I understand Redhat and Mandrake are pretty close. I certainly wouldn't switch to Redhat then. As for security, I have had several times that my internet connection was messed up and the md5 sums didn't match. Portage didn't hesitate to delete those puppies and let me know that something was changed. It would seem to me that it would be difficult for someone to change the source code on one server then change the other files on the rsync server so they both match up. Well, that my $0.02 worth. Some of what is being said just doesn't make sense to me at all. Gentoo is a lot better than some distros. It certainly beats windoze. Dale :-) :-) :-) -- www.myspace.com/dalek1967 -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list