[gentoo-user] Re: Preparing a shared USB stick

[walt <w41ter@gmail.com>]

On 01/04/2014 05:21 PM, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On 05/01/2014 02:42, walt wrote:
>> On 01/04/2014 03:44 PM, Alan McKinnon wrote:
>>
>>> FAT was designed for MS-DOS where you put a floppy in the drive and you
>>> had full access to everything on it. There was no need to implement
>>> security.
>>
>> I think the operative phrase is "there was no need" back when Gates and
>> Allen trained the world to accept failure as good enough.
>>
>>
>>
>>
> 
> 
> I don't think so. This was back in the early 80s remember and PCs were a
> new novelty. The thing to compare them to was paper records and we all
> know bits of paper have no inherent security attributes. If you want to
> secure them, keep them in a space with a lock. To secure a PC and it's
> floppies, store them in a space with a lock.
> 
> And then there's the hardware, those things ran on 8086 chips. Not bad
> for the time, but not exactly heavy on cpu grunt.
> 
> You can't seriously be pushing the line that MS promotes failure. gates
> and Allen had the balls to get a working pc to market that put one on
> every office desk and made computing ubiquitous. Sure, if they didn't do
> it someone else would have, but they are the guys that did when no-one
> else had managed. Think Amstrad, Sinclair, early Commodore. Even the
> Beeb, awesome as it was, tanked completely.
> 
> It's all very easy for us to sit back today and play monday morning
> fullback but in those days hardly anyone had a clue about security or
> how to do it. The guys who did know were the mainframe and mini guys,
> and that model didn't translate to what the PC was meant for.
> 
> Hey, I like to bash MS as much as the next guy (IE6 is a crime that
> shall never be forgiven)

LOL!

> but I do think we should bash MS for things
> they deserve, not so much for things they don't.

Okay, okay, you're absolutely right about the early-early days.

I'm thinking about the era when GM's CEO complained that if GM made
cars the way Bill made software (I paraphrase) then tow-truck drivers
would be millionaires.

For several years the IT people where I work have been making hundreds
of lives a living hell because failure is greeted every day with a shrug
and a hostile apology,

I *do* blame M$ for setting the bar that low, though not in the early
days, I agree.