[Promotion] key features

[Santiago Roza]

On 1/25/06, Martijn Klingens <klingens at kde.org> wrote:


> The competence of the sysadmin is a lot more
> important.

but we aren't promoting that are we?  :)


> Having administered both Windows and Linux systems for a living I will
> wholeheartedly agree that Linux is the more pleasurable platform to secure.

from a os point of view, we can say we're more secure, and we wouldn't be lying.


> That doesn't mean you can't reasonably secure Windows networks.

i guess we'll never say that.


> At this very moment there are several worms going round targeting various PHP
> flaws, and there have been several advisories over the past weeks that are
> potentially dangerous as well.

yeah well the end user we're targetting doesn't run a php server i guess  :)


> If we start hyping a security, people will perceive us as infallible, and that
> is simply untrue.

we can come up with one of those fears for every single advantage we'd
like to promote:
- if we start hyping about free-as-in-beer, people will complain there
are paid linux distros.
- if we start hyping about free-as-in-speech, people will complain
linus doesn't write the patches they ask him.
- if we start hyping about international support, some people will
gripe about some strange dialect we don't support.
- if we start hyping about built-in funcionality (pdf, cd ripping,
etc), people will complain about the one function that we don't
support.
- if we start hyping about usability, people will gripe about things
that aren't exactly like in windows.
- and i could add more ...

so what do we do?  do we take the risk, or we sit down and say nothing?

i'd rather take the risk, because (like every desktop out there) we
may not be *absolutely* secure (or free, international, functional and
usable), but i'm sure we are more of all that than the alternatives.


> If you know a way to bring across the message of "MORE
> secure" without having the result that people neglect security and end up
> being almost as vulnerable then by all means do tell me.

people will always neglect security, no matter the message.  they hear
about viruses and trojans every other day, but they still execute
whatever attachment they receive in their email.

should we let that cripple us?  i say no.


> The word "YET" is missing here. There *will* be viruses and spyware. It's only
> a matter of enough installed systems to make it commercially viable.

i don't know.  but i do know we don't have them now, and i don't see
why we shouldn't be promoting it.

imagine it was only because we have a smaller user base (which is not
the reason imho)... so what?  you'd still be more secure by switching.


--
Santiago Roza
Departamento I+D - Thymbra
santiago.roza at thymbra.com