🚀 go-pugleaf

rmcassid@uci.edu (Robert Cassidy) writes:

>With a bit of work. The problem with UNIX is that everything requires a
>bit of work. In a market where people want to plug in their computer and
>start using it before they plow through 2000 pages of UNIX system
>administration, UNIX is simply too much work.

True, some Unix variants do need to have their setup routines
improved.  Linux, for example, is a pain - find the right kernel
image, boot, swap disks, log in, run setup, choose packages, reboot.
Then run xf86Config... it's not too difficult if you read the FAQ
first, but OS/2 and windoze have much better installs, especially the
GUI setup.

It's somewhat better if you buy the workstation with the OS
pre-installed, something like a Sun or a NeXT.  Out of the box, you
can get them going within minutes, since someone at the factory
already did the difficult part.  

>You are correct. That is a good thing. The Mac should and will someday
>have a similar feature - but since it is still a single user system, the
>UNIX solution is wrong as well.

'single user systems' are a dying breed.  Microsoft is moving toward
NT (multiuser).  OS/2 is now being promoted as a network workstation
(which would have to have security).  Hopefully the Mac will do
likewise, so four-year-olds can't drag Daddy's spreadsheet to the
trashcan.  (Requiring a log in to access that file is a simple and
effective means of protecting it.)

>> 'safer'?  It's much easier to render a Mac/Windows box completely
>> unusable (until the OS is reinstalled) than to do the same to a Unix
>> machine. 
>Out of the box? Before the sysadmin has gotten to it? No, I don't think
>so. The UNIX argument only stands if an admin has gotten to the system -
>that's not the market that Macs and PCs are sold.

"out of the box", Unix has security in place.  No additional effort by
a sysadmin is needed, other than changing the default root password.
Fifteen minutes after the machines are uncrated and set up, a Unix
system will be better able to withstand attack by someone who doesn't
know better than to delete system files, than either Mac or Windows. 

>UNIX is buying a home where all of the wires are exposed to be insulated
>later by a thorough, consciencious person. MacOS and Win is buying a home
>where all of the wires are insulated, a few by a layer of concrete. You
>decide which is more appropriate for the average person.

On Unix, a non-root user cannot inadvertently delete a vital system
file.  On Mac or Windows, they can, much more easily.  I know, I used
to work in a university computing facility where someone deleting an
important file happened at least once a week - on the Macs and DOS
boxes.  But that never happened to the NeXT's there.
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