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Article #2255Re: "risky" PD software
From: David L. Miller
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 05:01
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 05:01
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In article <9208170057.AA03688@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu>, bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu (Bruno Wolff III) writes: |> Well there is some risk in running any software. However I would normally expect |> commercial software to be of higher quality than PD software. Also when I disagree. Specifically, TeX is well-known to be one of the cleanest, most bug-free programs available *for*any*price*. It is true that many PD programs are pretty lame, but I have seen commercial software that is just as bad! Also, how far do you think your posting would get without a whole bunch of PD (or otherwise free) software? i.e. rn/Cnews/nntp/... |> purchasing shrink wrapped software there is less chance that the software has |> been tampered with than software obtained from a bulletin board. |> I would not feel too secure running software yanked off of a lot of bulletin |> boards. Not so fast there... Of all the viruses I have encountered, *every* one could be traced to a *COMMERCIAL* package! I know it sounds crazy, but you are actually safer downloading software from a well-run, moderated, archive server or BBS. I would stay away from a BBS that is wide-open, allowing anyone to post anything, though. As mentioned in other follow-ups, source is usually even safer. |> I don't feel there is really much risk to running a copy of TeX obtained |> from U of Washington since there are a lot of people running it and if |> something was odd about the copy of TeX there it would probably have been |> found out about by now. -- ***************************************************************************** David L. Miller Internet: dmiller@beta.tricity.wsu.edu Systems Programmer/Network Analyst BITNET: MILLERD@WSUVM1 Washington State University Tri-Cities UUCP: ...!yoda!dmiller 100 Sprout Road Richland, WA 99352 Phone: (509)375-9245 *****************************************************************************
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Newsgroups: comp.text.tex Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!wupost!sdd.hp.com!mips!cs.uoregon.edu!nntp.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!serval!dragon.tricity.wsu.edu!dmiller From: dmiller@dragon.tricity.wsu.edu (David L. Miller) Subject: Re: "risky" PD software Message-ID: <1992Aug17.050123.22473@serval.net.wsu.edu> Sender: news@serval.net.wsu.edu (USENET News System) Organization: Washington State University Tri-Cities References: <9208170057.AA03688@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu> Date: Mon, 17 Aug 92 05:01:23 GMT Lines: 37