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Article #2255

Re: "risky" PD software

#2255
From: David L. Miller
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 05:01
37 lines
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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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From: dmiller@dragon.tricity.wsu.edu (David L. Miller)
Subject: Re:  "risky" PD software
Message-ID: <1992Aug17.050123.22473@serval.net.wsu.edu>
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Organization: Washington State University Tri-Cities
References:  <9208170057.AA03688@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu>
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 92 05:01:23 GMT
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