the 'which distro' question

Tony Alfrey tonyalfrey
Fri Mar 2 11:23:33 PST 2007


Net Llama! wrote:
> On Fri, 2 Mar 2007, Tony Alfrey wrote:
>> Net Llama! wrote:
>>> On Fri, 2 Mar 2007, Tim Wunder wrote:
>>>> On Friday 02 March 2007 9:55:18 am Tony Alfrey wrote:
>>>>> Well, can you all comment on why I would need to do this frequent
>>>>> upgrading if what I manage to install the first time works well?
>>>>> Thanks!
>>>>>
>>>> Security updates, bug fixes, etc...
>>> Indeed, running a distro without updates is equivalent to running Windows
>>> without updates.  You're going to be left wide open to a large number of
>>> security problems (not to mention bugs) over time.
>>>
>> Is this true if I run behind a firewall?  I think we talked about this
>> before:  I have an Apple Airport Extreme network that uses NAT and the
>> impression I got was that was pretty secure.  And I don't run a server
>> visible to the outside world.
> 
> How would a firewall protect you from software bugs?

It doesn't.  I was asking about security.

<snip>

> 
> Also, putting all network security in a firewall is a very risky 
> proposition.  Once someone gets through the firewall, you're screwed.  Or 
> here's a nice scenario.  What if you happen to run some piece of software 
> (i dunno, firefox) which happens to end up with a remote exploit of some 
> sort (and those have happened several times already).  So now you've been 
> bitten by a software bug, which has then opened a nice door in your 
> firewall for people to come in and own your box.   All becausde you didn't 
> think that OS updates were important because you had a firewall.
> 
>> Some distros (like SuSE) have major revisions followed by minor fixes.
>> In the past, I have waited for SuSE to go to, like 9.2 before using it.
>>  Is this the same scheme with Fedora?
> 
> No.  FC has only major releases, every 6 to 9 months which replace the 
> previous release.  There are no point releases.  That's what updates are 
> for.
> 

OK


-- 
Tony Alfrey
tonyalfrey at earthlink.net
"I'd Rather Be Sailing"



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