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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