[mdlug] A big opportunity for Linux?

[Ingles, Raymond]

> From: Adam Tauno Williams

> And all the noise about how bad Vista is misses the point - the fact is
> that XP is in most cases good enough, hence the lack of a business case
> for the pain/expense of Vista.

 Yes, that's what I said - Vista doesn't offer anything new that people
want, and it's a substantial cost to upgrade.

 However... XP will not *stay* 'good enough'. MS can't (politically) afford
to put much support effort into XP. XP will stagnate, while alternatives
move forward.

> While techy types get worked up about, often obscure, security issues
> most businesses, especially small business (all small businesses?) just
> do-not-care.

 ...until they get hit with a security problem. 

> <aside>Not to mention that enforcing a decent security policy among
> LINUX desktops is a major PITA and almost completely 
> undocumented. 

 Well, enforcing a *Windows-ish* security policy, perhaps.

> GDM is going to tell you that the DSA is going to expire your 
> account in 14 days if you don't change your password.... nope.

 I'd thought GDM 2.x had been revamped to deal with things like that...

> You can view/edit file ACLs from nautilus... nope.

 What, specifically, do you need ACLs for that can't be accomplished with
more traditional u/g/o permissions?

> Firefox will work with NTLM or Kerberos authentication for single sign-on
> to the proxy and/or intranet.... nope.

 Seems like this ought to work:
http://open.itworld.com/5037/book_050425firefoxhacks/page_1.html

> I could go one.  Despite all the rah-rag about security the 
> support for good security practices on LINUX sucks.</aside>

 Integration with Windows probably isn't fully there, I'd say. That's
not the same as saying 'support for good security practices' isn't
there.

 Sincerely,

 Ray Ingles                                           (313) 227-2317

 "When it comes to gas, [Americans] need it cheap, and the president
  had better get it for us, or else, and we don't care how. If it
  takes a hundred thousand dead Iraqi 'soldiers' to keep gas below
  two bucks a gallon - when the rest of the world pays five and up -
                   then that's what it takes."
     - Bill Maher, "When You Ride Alone You Ride With bin Laden"
The contents of this e-mail are intended for the named addressee only. It contains information that may be confidential. Unless you are the named addressee or an authorized designee, you may not copy or use it, or disclose it to anyone else. If you received it in error please notify us immediately and then destroy it.