GNU, security, and RMS

[nugent%tartarus at gargoyle.uchicago.edu]

Barry Shein writes:

>  Although I'd probably agree with what you're trying to say I just want
>  to point out that 10 Million PC's and about 1 Million Mac's say you're
>  (we're?) wrong. There's no concept of security on those machines

I think the computer virus issue is starting to make these people feel
uncomfortable with the lack of security on these machines.  I know
that the Macs with hard drives in our own public clusters have to be
wiped clean and rewritten every week or two, in spite of anti-virus
measures and procedures.  I am familiar with some law firms and option
trading firms, who are VERY concerned about the virus issue on Mac
clusters.

I'm afraid that it is a case of repeating the mistakes of the past in
a new guise.  As Mac and PC OSs get more features and complexity, they
have a greater need for some form of security.  Nobody needs security
on a 128k Mac with one floppy!(remember that) but a Mac II with 140 MB hard
drives mounting NFS partitions over ethernet is a different animal and
in some environments does need some form of protection.

Todd Nugent
Computer Science Dept.