[techtalk] which distro?

[Angela Nash]

First off...up until this week there was a group working on a linux distro
similar to OpenBSD.  It was http://www.kha0s.org.  It looks like they
stopped this week, which is too bad.

The OpenBSD team puts a LOT of effort in to the security.  Not only is the
default install locked down pretty well, but all their default software is
code audited by the team to look for problems.  This is great.  A lot of
times there will be an exploit released for a package that OpenBSD fixed
months ago.  

What the linux distributions should do more of, is look at the OpenBSD
change logs and follow a lot of their changes to catch things early.  And I
agree, the default installs should be much more secure.  Get rid of this
"install everything" approach.

Jason

-----Original Message-----
From: curious [mailto:curious at curious.org]
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 5:28 PM
To: Kath
Cc: Lyric .; techtalk at linuxchix.org
Subject: [techtalk] which distro?


I've seen alot of people suggest the "easyist" distro to people who are
new.. I used to aswell...  until I came across OpenBSD's philosophy which
is:
secure by default
more specificly nothing is turned on unless the user chooses to do so...
meaning you can plug the box into the wire while installing and not have
to worry about portmappers, insecure cgi-bins, etc... and in doing so
leads people who are learning a system to better understand what is going
on on a box... (WHY hasn't anyone built a "secure by default" linux
distro!!.. grrr)

Note: this is my recommendation for someone who realy wants to learn unix
(to a strong level)

For people who just want to use an "end user" pc by all means choose
something like mandrake, caldera, and/or corel

personaly I've come to enjoy debian based systems (like storm, debian, and
corel) best since I can easly upgrade things over time instead at a given
"distribution release" AND they keep thier old version in archive for a
long time.. which is nice if your sticking with version "x" and in order
to run package "y" you need "z" from "x" you can typicaly get it if you
didn't install it before..
Mandrake is HORRIBLE at not keeping old releases

the only think that has REALY irked me about debian is they are the only
linux dstro I know of that doesn't seperate ssh from sshd.. and during the
install of ssh on debain it turns sshd ON.. if your setting up a box that
at no point should have even the possibility of being logged into remotely
and all of a sudden sshd is turned on.. it's realy icky...

blah.. okies..
end babble :)
Chris

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On Fri, 1 Sep 2000, Kath wrote:

> Since your a newbie, I would recommend Mandrake.
> 
> - Kathy
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Lyric ." <lyric340 at hotmail..com>
> To: <techtalk at linuxchix.org>
> Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 4:28 PM
> Subject: [techtalk] building a new linux mahine
> 
> 
> > Hey everybody,
> >
> > I'm relatively new to Linux, ut I've found I've been able to pick up
what
> I
> > need fairly quickly.  My problem today is that I plan to buy parts and
> build
> > a new machine strictly for Linux.  I just want to make sure that
> everything
> > will work by asking whther or not any of you have similar
configurations.
> >
> > First off,  I'll be putting together an AMD Duron socket A system using
a
> > gigabyte board with a via KT133 chipset.  The next item is an Asus PCI
> SCSI
> > card (using a symbios chipset) hooked to 2 seagate 4.3 GB SCSI drives.
> > There will be an IDE CD-ROM drive (for installing the system mainly) and
a
> > floppy drive.  It'll probably have 64 Meg of RAM,  since that's what I
> have
> > spare lying around.
> >
> > If you could let me know if you foresee any problems with this,  I would
> > greatly appreciate it.  I plan to install either Mandrake 7.1 or Debian
> 2.2
> > (most likely mandrake though).
> >
> > Thanks a lot everybody, so far you've all been really helpful.
> >
> > Anthony
> >
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> 
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