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    <title><![CDATA[Discussion on Open source for U.S. government: Is there a downside? ]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072]]></link>
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    <lastBuildDate>2013-06-20T00:03:52-07:00</lastBuildDate>
             

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        <title><![CDATA[ah, I can't resist one last question]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3008639]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[&quot;This works both ways. If you want to snipe at my teaching style or what goes on in my classrooms -- you'd be a lot more credible if you actually attended one.&quot;When's your next course being held in the Toronto area?]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3008639]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Neon Samurai]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:16:23 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[spin it how you like]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3008638]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[I mention servers and you decide that means servers and clients in fortune 500 and up companies only.I don't deny bug counts in open source software but you ignore exploitable vulnerabilities versus software bugs along with patch times.It's no surprise that you've made up your mind and nothing else matters. I'm fully willing to look at the major platforms on equal ground but what further use is an exchange of information.Spin it how you like. You obviously only see what you want. Either way, I gave you your three replies and your posting history of pretentious arrogance speaks for itself.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3008638]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Neon Samurai]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:12:51 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[Sure...]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3008270]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Neon,I wish you would make up your mind -- first, you claim FOSS 'superiority' because there are more FOSS-based web servers floating around, then when I point out that successful businesses are more likely to use Microsoft servers, you do an about-face and say, &quot;Does popularity someone prove applicability?...&quot;Which is it? I brought up the point about the security advisories because you, like many others, minimalize or simply ignore Linux and other FOSS product vulnerabilities -- much like the Macintosh users who claim totally immunity to malware. Dangerous assumptions at best.YOU were the one who said &quot;*nix machines are not falling over constantly.&quot; -- insinuating that Microsoft-based machines did. I've been running Internet-facing Microsoft-based servers and working with ISPs since Windows NT 4.0 came out and have NEVER had a system &quot;falling over constantly&quot;. I'd also suggest the the thousands of companies, governments and commercial organizations running IIS on Windows boxes who properly configure and maintain them can report the same.ANY machine can be made to fall over or be insecure when run by an incompetent system administrator -- just as easily as any machine can be made to run securely and reliably when run by someone who knows what they are doing.You are quite welcome to agree or disagree.&gt;I don't understand why two servers side by side (Windows and Debian) &gt;can be hit with an nmap scan and the *nix machine will tick along happily &gt;while the Windows server's networking stack has a seasure? I'm calling bull$hit on this one. I just downloaded the latest version of NMAP and pointed it at some of the Windows 2003 servers without the slightest negative effect. I followed that up with a NESSUS scan as well. ZIP. NADA. NOTHING.I wonder why?&gt;Are you yelling at me for not blindly accepting what teacher says? First, I wasn't 'yelling'. If I put one word in CAPS so it is emphasized -- get over it. If I put a whole sentence in CAPS then THAT would be yelling -- and I reserve that for truly special cases of dealing with a complete and total moron. So far, nobody on TR or ZDnet has graduated to that level yet. &gt;How does ?hacker? equate to unaccountable.. My definition of hacker mentality is someone who gets an idea, runs to the keyboard and starts coding it. No regard for documentation, standards, interfaces to other products, user interfaces or anything else -- they just want to do something cool and be creative.That's all fine and dandy if you are talking about a hobby environment but falls flat on its face in the real world of business.With FOSS software, you have contributions from every corner of the planet. Different coding styles, different levels of 'quality', different standards in every way. It's the wild west. Who can be held accountable for that?You are right about one thing -- with an 'official' distribution like Red Hat, et. al., there will be SOME level of accountability and support -- but that is NOT FREE. Additionally, this ONLY covers you for what is on the distribution. The moment you start adding bits and pieces from all over -- your support model turns to slush.And, speaking of distributions -- which of the 400+ 'popular' distributions should an organization adopt? And what happens when each department starts demanding different distributions to service real or imagined 'unique' needs (more likely personal preferences)? How is anyone going to support that mess?&gt;Or a PDF vulnerability opens the system up to exploits. Talk to Adobe about that one.&gt;Or the integrated Windows firewall allows something through and onto or off the machine. Talk to the person who didn't properly configure it about that one.&gt;As for the later bit about &quot;samurai&quot; and &quot;take it like a man&quot;. &gt;Please.. you don't know enough about me to make that judgment. This works both ways. If you want to snipe at my teaching style or what goes on in my classrooms -- you'd be a lot more credible if you actually attended one.It also doesn't help to mis-read my posts. If you're not sure about something -- just ask. I try very hard NOT to slam someone personally unless they really deserve it. As mentioned before -- don't be paranoid and assume you personally are being singled out in every line of every post. If I do, there won't be any doubt whatsoever.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3008270]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Marty R. Milette]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:52:39 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[Marty, come join in the other discussion and add your expertises]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007955]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-12846-0.html?forumID=102&amp;threadID=300837&amp;start=0It's an interesting topic you could add your expertise too.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007955]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Neon Samurai]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:09:24 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[more to your liking?]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007952]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[?&gt;In the server market, MS is the minority&gt;shareAssuming you are talking about web servers, you can certainly find statistics that show the COUNT of servers running FOSS is higher.?You emphasise ?count? so I have to wonder why. When counting the number of servers wouldn't the ?COUNT? (sic) be the correct metric to compare against number of breach attempts and number of successful breaches against? Perhaps if I said ?in the web or publicly accessible server market, MS is the minority?? Is that more to your liking??If your business runs from mom's basement and generates enough revenue to buy a new skateboard once in a while ...?Is this a generic example off the top of your head or are you suggesting I am but a wee nipper in my parents basement who, from time to time, earns enough to splurge 200$ for a fresh skate deck trucks?  (Let's say, a Libtech fiberglass and pine deck not a 70$ department store special) No matter.?Additionally, if you look at what real businesses use INTERNALLY, you will find a much higher percentage of Microsoft servers AND clients.?I agree that Windows server/client setups are very popular among business installations. I support it as easily as I support other platforms along with supporting integration across platforms. I'm not sure your point on that one though. Does popularity someone prove applicability? That platform choice has a number of variables outside of howe well it is suited to the need; Lockin, politics, marketing, traditional management thinking. The don't really apply to the actual merits of the technology. Since the enterprise can get support contracts for both platform lineages equally, support doesn't apply either.As for  TCO:http://jaqui-greenlees.net/files/2006-11-20-flossimpact.pdf?Consider this: The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) released data showing that 16 of the 29 security advisories it released last year involved Linux or open-source products.?You don't think that the higher announced security advisories and intentionally public approach has something to do with that? The open source software library of ?Linux or open-source products? being larger probably doesn't have anything to do with that either. I don't question CERT but I do wonder if you considered the severity and patch time of those anounced advisories. Mozilla just released 3.0.6 Firefox addressing some Java vulnerabilities; is WGA still easily disabled by malware on Windows? Maybe ActiveX vulnerabilities have been addressed already in IE7??&gt;Servers are where the big money is yet *nix &gt;machines are not falling over constantly.I'd suggest that if YOUR Microsoft-based servers are falling over constantly, then YOU are the one with the problem. ?Interesting that you make that personal. How does pointing out the lack of nix based servers being exploited and breached as easily as Windows servers equate to my having a problem keeping my Windows servers running? Are you leaving something out the the quote or reading into those two lines only what you want to see? Even so, I don't understand why two servers side by side (Windows and Debian) can be hit with an nmap scan and the *nix machine will tick along happily while the Windows server's networking stack has a seasure? If you drop the firewall rules on the *nix box, you'll get a report back on what's listening behind each port yet no network stack failure. Odd..I guess the reports on SecurityFocus about Microsoft issued patches breacking Windows are false as is the case of future patches undoing previous patches reopening vulnerabilities as a result.?&gt;I think that increasing market share would &gt;increase the number of attempts against but &gt;not the number of successful exploitsYOUR OPINION. There are plenty of others such as from Charles Kolodgy, a research director at IDC who says, &quot;The level of a product's security is inversely proportionate to its position in the marketplace, If Linux had a 50 percent market share, you'd see more Linux vulnerabilities exposed.&quot;??I think? would be a pretty clear indication that it's my opinion so why the emphasis again? Are you yelling at me for not blindly accepting what teacher says? See where your quoted text says ?more Linux vulnerabilities exposed?, that means reported which is perfectly consistant with the FOSS aproach to software improvement; vulnerabilites are discussed openly so they are known and fixed quickly. I notice that the text you chose doesn't give any indication of how quickly those reported vulnerabilities will be patched. Historically, it's still hours and days not weeks, months and years once discovered. So, the opinion stands; sure more bugs would be found (a good thing) and my opinion is that they would continued to be patched as quickly as they are now (a good thing). But, how does that disqualify the platform for enterprise use??Debian takes security very seriously. We handle all security problems brought to our attention and ensure that they are corrected within a reasonable timeframe. Many advisories are coordinated with other free software vendors and are published the same day a vulnerability is made public and we also have a Security Audit team that reviews the archive looking for new or unfixed security bugs.Experience has shown that security through obscurity does not work. Public disclosure allows for more rapid and better solutions to security problems. In that vein, this page addresses Debian's status with respect to various known security holes, which could potentially affect Debian.?www.debian.org/securityDoesn't that benefit the end user be it home user or big business?Ok, so it's debian, you'll disqualify it for not being a fortune 500 or larger company. Redhat or Novell applicable? Let me know what you find out about Red Hat's patch time and service responses. Last I checked, the update subscriptions and service agreements stated that if they didn't have a patch or couldn't fix it remotely, they'd write a custom patch for the client. You get many custom patches from Microsoft? The last Windows unscheduled patch was followed by a second patch to correct the correction of the issue.?This actually demonstrates the difference between the 'hacker mentality' and a professional organization who must be held accountable.?How does ?hacker? equate to unaccountable.. or are you just focusing on the media promoted misconception of what is simply a mental state for thinking about the world? If we stick to Suse and Red Hat Enterprise distributions, are we still talking 'hacker mentality'? You don't actually understand the hacker or foss communities do you.?a hacker is simply someone who like to write and values high quality software?Eric S Raymond?a hacker is someone who takes a thing and uses for an interesting purpose it was not originally intended?Robert SteelDo those to opinions on the Hacker mentality somehow equate to unaccountability? Perhaps Johnny Long was unaccountable for all the security audits performed under contract?If you mean accountability in terms of someone to point fingers then your dreaming. If Windows fails and takes down your enterprise, Microsoft isn't accountable any more than Novel if Suse fails and takes down your enterprise. If you mean accountability in terms of testing patches before being applied to production systems, isn't that a business policy issue separate from the mentality of the admin that takes care of it??The FOSS attitude is quite the opposite -- people are hacking and patching products willy-nilly without the slightest bit of concern as to what effects those patches would or COULD potentially have on other products.?Since we're talking enterprise, you must mean that Suse and RHE are being patched willy-nilly. You ignore the process used by distributions that would be considered for business production environments. Anyone can submit patches but the experts that maintain the source trees decide if that patch is to be applied, rewritten or if there is a better way to address the vulnerability. Your assumption that any patch submitted is automatically added to the source tree shows a gross lack of understanding.?Microsoft views product integration as a blessing - as do their customers. In the FOSS world, so few applications communicate with or care about anything other than themselves there is a 'who cares' or 'that's your problem' attitude.?Odd, my Windows boxes have no trouble using my Linux based CIFS servers and all under an Active Directory domain. I'd suggest that respecting standards across products is a better way to approach integration. I do see synthetic barriers to interoperability between Windows and other systems but that's an important strategy in maintaining barriers to fair competition; business 101. I do admit that the separate applications in Office easily moving data objects between each other is fantastic but that's not unique or impossible to implement in other programs. I'd much rather have a Word document format that will still be usable in three or four versions. I greatly benefit from the integration between rsync and ssh as do many companies. The integration of ssh with the rest of the system is invaluable.?Some people actually view products that work together WITHOUT needing kludges and glue code to get them to work together and having consistent, reliable user interfaces as being 'high' quality. ?Yup, right up until an IE vulnerability opens the entire system up to criminal exploitation. Or a malicious script in a Word document opens the system up to exploits. Or a PDF vulnerability opens the system up to exploits. Or the integrated Windows firewall allows something through and onto or off the machine. If there is a problem with my browser, I can un-integrate it and use another. How many layers do you need infront of IE7 before it's safe since you can't uninstal it?If you choose to respond, see if you can do it without the dripping contempt for everything not agreeing with your own opinion. The caps are cute and all but not necessary.As for the later bit about &quot;samurai&quot; and &quot;take it like a man&quot;. Please.. you don't know enough about me to make that judgment.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007952]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Neon Samurai]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:01:58 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[By a jury of my peers, do I misread Marty?s tone in his posts?]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007821]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Am I misreading the posts by suggesting that they do more to berate and alienate other TR members? Am I out of line in suggesting that the posts demonstrate the arrogant elitist IT guru stereotype?]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007821]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Neon Samurai]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:02:32 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[I'm glad my use of a floppy disk amuses you]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007779]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Where I booting Dos from floppy I'd maybe take that seriously. Being a cleanly generated boot partition with risk of virus infection well mitigated; I'm just going to assume you've not ever considered the potential benefits of such a setup with a multi-OS install. If I move my boot loader to a read only CD, does it become more acceptable in your books or is it equaly amusing since I'm not using the Windows boot loader only?Did I say I used boot floppies as standard boot loaders for production systems? Nope, I said I (me, myself) use it at home due to providing benefits on my own multi-boot machine. My apologies if I was unclear, I meant to respond to the idea that Dos viruses where only effective through floppy boots or that booting from a floppy was somehow useless these days.&gt;&quot;In contrast, MS DOS viruses are still&gt;effective against Windows because MS&gt;continues to neglect the design flaws in&gt;favor of blaming the third party software&gt;developers.&quot;So then your point is that Chad Perin?s article on MS claiming vulnerabilities are the fault of third party programs rather than fixing the design flaw in the OS which is repeatedly exploited is bunk? It?s never happened then?I do have to wonder if you really berate your students the way you write your posts and berate the other TR members. Even in your last post you take several opportunities to insinuate that I'm an idiot and whining child; it's not just me though, your posts to others are just as saturated with arrogance and self assumed superiority. To get back to the training topic though, I'd be the most interested and attentive student in the class or in the top five. I love to learn about technology and would be very open to new information the instructor was presenting. I'd be walking out of your class and asking what other instructors and course times where available after the first day half hour you spent berating the students the way you write here.I actually wasn't asking about your instructional qualifications. I was more interested in what your basis for comparing software platforms and criticizing anyone not adhering to the Windows platform. I don't doubt you have teaching experience or Windows experience. What I doubt is that you have the equal basis of experience with other platforms from which to make a valid comparison.I also don't take it personally. Your equally hostile to anyone you respond to so it's hard to take it all that seriously and definitely not me being targeted by you.You are a stunning example of the elitist stereotype in IT. I could be wrong though; I?ve been wrong before and am open to that possibility. Let?s open that topic up for debate?]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007779]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Neon Samurai]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:59:46 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[Even Win2008 server..]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007515]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Right I'll just nip off an buy that.Hadn't realised that was the recommended workstation update for Vista Business (32 bit).Oh silly ignorant me.Only 758 quid as well, a bargain!]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007515]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tony Hopkinson]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:01:57 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[Maybe time for an upgrade?]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007287]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Maybe it's time for an upgrade Tony? If not the systems, at least the knowledge about them.Even Windows Server 2008 Enterprise lets you run 64 GB in 32-bit mode and 2 TB in 64-bit mode.You ARE killing me -- with your jokes! ]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007287]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Marty R. Milette]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:11:30 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[Aye.]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007213]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[I was.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007213]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[seanferd]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:33:03 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[Defragmentation, bad choice]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007170]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Unless your disk gets really full, most files systems used on linux, don't/barely need it.....Anti-virus, oh yes, you need that on OS's which are default allow.RAM, that stuffs handy, just do the upgrade. Of course I want access to all of it. Three gig, three ????Marty, you are dying here....]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007170]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tony Hopkinson]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:28:18 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[100% ?]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007158]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[That's lock it in a cupboard, put on a boat, sail out to the deepest bit of ocean you can find. Scuttle the ship killing you and everyone else who knows where it is.And of course cross your fingers.Most financial back ends are definitely not on windows, that's mainframe or at least mini territory.Break into my linux box to get personal finance details. Well how?Lets say that's in TonyFinance.Text, which of course is a total lie.You are going to socially engineer my admin password. Great now all you have to do is come round to my house, break in, break one of my user passwords and you are in, su, find the file, decrypt it....Course I ain't dumb enough to give you my root password anyway.OK you are going to remotely logon as me who has access to that file. No you are not, because I told my system you can't.Tony 'BeanCounter' Hopkinson can't be accessed remotely and has no access to the internet. Now you could if you knew my root password.... Ps the user is not called BeanCounter.I can even set it up so BeanCounter can't even log on locally.Now that might sound like a ball ache switching users all the time. But this is linux, I can be logged on as many people I care to, all on one desktop, at the same time. The only mandatory connection between those sessions is me.This is why people find linux difficult, it isn't windows.To have privilege separation, you have to start with it, you can't bolt it on. Windows came from DOS, that didn't even have users.There can always be gaps, faults and even dumbasses, who set up and run as root with a blank password. They aren't there by design or default though........If you want to say having to do all of the above is too complex or too much of a pain, that's your choice. Doesn't make it a secure one though. Oh and you could write software to set all that up, aint no one in linux land going to run it unless they can see the source though, to make sure you haven't cocked it up, or cheated.Persevere with linux, it stretched my head and I've got a mainframe background as well as windows. It's worth it though.It's not just that there a lot of windows users, it's that most of them run as admin with a blank password, and remote logon set as the defaultand then download BritneyNaked.exe and hit OK.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007158]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tony Hopkinson]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:04:17 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[IHow about some substantiation?]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007097]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Neon, I'm sorry, but when you or anyone else puts forth unsubstantiated, obsolete, ABM rhetoric -- better expect to get called on it.Please, don't whine about every one of my posts claiming that I'm beating on you or for simply using &quot;too many caps&quot;. Take it like a man and take the &quot;Samurai&quot; part of your pseudonym seriously! Get some &quot;spine&quot; and hammer me back with some real evidence supporting what you say.If someone wants to call crap on a statement I make -- I only hope they have enough smarts to back it up with facts instead of just whining about it or trying to divert attention. (Been working around West Yorkshire too long perhaps? To be honest, I made my posts to this article fully expecting to be flamed. I figured that it was high time someone debunked &quot;free&quot; BS surrounding FOSS and exposed a few simple business truths that are normally ignored or minimized by the penguin fanboyz.Interestingly enough, there hasn't been anything to dispute the points -- just a few whinges about the presentation.In my books, you stepped into a very deep pile of crap when you made this statement:&gt;&quot;In contrast, MS DOS viruses are still &gt;effective against Windows because MS &gt;continues to neglect the design flaws in &gt;favor of blaming the third party software &gt;developers.&quot;Did you actually take a moment to read that before you posted it? WTF??? Let's take it apart:&gt;&quot;In contrast, MS DOS viruses are still &gt;effective against WindowsI had to laugh when you said YOU were the one still booting from a floppy. This made at least part of the statement clear. Until then, I could only have assumed that this was what you were talking about -- no other option made any sense -- but even so, it is still a falacy.Sorry if I touched a nerve on that one, but let's have a show of hands here -- How many IT professions are still building systems that boot off a floppy for any kind of serious business purpose???The systems I'm designing at the moment don't have ANY local drives whatsoever --  the servers will boot directly from a NetApp.You may not agree, but I'd still have to say the 'get real' part was quite appropriate -- and put in a much kinder way than was actually going through my mind a the time  I haven't even built a system that HAS a floppy drive for the last 6 or 7 years. I seem to recall that the last one I saw in production use was an OS/2 system used as part of the HVAC control system for a 300-year-old hotel.Additionally -- if someone is daft enough to boot from a floppy -- let alone an infected one -- what the heck difference does the O/S on the hard drive make if the virus kicks in BEFORE the real O/S is even touched?So you proceed to 'assign blame' for this to Microsoft???...&gt;because MS continues to neglect the design &gt;flaws in favor of blaming the third party &gt;software developers.&quot;What design flaw would that be? Microsoft doesn't build the hardware and they certainly don't shove a floppy into your hand to boot from -- not for many, many, many years at least...Sorry, but I can write a boot sector virus in C, assembler or bloody binary that I thumb-in on a bank of switches with no operating system whatsoever (done it!) -- one that will toast ANY operating system on ANY hard drive -- how can you blame Microsoft for that?And who mentioned anything about third-party developers ANYWHERE in my posting or the article itself? Where did that come from? To answer your questions...&gt;Offhand, what is your experience with non-&gt;Windows platforms? My experience has with FOSS has honestly been crap. 14 years ago or so, I taught C programming, UNIX and Linux but over the years have observed that on EVERY project where FOSS is involved -- the amount of time and money wasted trying to get disparate FOSS products to work together has FAR outstripped the cost of any software licenses for WORKING proprietary solutions. That has been MY experience. Your experience may be different.Face it -- you can buy a hell of a lot of software licenses for the cost of ONE year of just ONE high-end Linux geek's time. For the cost of a $600 Windows Server License you can't even THINK about having a $100/hr Linux 'guru' put together (and make WORK) a 'free' system that includes the 'equivalent' of Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, IIS, .NET and all the other stuff you get right out of the box.As recently as this weekend, I asked a Linux guru to install a simple forum product on an Apache/PHP/MySQL box after I gave up after fiddling and farting around for hours trying to get it to work myself. Not surprisingly, his '5 minute' installation took all weekend and still isn't working right. Maybe I just got a 'dud' guru? Good geeks are hard to find -- especially when there are no viable certification programs to at least ensure MINIMAL competency and give some way of weeding them apart.Unfortunately, this kind of thing has not been the exception -- in my experience over dozens of projects -- it has been the rule.&gt;Are you equally comfortable administrating &gt;other platforms or is your experience one-&gt;sided?In a previous post, I stated categorically that people who THINK they are experts in both platforms are really only ledgends in their own mind. They are living in delusion.I have NEVER claimed to be a FOSS guru and never will. As Clint Eastwood so aptly put, &quot;A man's gotta know his limitations.&quot; As for myself, knowing how hard I've worked over the past 20 years wading through tens of THOUSANDS of pages of materials JUST to focus on general networking, security and the Microsoft side of the equation -- I have little tolerance and no belief in ANYONE who claims to be a master of this PLUS the FOSS environments as well.I won't say that it isn't humanly 'possible' -- but I'd be more apt to search for flying pigs.&gt;I'd be shocked to discover that you treat &gt;your students with the same contempt you &gt;appear to present in any post of yours I &gt;can remember reading. Back to paranoia 101.My credentials and experience as an instructor are well documented by hundreds of excellent course evaluations from students at all levels and from all over the world. These days, I don't get to teach very often, but can certainly recall the odd Linux 'guru' who was 'forced' to attend one of my classes by their company.One would be AMAZED by the change in attitude and humility a 5-day course can make. I've had people come up at the end of the course and apologize for being so ignorant at the start.Some of them actually went on to become quite excellent techs -- others -- well, they're asking customers whether or not they'd like a disk defragmentation while they're having their anti-virus treatment and RAM upgrade done... ]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3007097]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Marty R. Milette]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:33:01 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[59 % of 500 US listed corporate web presences]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3006993]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[= market dominance?Come again. The truly scary bit is that was the only close to factual claim you made.You do have some valid concerns in that the differences in the open source model, would necessitate various changes for any organisation choosing to use it. Presenting them in this fashion, to anyone slightly more knowledgeable than your self about it (which to be brutally honest is very likely), is going to make you look incompetent and foolish though.A bit more study required I think. ]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3006993]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tony Hopkinson]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:45:10 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[Linux/Windows Battle]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3006957]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Well, this is turning into the usual ix vs ms battle... nobody knows until it's all worked out. Personally I don't know the inner workings of either OS enough to be sure that security is 100% on either of them, or even that one is definitely better than another. My experience with Linux is that it is difficult to do just about anything, which to me implies that there are plenty of people who know it better than me and can probably find holes much easier than I - but the question really is, why would they? Doesn't it make more sense to build exploits to home systems where I can gather financial information (How many home users run Linux, or of those who do, how many keep their personal finances on that machine?)?Doesn't it make sense that, if the majority of the money companies are using M$ I'm going to look for exploits on those systems?It's not a matter of who has the biggest market share, it's a matter of following the money...Hypothetically, Apple doesn't get a large share of hacks because it also does not operate a large portion of the financial applications...]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3006957]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[C-3PO]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:32:46 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[Standards]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3006950]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Thanks for the clarification, you are right, but realistically, have you seen a lot of other Office suites that use the &quot;Open&quot; standard? Really it's just MS Office and Open Office competing... the difference is, Open Office has the PR twist of saying they're open to using a standard everyone can use - in other words, M$ please use a standard we can share... don't get me wrong, that's a great thing to have, but when there are only two big players, it's more like a marketing campaign than a real benefit. Open office does a pretty descent job of openning and closing M$ files... I haven't tried doing the same the other way around though.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3006950]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[C-3PO]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:54:09 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[Very little innovation]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3006919]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[There has been very little innovation though, in the software market - particularly the OS level. For the general web user, one product is pretty much like another - they all will type documents, they all will do e-mail, they all will surf the web... unless someone comes up with the &quot;next killer app&quot;, there's no advantage to any OS (M$, Apple or Linux) so that basically just leaves a) price and b) support... we all have our opinions on those two points.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3006919]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[C-3PO]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:51:03 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[well said,]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3006933]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[I was wondering of an elegant way to say the same but you word it perfectly; games and the poster's choice of misspelling.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3006933]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Neon Samurai]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:31:54 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[What does Microsoft have to offer?]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3006930]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[You just said you have XP installed to play games didn't you?For me, it's the ability to test MS only network protocols and use one or two security tools that I prefer.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3006930]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Neon Samurai]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:30:38 -0800</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[Well if all the goverment types are playing]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3006866]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[games, which OS they use to do it is a bit irrelevant.I'm far from a big MS fan, but I have found that the argument you are making and especially the way it's presented, tends to be disregarded by professionals.Just a tip.....]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-300072-3006866]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tony Hopkinson]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 10:20:22 -0800</pubDate>
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