Good evening, Robyn...
On Thu, 1 Feb 2001, Robyn Mills wrote:
> As for my opinion on some of the free OSes,
> - RedHat has plus'es and minus'es. The interface has improved to help
> newbies, upgrading within major versions is well-managed (eg, 6.1 to 6.2)
> but not so well between major versions, the quality assurance of RedHat 7
> is questionable even though it adds some good stuff.
> - Debian: better quality but you'll need to understand the system better as
> the interface is not as easy for newbies (when I say this, it means you
> have read and understand what you are doing with the system).
> - FreeBSD: yes, it's a BSD-type unix, not linux (though it has linux binary
> ports). The interface is not so easy for newbies (same comment as for
> Debian). Security...
> - Solaris 8 x86: do you want a system with established SMP capability?
> Linux is a more recent-comer to this area.
I agree pretty much totally with everything you've just said,
particularly about Debian and RedHat, as I have had several years
experience with implementing and running both. There *are* some
improvements in RedHat 7.0, but there are apparently some exploits, as
well.
> I've also heard that Mandrake has done great work with it's interface.
I can swear by it! I don't know much about running Mandrake as a server,
but their new workstation stuff is really attractive, highly functional
and well-documented. The new 3-D icons on the desktop are *really* nice,
and it has better video card support than any of its predecessors.
> ***
> I'd be interested to hear anyone's opinions of:
> - NSA's secure linux
I believe that was what I recently saw in action in a secure government
facility, but I could be wrong. Even the logon prompt at the terminal
was encrypted, and no one other than security people were allowed to
touch it. ;-)
> Bastille (hardening script for RH)
I also witnessed this in use, but fortunately, *I* wasn't the one who
had to figure out the documentation which I gather, from listening to
the profuse comments, was not terribly well-written.
Dave
--
Dave Laird ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
The Used Kharma Lot
Web Page: http://www.kharma.net updated 12/28/2000
There's a whole WORLD in a mud puddle!
-- Doug Clifford
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