"Michael ODonnell" <michael.odonn...@comcast.net> writes: > > >> Those who use terms like "immune" or "virus-proof" when > >> discussing Linux do everybody a disservice since neither > >> is true. > > > >Ouch. > > Ooops. I forgot about your signature line. ;-> > > > I gave careful consideration to adopting my current signature > > line, for exactly the reason of the problems of conveying an > > inference of "immune" -- when that is not, and cannot possibly > > be, the case. > > Ah. I'll probably concede any point you want to make about > the dictionary definition of "-proof" as a modifier [...]
I believe his signature actually uses "-proofed", not "-proof"; so the relevant dictionary-entry might be...: $ dict -- -ed 1 definition found From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]: -ed \-ed\ The termination of the past participle of regular, or weak, verbs; also, of analogous participial adjectives from nouns; as, pigmented; talented. [1913 Webster] ... which indicates that "virus-proofed" is a conjugated verb, not an adjective like "virus-proof". i.e.: he's telling us that his PC has *gone through some sort of process* ("suffered an action", as my copy of GCIDE puts it...). In other words...: > The security-is-a-process-not-a-product dictum So...: > FWIW, some term that conveys the "process" idea, or the notion > that "perfect-security-is-impossible-but-we're-better-than-most" > would be preferable. I sorta like "hardened". Not to be confused with "hard"? ;) -- "Don't be afraid to ask (λf.((λx.xx) (λr.f(rr))))." _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/