Yeah, well - I admit it's "security through obscurity" - but 99% of malware coders ain't targeting Linux, because ain't nobody using Linux. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by The-Spec
I'm sending you a PM too - I got a project. =D
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Yeah, well - I admit it's "security through obscurity" - but 99% of malware coders ain't targeting Linux, because ain't nobody using Linux. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by The-Spec
I'm sending you a PM too - I got a project. =D
Hmmmmm,
Yeah I saw one once..........the old couple wanted to know if I could fix their tower system, their grandson had set up.............. they knew it was Linux, but not what, or what he had done. :rolleyes: He had not prepared an "image" or "ghost" CD/DVD!Quote:
and, once a tech (like myself) sets up a Linux box with KDE, XFCE or whatever, slaps Wine on there to run MS Office and puts the "purty little icons" on the desktop, I'm not sure how much more support would be needed for an average home user who uses the computer for little more than getting online and balancing their checkbook...
The HDD was dead so it was start from new............fortunately I noticed the little sticker on the side............they had a valid MS Win XP Pro licence!.....and MS only licence you to use their software............so I quite legally recovered this poor device from the jaws of Satan himself!!!
I installed O-o 2 and FF and a firewall, AV and AS.............CC and a few utilities............. gave them some written instructions and a mirror disk. All they had to do was install their backups............which they actually had been doing :eek:
A lot of the Win boxes I get have just been "used" like a microwave...........they go to the store and buy this nice OEM machine with its fancy *recovery partition"...............errrr if the HDD goes south, how do you get into the recovery partition???????
Please remember that these outfits probably have legacy, bespoke stuff?Quote:
Sometimes I think you can earn a living on Windows simply because older version a lot of companies still have are just such crap you NEED someone there to watch it. Lol, I'll probably have some **** for that comment, but it's a joke.
Well, just come to East Yorkshire and be prepared for a massive culture sQuote:
I have to be Honest here Nihil; I've never seen anyone, regardless of the OS they used, or the software style of development they liked, expect someone to do work on a machine for free.
hock! :D
Too be honest with you mate I have no artistic talent............. I couldn't even paint my way out of a bag of potato chips!!!............ but I do know what dog turds look like!................ Ubuntu?Quote:
I was pretty shocked to see someone take something awful like Ubuntu, and make it look good.
Even with my lack of talent it might have been possible.............. after all, how difficult is it to improve upon a dog turd?Quote:
I was pretty shocked to see someone take something awful like Ubuntu, and make it look good.
:lildevil:
Hey, isn't this your night or something? 31 October.............that would be before"All Saints" and the next day is "All Souls"
:eek: Amateur... :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by nihil
Actually, I've never installed Linux on anyone's computer except for my own - that was a hypothetical... but, glad you posted that - I will be sure to leave some means of recovery if ever I find myself in that situation...
However, if the HDD is shot, a recovery partition doesn't do anyone any good anyway - you'd still be starting from scratch, unless you had a Restore CD/DVD, which most of my clients have lost long ago... :rolleyes:
Ah - you feel my pain... :pQuote:
Originally Posted by nihil
Well, so long as they had their backups, I suppose you could have slapped any OS on there and they wouldn't have known the difference... people care very little about what OS they have so long as they can do what they need to do with ease... they *do* care about their STUFF!
I had the misfortune of informing an elderly lady that her 320GB drive was shot several months ago - the thing was grinding, making strange sounds I didn't know an HDD could make. Beyond my capability of repairing, I asked her if she had any backups...
"Backups?"
*facepalm*
I've seen people do cron jobs to automaticly gzip content from their site but leave it in the web directory. I use it as both a way to maintain access and an attack vector rolled into one.Quote:
also make use of cron to do scheduled backups
Not a good idea just letting people upload whatever they want like that either.
Nobody can upload anything to my server without a username and a password via ssh (sftp). And then, only have access to the directory I allow them access to...Quote:
Not a good idea just letting people upload whatever they want like that either.
Did you get my PM?
That's why I tape important stuff to the inside of the case, like a streamlined version of the OS.................I don't do Apple, and generally avoid laptops............. I refer them to the manufacturer, where they will be charged appropriately :cool::eek:Quote:
which most of my clients have lost long ago...
When I look at a machine and it has the M$ sticker on it I will load the replacement OS from one of my CD/DVDs
UK law is quite simple..........M$ licence their software to you, how you get it on your HDD is your business so long as you have a licence to use it.
Hmmmm, if Windows based, third party recovery tools won't work then I use roadkil's "unstoppable copier" Even if the drive has a damaged platter, so long as it still spins the software will recover all files, although some may only be partial due to surface or electronic damage.Quote:
I had the misfortune of informing an elderly lady that her 320GB drive was shot several months ago - the thing was grinding, making strange sounds I didn't know an HDD could make. Beyond my capability of repairing, I asked her if she had any backups...
DO NOT USE THE WINDOWS UTILITIES............ they are a load of crap! They are only intended to recover a ballsed-up Windows installation, not a true hardware problem. In those situations you do not want to restore Windows, you just want to get what user data you can and install a new drive.
320GB? that sounds like a newish drive and may well have a three year warranty. I get stuff with defective drives and run the manufacturer's diagnostics on them............. I have had a number of successes in simply returning the drive to the manufacturer under their three year warranty, even though the OEM's 12 month warranty has expired ;)
Basically they don't keep track by serial number of who they sold their drives to. The HDD manufacturer's diagnostics will tell you if the item is still under their warranty, which runs from its production, not sale date ;)
I actually keep back ups. Partially because I've lost my drive before. Basically I was screwing around one day and, quite frankly, I had no clue what I was doing. I used to do this all the time, where I'd sit down and just screw with the thing until I figured it out.
This works fine for Office, or an Email client, but not with a Partition Table.
My Server has two HDs in it, and it's running Slackware. If you want to upload, download, or connect at all, you enter in a user name and password, AFTER I've told the hardware firewall to allow your IP for the set period of time I've agreed to let you use it.
Once the timer starts, and you've supplied a valid user name and password, which I generate myself (Not guessing, or randomly hitting keys, normally through tabs to songs) and that password is good until you log out. Once you're done, it doesn't work anymore.
The drive I use for Root is basically huge, and then, another HD I installed, is used purely for "/storage" and is mounted that way with permissions so I can watch what is allowed.
If you want to get connected after a username, password, and my OK, I then have to out the machine in the DMZ. So even with that, no one is logging in to it without me saying so. It's not that I have stuff someone else would find super valuable... It's because if someone DID log in, what if they wanted to delete stuff? Most FTP clients today work a lot like a GUI.
Actually that's quite true! A Server for FTP.... A GUI FTP Client, is a lot like a GUI File Manager.... I've used it before this way to rename files I didn't want to have to try guessing how to make special non English characters into, and also, I can move them around, make directories, and so on.
Anyway, point remains, the argument that "Linux would be just as bad as Windows if it were as popular" is still crap. What is a more viable target? A Server or a Desktop? What runs what? Well, Servers are still the land of Unix, and Desktops are the land of Windows. And even with Windows Web Servers, they can run Apache too.
The fact that there are less problems with Unix Servers, should say something at least.
If some of this doesn't make much sense.... I'm sorry, but I've been awake a LONG time.
I slept for an hour in the last two days.
:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by nihil
Well, you caught me - I really don't have any idea what size the HDD was, I just remember it was big and I pulled a number out of the air... :rolleyes:
But it wasn't under the machine (Dell) warranty... it was a Maxtor, and I believe it was more than three years old - but that's something to keep in mind next time I have a dead drive.
I don't know if unstoppable copier would have worked or not, but I doubt it, as the BIOS even stopped recognizing it after I messed with it long enough (first tried connecting it to another computer using my USB dongle, then stuck it on the IDE cable, under Knoppix both times... I don't remember really every single thing I tried - just that it was totally fux0r3d.)
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Yeah, well... it was a rather abstract post... :pQuote:
Originally Posted by gore
Reads like you were "thinking-out-loud" - I kept waiting for the "did I feed the dog earlier? I don't remember feeding the dog earlier..."
I think what you were trying to say was "Backup your ****. Careful with partitioning software. My server is locked down tighter than a dolphin's ass. Nonsensical rambling about FTP GUIs (:confused:). *nix is more secure than Windows." - yeah, I think that about sums it up... :cool:
Well, I don't really know... I do know that far less computers run *nix than those that run Windows, and therefore, most of the people who are looking to write exploits are targeting Windows.
Of course, it's been a long time since I've heard about anything being compromised on a server level... Maybe I'm just not "in the know"
Now I'm rambling... :p
Gore, UNIX/Linux is great for standalone servers, but both lack the administrative and security functionality that Windows provides within a domain environment.
Not only that, but Microsoft has a serious win with virtualization. Ever seen a live VM migration through Hyper-V and Server 2008? It's cool as hell. 100% uptime is possible.
Ugh, dude, I don't have a DOG, We have Cats lol.
Anyway, yea, I do from time to time basically type where I'm more or less typing what I'm thinking, and due to my ADD, it probably looks even more weird heh. I find that free typing like that, though, can be interesting. Have you ever just sort of sat down and written down whatever thoughts you had? It's interesting.
Anyway, yes, Backing up Data is good, and you're damn skippy my Server isn't letting people in lol. And yea, Flipper's ass looks like he's batting on the wrong team compared to it! ... Sorry, that whole playful lack of sleep thing.
The FTP GUI thing I thought was interesting. If you think about what a standard File Manager does....Or Did before we all got annoyed with something only doing ONE job.... But do you recall the old Commander style Applications? Basically the ones that really only created Directories, deleted directories and files, moved them, and renamed files?
Well, Filezilla, just for an example, can do this on my FTP Server. And so it's at least somewhat interesting to me, how an FTP client can be used as a file manager for an FTP Server...For certain directories at least. Obviously you're not going to copy things from Root over FTP.
As for the last part in that sentence about Unix being more secure than Windows... Well, yes. This isn't JUST because of the way it's built though either. I mean anyone with the knowledge to do so, could very easily set up a Windows Machine, and not worry about intrusion. It just takes know how.
The Unix world is much the same, and I know I'd be lying if I said "Well, it's easier on Windows to do this".... For most people setting up a Server, the GUI and clicking, eventually makes a glass ceiling. You can't do EVERYTHING with a Mouse, and not just that, but eventually, it's going to be easier at one point or another, to type out a few lines of text, hit enter, and do something, than navigate through 200 drop down menus.
You've been a member here for some time, and I've seen a lot of your posts, you know what you're doing, so I'm sure you'll agree that a drop down menu, and clicking on a bunch of menu items, is something that can slow you down.
Might look pretty but it also makes it slow. I'm still in awe that someone managed to pay anyone enough to make a GUI for Sendmail Configuration.... That is astounding. How could they possibly pay someone THAT much to go through, and write a little check box, for THAT many options and flags? Lol.
Anyway, Back on point, the reason I hold Unix as more secure in general, is that you can get sources. If Microsoft did that, I do think that it would start being at least possible to get close.
But until the day I can load up a Configuration Application, and tell the Windows Kernel I don't WANT that many drivers loading, or that I don't NEED all that crap running... It's simply going to stay with less overall potential.
I still can't remember the damn process of stripping Unix down to a Kernel and nothing more, and adding things to that. I did see TheHorse earlier though, I'll ask him, he actually can do it.
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Doppy! Hi!
No, I haven't. But it is nice to hear they're finally doing something that allows uptime to keep rolling while something is being done that would in any other circumstance, require the network to be down.
I actually saw someone arguing that VMS was the best thing ever not long ago.....Turns my stomach to see blatant stupidity like that. I mean seriously, who the hell wants to use VMS? Just because you can make a Cluster stay up like you're using Viagra Cat6 Cables doesn't make it good. I can make a DOS cluster do that. Heh.
The VMS person, hated Unix in all forms. It was like watching someone who uses OS/2 say that it was better than....Well...Anything really lol.
I think I can point out that no one here actually uses OS/2 for serious anything. It's like seriously the only OS I know of that not one person here actually uses.
I've asked in the past but not once actually gotten a reply that someone was suing it for a serious application of any type.
Anyway, I'm going to ask something I'm unsure of, because I honestly just am not sure, but, here goes:
The whole Unix / Linux standalone server thing, VS Microsoft's Domains... Doesn't Novell have a product to do that very thing? Or at least close? I remember reading something a while back about SUSE Servers, and how Novell was doing something that would basically make that sort of thing fairly easy.
Anyway, like I said, before someone misquotes and uses it against me, I'm not sure if that was what they meant or not, and since I don't have the article handy, I can't check.
Anyway, if that's in fact different entirely, or Microsoft does it better, I'll retract that statement :) Only a moron never changes their mind / Opinion.