Live data from Hacker News

Is the Linux Desktop less secure than Windows 10? [pdf]

fosdem.org

91–100 of 190 posts

Re: Is the Linux Desktop less secure than Windows 10? [pdf]

#91
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I'm worried about Microsoft knowing who I am . It's hard to get legitimate Windows installs that aren't linked to non-anonymous payment methods. Not impossible, but hard.

Take cash, buy computer at retailer...

Sure. Except that I don't want another computer. Just an OS to install. What's hard to get anonymously is the license.

Re: Is the Linux Desktop less secure than Windows 10? [pdf]

#92
post #46

I mean, the answer is unequivocally, without the slightest doubt, yes. The Linux Desktop is probably a good 5-10yrs behind Windows 10 in terms of defense-in-depth mitigations as well as exploits in common targets like file parsers etc etc. https://www.blackhat.com/docs/us-16/materials/us-16-Weston-W... is a good reference for all the stuff that Desktop Linux in 2017 is for the most part, missing

Security without a threat assessment is not very meaningful. If we are comparing a default linux desktop installation and a default windows installation, what would the test setup look like? Let say we had two such machines and gave them each a reachable ip address and let the first test just be them running unattended until unwanted software got in. In the second experiment we had the same machines go to random webs…

[deleted]

Re: Is the Linux Desktop less secure than Windows 10? [pdf]

#93
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Outside of architecture astronautical web development (usually done on a Mac while sipping some kind of coffee and milk blend) no it is not acceptable one bit.

I mean, even to install Rust they give you a command to do this. So no, it's not just web dev.

Well Rust is a Mozilla creation, and Mozilla is first and foremost a web company...

Re: Is the Linux Desktop less secure than Windows 10? [pdf]

#95
post #31

Given that piping curl in bash with sudo is considered acceptable, this is not surprising

Outside of architecture astronautical web development (usually done on a Mac while sipping some kind of coffee and milk blend) no it is not acceptable one bit.

Yeah, instead it's much more secure one-liner:

  $ wget http://example.com/foo.tgz && tar xf foo.tgz && cd foo && ./configure && make && sudo make install

Re: Is the Linux Desktop less secure than Windows 10? [pdf]

#96

It's interesting that the problems are all with things that I actively dislike about the modern Linux desktop. I mean, I guess it's OK that it creates thumbnails of images...but, the tendency to grind away for seconds whenever opening a big folder (Windows does it, too, I guess) is just annoying. I end up using command line most of the time for file management tasks because it's too slow and cumbersome to use the UI.…

> Windows does it, too, I guess

No, it generates thumbnails outside the main UI thread; sometimes it's a bit slow in so doing, but I've never seen it hang an Explorer window, regardless of file size or quantity. (Windows 7, but it would astonish me to learn that 10 displays a regression here.)

Re: Is the Linux Desktop less secure than Windows 10? [pdf]

#97
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that does not exactly strike me as a rational stance to take. Are you actually more worried about Microsoft blackmailing you about those photos from 4 years ago?

You may be aware that since Trump, when you're not a US citizen, you have no rights to privacy. Everything Microsoft collect about the rest of the world is fair game. IIANM this feature was introduced with the patriot act update.

"Since Trump"? The most recent rev to that law was last year. Obama didn't leave office until this one.

Re: Is the Linux Desktop less secure than Windows 10? [pdf]

#98
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Better", but similar, would be to move to OS with the Object Capability model. Applications don't get access-by-default with security bolted on afterward, they get access to the objects they're initially granted and no way whatsoever to access anything beyond that. Sadly that's a huge change in programming and security model for most and wouldn't be an easy change to make.

CloudABI https://nuxi.nl/cloudabi/ lets you run capability based apps side by side with traditional full POSIX apps on your OS. Out of the box on FreeBSD, patches exist for Linux and NetBSD, userspace support for macOS. So you get one binary that runs on multiple operating systems as a bonus :) The ABI itself is basically "FreeBSD, plus Capsicum always enabled from the start, minus any stuff that doesn't work under C…

That's a nice step in the right direction, thanks for bringing it to my attention. It does mean a fair bit of rewriting though which is mostly what my initial comment was trying to get across, it's a different world over there :)

Re: Is the Linux Desktop less secure than Windows 10? [pdf]

#99

I mean, the answer is unequivocally, without the slightest doubt, yes. The Linux Desktop is probably a good 5-10yrs behind Windows 10 in terms of defense-in-depth mitigations as well as exploits in common targets like file parsers etc etc. https://www.blackhat.com/docs/us-16/materials/us-16-Weston-W... is a good reference for all the stuff that Desktop Linux in 2017 is for the most part, missing

Maybe I'm not rational but I'm much more worried about Microsoft having access to my data than some random "Russian" hacker.

I'm not worried about Microsoft having access to my data, but I am worried about Microsoft having access to everyone's data.

Re: Is the Linux Desktop less secure than Windows 10? [pdf]

#100

It's interesting that the problems are all with things that I actively dislike about the modern Linux desktop. I mean, I guess it's OK that it creates thumbnails of images...but, the tendency to grind away for seconds whenever opening a big folder (Windows does it, too, I guess) is just annoying. I end up using command line most of the time for file management tasks because it's too slow and cumbersome to use the UI.…

> Windows does it, too, I guess No, it generates thumbnails outside the main UI thread; sometimes it's a bit slow in so doing, but I've never seen it hang an Explorer window, regardless of file size or quantity. (Windows 7, but it would astonish me to learn that 10 displays a regression here.)

It's pretty well known. There are several workarounds.

One is to optimise view for general, not images or video or sound.

Another is to "reset your folders"

http://superuser.com/questions/1097394/windows-10-download-f...

Post reply on HN