Re: Lindows Issues

[Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu]

On Sat, 20 Jul 2002 01:41:57 -0000, daw () mozart cs berkeley edu (David Wagner)  said:
> Timothy L. Salus wrote:
> > Therefore any code or system can be broken
>
> This is debateable, but more importantly, it is an dangerous meme.

I'd rather have that meme on the loose than "It's secure because the
vendor says it is".

If people are convinced it's not secure, that would be a Very Big Win for
personal privacy - people will start asking "Do I *want* to give this
website/business/whatever my <whatever> number where it could be hacked?"

I'd rather have that then a certain database vendor CEO say that his product
is good enough(*) to run a national ID card database and be taken seriously.

People understand that cars aren't crashproof and theftproof - but very few
give up on cars as a result.  Fortunately for society, most people realize that
using seat belts, not driving drunk, keeping the car in good repair, and
locking the doors when in bad neighborhoods vastly improve your chances.

Now if we could just convince them the same thing about computers.
-- 
                                Valdis Kletnieks
                                Computer Systems Senior Engineer
                                Virginia Tech

(*) On the other hand, nobody's product is good enough.  We don't know
how to build something that good.  Think "J Edgar Hoover and Martin Luther
King Jr", and ask how you can *possibly* write software to stop that.

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