Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 5th Feb 2006 17:10 UTC
One of the biggest reasons for many people to switch to a UNIX desktop, away from Windows, is security. It is fairly common knowledge that UNIX-like systems are more secure than Windows. Whether this is true or not will not be up for debate in this short editorial; I will simply assume UNIX-like systems are more secure, for the sake of argument. However, how much is that increased security really worth for an average home user, when you break it down? According to me, fairly little. Here's why.
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Member since:
2005-07-10
AdamW,
"1. www.reallycoolsoftware.com/shinythings.rpm
2. double click the rpm"
You seemed to have missed some other security points related to package management in Linux distributions. After doing what you said the Linux distribution would first request a Root (Administrator) password prior to opening the package manager such as YAST. YAST would then verify the digital signature is valid for the package, check for any dependencies/conflicts and install the software. Unlike Windows where the user double mouse clicks on the "packagename.exe" and it installs to the system. By defualt installation set-up Microsoft makes all users for Windows have Administrator (Root) access and leaves it up to the end user to create Limited User accounts. This is unlike Linux distributions where users are set up in the beginning to have Limited User rights.
It is typically a Windows system Administrator headache to get applications to run properly on Limited User accounts with out opening to much security. Hopefully when Windows Vista is released Microsoft will hold true to their promise to make the system more secure unlike how it is today. Such as everyone runs as Limited Users by default, except the Administrator account which is not visible and only accessible with the Administrator password.