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Once upon a time, there were HP PC computers. They ran HP-Dos, then MS-Dos. These machines were meant to be personal computers. Personal rather than a group machine. Not multitasking and not multiuser.
The operating system was not built with security in mind. It really wasn't a big issue. The only way to move data from one machine to another was to copy it onto a disk. If you were a little bit careful about what disk you stuck in your machine, you were more or less safe.
Then came networking for the PC. Now security is a much, much bigger issue. However, retrofitting MS-Dos for security is not possible. It's in the nature of the thing to be a great big security hole. Over the years, Microsoft has shipped ever newer, bigger and "better" versions of the operating system. It doesn't resemble its ancestor at all in any particular beyond the fact that it is a great big security hole.
To be fair, there are many ways to make a Linux machine into a great big security hole, too. But in Linux, it is possible to fill that hole in and make the system reasonably secure.
Why am I ranting about this at noon on Friday? 'Cause this office is filled with PCs running various versions of Microsoft Windows and various versions of DOS apps. The system makes liberal use of file sharing and network drive mounting. Everything is connected together in one big happy network.
And the mail program of choice is Outlook.
And this morning, we are chasing a goddamn virus all around the building.
Yep, it's annoying.
My plan? Convert it all to Linux as quickly as I can.
The operating system was not built with security in mind. It really wasn't a big issue. The only way to move data from one machine to another was to copy it onto a disk. If you were a little bit careful about what disk you stuck in your machine, you were more or less safe.
Then came networking for the PC. Now security is a much, much bigger issue. However, retrofitting MS-Dos for security is not possible. It's in the nature of the thing to be a great big security hole. Over the years, Microsoft has shipped ever newer, bigger and "better" versions of the operating system. It doesn't resemble its ancestor at all in any particular beyond the fact that it is a great big security hole.
To be fair, there are many ways to make a Linux machine into a great big security hole, too. But in Linux, it is possible to fill that hole in and make the system reasonably secure.
Why am I ranting about this at noon on Friday? 'Cause this office is filled with PCs running various versions of Microsoft Windows and various versions of DOS apps. The system makes liberal use of file sharing and network drive mounting. Everything is connected together in one big happy network.
And the mail program of choice is Outlook.
And this morning, we are chasing a goddamn virus all around the building.
Yep, it's annoying.
My plan? Convert it all to Linux as quickly as I can.
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