Re: Horrifying suggestion
Ethan Benson wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 31, 2000 at 06:17:17PM +0100, Peter Hugosson-Miller
> wrote:
>
> > sounds interesting to any other newbies, just do the following:
> >
> > $su
> > Password:
> > lynx -source http://go-gnome.com/ | sh
>
> this is the most horrifying thing i have ever seen suggested. this
> is even worse then Microsoft's famous mail client.
Whoa, Ethan! This part was clearly marked as of interest for newbies
only. Yes, all your points are valid, but the key question here is "Do
you trust helixcode?" The above was copied directly from their Debian
installation instructions, which you can read for yourself here:
http://www.helixcode.com/desktop/instructions.php3?distribution=gognome
What the script does is to add a line to /etc/apt/sources.list, and
then run apt-get update followed by one of these (which you choose
from a list of three options):
apt-get upgrade
apt-get install task-helix-core
apt-get install task-helix-gnome
and that's it! I assume anyone actually running this script would
first look at it in a normal web browser at least!
The reason this is a _good_ thing for newbies, is that, unlike the
corresponding debian package, you get a working desktop at the end
of it _without_ having to edit any files on the way. Useful if you
want to look at Debian but are new to Linux (like me).
Now you have a desktop, a GUI file manager, access to readme files,
man pages, help documentation and everything you need to learn about
Linux, and find out just why the above install method breaks all
security rules. It's a kind of Debian-newbie bootstrap, if you like.
One day, the Debian install will work so well, that raw newbies won't
have to resort to such desperate methods as go-gnome. Till then, it's
the only way to go that actually works. That black and white console
gets old pretty quickly, and if I wasn't so stubborn I would have
given up on Linux a long time ago.
> if your still interested in using such methods i recommend you set
> your root password null and add this line to your /etc/inetd.conf
> and run /etc/init.d/inetd reload:
>
> telnet stream tcp nowait root /bin/sh sh -i
>
> note to anyone who actually installs that inetd line, please stop
> using computers immediatly!!!
Sarcasm noted. What you really mean is "Debian is not for newbies".
Well we all know that. I happen to have discovered that this might no
longer be the case...
--
Best regards,
Peter Hugosson-Miller
"Press any key to continue or any other key to quit"
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