On Fri, Mar 04, 2011 at 11:32:01AM +0100, Klaus Ethgen wrote: > A user that installs Debian on his system will do that due to the > reputation in security. If he want to have a simpler system he would > install, for example, Ubuntu, Mac or Windows. [...] > I do not think that Debian should be good for every DAU (German > abbreviation, English would be luser or so). I think Debian should be a > distribution for experts and professionals (but not exclusive). This is where we disagree. You seem to believe that Debian's usefulness should be confined to a particular niche of users; a niche which conveniently includes you. I disagree. While it certainly would make your particular use case easier, I think Debian should strive to be useful to as many users as possible. This isn't always possible (for instance, Debian will most likely never be very useful to people who only want to use Microsoft Office), but that should not interfere with the desire to strive for that end goal. Just because Ubuntu is a popular distribution for beginning Linux users should not have to mean that 'beginning Linux users' is no longer a target audience for Debian. If security matters a great deal to you, you should audit systems for unwanted services and disable them, rather than hope that whatever you have installed happens not to be a problem for your particular use case. Relying on defaults to be secure is relying on other people to do your security for you. This is stupid, in all cases. That's not to say that our defaults should be insecure, but 'acceptable security' is a stretchable concept; the security trade-offs that you are willing to live with may be stricter than mine, and vice versa. If you're unfamiliar with computers, on the other hand, chances that you'll be able to figure out how to enable convenience services are slim, at best. Since home users typically use computers in a desktop environment, I therefore think it's perfectly okay to have the default desktop installation enable such convenience services. -- The biometric identification system at the gates of the CIA headquarters works because there's a guard with a large gun making sure no one is trying to fool the system. http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/01/biometrics.html
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