Red Hat Linux nears security clearance

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bad admin never mind the OS

One thing I've noticed between Mac OSX, Mandrake Linux, and the Windows XP I'm running now is that for all system activity, on Mac OSX and Mandrake, I have to enter a superuser password. Not so with Windows XP.

Personally I think you're wrong about the bad admin thing. We should all log in by plugging a USB key in to a keyboard and entering a pin (as a minimum, bioscan at top end), no crappy old 20th century username and password.

You could then have a special key for admin stuff (installing software and so on). Each application should also only be able to access My_Documents\new_application_name by default. In this way, a EXE you run by accident can't send your outlook data to a hacker website.

I read in De Re Atari (old 8-bit) programming manual 20 years ago the following paraphrased user interface guidelines:

if you can press a key that screws up the system, typically programmers say things like "poor mortal fools ahaha they're so stupid" whereas in fact, programmers should disable the key, or have some protection so that a confirm is required, with essential time delay to prevent typing errors activating the function.

In other words, anytime you blame the user, as "blame" is an excuse for action, you're allowing the competition an edge over you.

So here we are Microsoft, Mandrake and Apple, USB key x2 plus pin please instead of damn usernames and passwords.

Posted by: hipparchus   Posted on: 12/04/03 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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