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What is the section about?

This section is my thoughts and findings on various operating systems and applications. Ain't no Marketing hype here or pay-offs to sell you something you don't need and the REAL scoop on the security of the products.

The Windows Operating Systems

Windows is the OS that I have the most experience with and over the years now my most disliked. Why you ask?

Windows used to be my favorite OS or at least NT was. I started on NT 3.51. A clunky beast but Microsoft had the right idea. Computers should be able to talk to other computers no matter what OS they are running. This is what got them in the small server business and gave them the ability to shoot down the big boy at that time Novell.

Novell at that time was the big boy with Netware. It was pretty solid and stable for that time, but proprietary was its middle name completely down to its network protocol IPX. Yes you had to pay even to talk on the network. You couldn't even load the TCP/IP stack on a Novell box. Talk about user lock in, and the license was expensive too.

MS came up with the idea of developing their own IPX stack and developed a Novell Gateway so you could talk to a Novell network with only one Novell license. MS also included TCP/IP along with their own NetBIOS stack. (yes this was before the days of WWW) They even built a bit of UNIX Posix into the system although this was just a marketing ploy. Posix NEVER worked right. They had to do this to get government contracts. It doesn't have to work. It just has to say it works.

During this time Microsoft started building a community of Developers and Engineers. They gave free classes, and gave away free software to those who where in the business and supported their products. Yes these were development copies and not to be used on production boxes. Still they gave you the tools to make yourself better on their OS. Yes they gave me my first copies of Windows Server which I personally used which in turned I sold copies for them to my customers. They supported me so I supported them. They were at that time working towards the same goals as I was “Open Networks”. Also with each version there were improvements in operability, and security.

Microsoft even went so far with XP as changing the term they used for the User Accounts from “User” to “Restricted User”. This makes the average person think running under a User account is restricted and is a bad thing. So you make yourself an Administrator and leave yourself open for every piece of shit that comes along and climb right into the System files because your are an Administrator and have full rights to the whole system. You just got duped into taking one of the locks off of the front door of you machine.

Of course these corporations that are making billions don't want you the normal user to know these things. Instead they would rather keep it broken and give you slick greasy marketing on how you need these things (and you have to with Windows) because that is the way the big bad network is. Its broken and they're here to help. No folks the network ain't broken MS is. Remember I am a fucking expert. I have no reason to lie to you. I'm not selling anything.

What where these elemental security practices they broke on purpose?

OH I NEED Windows!” In truth no you don't there is a better way. Check out what I have to say about the operating systems they don't want you to know about and the Truth about them.

When in truth running as a Normal User is a good and normal thing. Me as the Network Administrator I don't use an Administrator account for normal network use. I have a user account with no more privileges than any other user on the network. Yes I do have access to the Admin accounts but ONLY! Login as these to change a setting or a configuration. After I do what I need to do I get out of that account, and go back to my user account. Simple security practice.

Why would anyone break the first two basic laws of network security. When I heard people talk somethings about this its said “They're stupid.” No the people at Microsoft are far from stupid remember they can afford to “buy” the best and the brightest, and they do.

Also with the coming of XP security took a trip out the Window(tm) too. MS Marketing Department and the Bean Counters figured out that they and their “Premier Partners” could make a tom of money SELLING! Their customers fixes to a broken system. Gone where the days where the most simplest of Operating System security practices were built into the OS. In fact they made where if you manually added such security it would break the OS or the application running on the machine. In other words when you fixed it security wise you broke the system to where it would not run. So you are stuck running an insecure machine.

Somewhere during Windows 2000. Microsoft inserted their head up there ass. The Marketing Department completely took over. Things like security, interoperability, the Developer and Engineering Community got thrown out the Window(tm) for the sake of Profit, Profit, Profit! They even went so far as to cripple certain components of Windows in XP so they could make two versions and have the ability to rape their business customers for a little extra money. The ability to join a Windows Domain has always been free up to this point from as far back as Windows 3.1 (Windows For Workgroups). Now its XP Pro! At $75.00 more! So over the last 5 years I have gotten locked into your system and now your going to bend me over and fuck me long and hard Sailor Boy.

The truth is ALL! Other operating systems can and do get along just fine on the Internet without the need of such crap. Other than Network Firewalls there is no need for any Anti-anything on other operating systems because they follow the above simple rules. These machines can actually live on the public network using the simple security tools that come built into the OS and still not need Anti-anything. It does require more work without a network firewall but it can and is done. A Windows system MUST be behind a firewall or in less than an hour just sitting there it will get infected sitting on the public network.

1. User Level Security. From Win2000 back when you set up a user they were by default a “Normal” User. NOT! And Administrator. Yes you had the ability to give any account Admin rights but by default a User was a User. Users ran in User Space without System Admin Rights.

2. Programs and Applications ran in there own Sand Box in the C:\Program Files directory. Programs and Applications could not write to the system directory C:\WINNT. This area was “Read & Execute” only. This is the way it should be.

So why would smart people do something so stupid? A smart person only does things for a reason. This is a basic principal of Human nature. So why would one do such a thing? Money maybe? Think about the BILLIONS (yes that is with a “b”) spent on Anti-virus, Anti-spyware, firewalls and the like. Yes this part of the network business is in the billions and on the most part is only needed because of the insecurities in Windows that Microsoft will not fix.

With corporations like these in their business model you the User are not the customer. You are a asset. The stockholders are the customers. Yes go back and read that again and think about it. They don't want you to know this. Microsoft is not a software company but a marketing company that sells software. If you stand back and look at the problem from this point of view it then all makes perfect sense, and you the consumer are screwed and your digital life left out for all the world to use to their liking.

Linux and the many flavors there of..

GNU/Linux (its real name) to me is one of the most remarkable feats humans have done since the advent of the Internet. Linux is really just the kernel that operates everything else and not the complete operating system. Think of a car engine the kernel is the engine block. It won't run without all the other parts but you certainly can't have a working engine without the block. It actually gets it name from a kernel of corn. From it the plant comes.

The rest of the system is the GNU which stands for “GNU is Not UNIX”. This is all the goodies that come with it.

The amazing thing about it is here is one of the most stable and secure OS es on the market that was not built by a company but built by the masses themselves. People from all around the world put their efforts into this and here it is a operating system owned my no one but free to use my everyone. See people from different races and different countries can! Work together peacefully for a common cause. I guess the key is to keep the governments out of the mix. It seems people in general can get along. Of course this is what scares companies like Microsoft to death. “Free and nobody owns it so they can't buy the competition.

Now some (MS) will tell you “Its too hard to install.” Yes it was a long time ago but things have changed and if you just follow the on-screen directions it can be easier than installing Windows. Windows can be a real bitch especially these days since you don't really get a copy of Windows but a restore disk for a certain machine and yes I have seen these fail horribly on the machine they came with.

Some scream “No Support” That's BS think about how many times have you actually called Microsoft for support? None maybe? Online there is tons of helpful sites and How To's. Check out http://www.google.com/linux and run a search on anything and you'll find an answer.