Securing Linux Opearting System – Bare minimum checklist

Is anyone seeing Avahi actually doing something useful? I don't need it for DNS discovery because the usual DHCP clients already do that. I don't need it for printer discovery because CUPS already does that. It doesn't work as a quick ad-hoc windoze network discoverer because you still need Samba and netbios. I routinely uninstall it, sometimes more than once because some new app will drag it in as a dependency, and nothing bad happens. And it installs and runs by default on most distros. Puzzled I am.

As usual, the Arch Linux wiki is full of useful information. I still don't see the point-- it's really not zeroconf because you still have to configure various services, so Avahi seems an unnecessary extra step. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Avahi

I asked the Avahi devs once upon a time and I got a reply how wonderful it is.

> Is anyone seeing Avahi actually doing something useful?

Nope.

@TC -

I'm appalled at your lack of appreciation.

Avahi is a great place to hit the beach, do a little surfing, and see volcanoes.

I always remove it as I don't see the point I know where all my network devices are, why would I need to discover them?

Thunar see's my samba network and ftp without a problem. Cups see's my printer.

The only thing its good for is taking up valuable memory space.

I was wondering what avahi did, and then one day I set up a test box, and without thinking, tried to ssh to the hostname I had given it, forgetting that it was not in dns. But, thanks to avahi, my desktop was able to resolve it and connect. So now I know what avahi does.

@dinotrac

Two people are discussing whether the state of Hawaii is pronounced "Havaii" or "Hawaii" So they stood there arguing and arguing, until they decided to ask a person that was walking by. They asked the gentleman: "Excuse me sir, is Hawaii pronounced "Hawaii" or "Havaii? The gentleman said, "Havaii." So they both looked at each other, and as the gentleman was leaving, one of the two said to him, "Thank you." The gentleman replied by saying, "Your velcome."

@small -

Ba da bing - and bang!