DistroWatch Weekly: Distributions and security updates, Fedora for KDE and Xfce users

gus, I inherited a couple Slackware servers last year. 11...upgraded the backup to 12. I will never use anything else for a server again if I have my say-so in the situation.

That's gotta feel good getting your fix. I felt the same gush when my employer's attorneys insisted that my name be on the patent application as an inventor. Good resume fodder.

Yes, it feels very good, especially after a major blooper a couple years ago.

Do you guys with Slack boxes use updatepkg, slapt-get or ?? for patches

Steven. I'm lazy so I don't really keep an eye on patches like I should...it would be prudent for me to do so, I admit. I also compile my entire application stack from source, eschewing the distro's, except for sshd, which I have a whole lotta perl processes monitoring and messing with the script kiddies' minds.

One of the guys I work with loves MS but he is not completely blind, anyway, we were talking the other day and got on to the subject of viruses.

His big thing was that no matter how safe Linux is, there are still viruses. So I asked him, how many known exploits are there for Linux? Can you name any? Even one? HAH!

I told him, "You have fun managing two to three anti-virus programs and adware sniffers, me? I'm going to go home and use my computer.."

:-)

Scott, from what I know, most of the anti-virus stuff that runs on Linux is meant to scan for Windows viruses that may be passed along to Windows clients. I find that hilarious.

It pisses me off to no end that yahoo mail, which I have used for years, insists on scanning every single file attachment...even images...and forces me to go through a three-step process to see these attachments. (Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't find an option to turn this off.) Yahoo knows I'm a Linux client, yet forces a scan on my files to prevent the spread of Windows virii.

Don't feel to bad, g-mail does the same thing but at least they scan it as I am opening it and it is just one click to download it. I hardly even notice it. I have not used Yahoo mail in some time so I am unfamiliar with their process.

gmail is much better and I have had an account since 2004 but haven't used it. In contrast, I have had my yahoo mail account since 1998 or '99. A major annoyance of mine is people who keep changing their email address. I have had yahoo for so long everyone knows it and uses it...even long, lost friends. I also use several different forwarded accounts with it. Now, my dilemma is that I need to pay for the $20/year yahoo mail plus to forward my yahoo mail to my gmail. Seems like a small price, but I have a mental block on the whole situation right now. I really dislike logging into separate accounts to view emails (with the exception of work), so I have just stuck with the Yahoo interface. It's my own neurosis.

> (Sarbanes-Oxley, yech!!!!)

I actually like it when Dino and I can agree on something unreservedly.

Do I trust "Debian"? Yes. I trust Debian Unstable to continue to make my life interesting.

With a "real" distribution, I would have stability. Predictability. Dullness.

I didn't do an update for a month, while the KDE3-KDE4 thing was ironing itself out. Such is life, I guess.

I have been using g-mail since 05 and in that time my storage has gone from 2gigs to 6.5gigs and my maximum file size to attach has gone from 10megs to 20megs. I love it.

Quoting:I didn't do an update for a month, while the KDE3-KDE4 thing was ironing itself out.

I tried KDE4 and wasn't terribly impressed (I'm a KDE guy). Sure, some of the eye candy is smooth and sweet, but it disrupted my workflow and the start menu was cumbersome for me. The experience was very Vista-esque.

> and the start menu was cumbersome for me.

I abhor the new KDE4 start-menu style. If it cannot be reverted to its present state, I'm going to use XFCE instead.

@tuxtom -

> I tried KDE4 and wasn't terribly impressed (I'm a KDE guy). Sure, some of the eye candy is smooth and sweet, but it disrupted my workflow and the start menu was cumbersome for me. The experience was very Vista-esque.

Too soon to tell on kde4 - I'm a kde guy for the most part and I've been fairly happy with kde3. kde4 has potential, and I understand the code reorg needed to be done from a maintenance standpoint, but from a user perspective it's really just too raw at this point for any practical use.

Give it time though - as the various apps and applets get ported to the new code base, and the bugs get squashed it will hopefully become clearly superior to kde3. I'm guessing that in the 4.1.x time frame it will be time for a serious look.

Quoting:I abhor the new KDE4 start-menu style.

Same here, not sure what I'll do though.

> but from a user perspective it's really just too raw at this point for any practical use.

Indeed. The Debian KDE maintainers have stated that there will not be KDE4 in this, nor the next, stable release.

But the KDE4 libraries are already migrating from experimental to unstable, and from what I've gleaned those applications already using KDE4 will coexist just fine, as GNOME and KDE apps already do.

Quoting:It pisses me off to no end that yahoo mail, which I have used for years, insists on scanning every single file attachment.

OK, you want to have a good laugh, what about this:

I lost my Paypal password, account blocked, OK, I'm stupid, I'm the one to blame and willing to take all the blame, no problem. I call Paypal, explain how stupid I am, and need the account to be reset. "That's OK", they tell me, "Fax your passport along with code nr. xxxx". "That's a problem" is my answer, "I don't have the ability to use a fax over here. Can't I scan and mail it?"

"No, we are not allowed to open attachments", they tell me, "because they might contain virusses. You can send it by post however." We're talking about a 'decent' IT-company who's infrastructure _depends_ on thousands of Linux boxes, but sounds like their desktops use Windows. Not even competent enough to open attachments... They should be embarrassed!

Business in this country astounds me. I've heard that so many times..."our system won't let us do that". Well, I'd like to take your CTO for a little drive out in the country. It's amazing we even have an economy sometimes. If you're smart and get into these organizations the culture of stupidity chases you right back out. It's getting worse and worse all over...Dubya syndrome?

> Do you guys with Slack boxes use updatepkg, slapt-get or ?? for patches

I subscribe to the security mailing list, then download and install the updates manually. However, if you're running Slackware as a desktop system the only security updates you really need to worry about are those that fix remote exploits.

jdixon, I followed along with the security patches (using upgradepkg) for awhile, but when I did a hard drive install of Wolvix (based on Slackware 11) and tried Gslapt, it was so Synaptically easy that I wondered why anybody would do it any other way.

Mind you, I didn't install anything new; I'm not sure how well slapt-get/Gslapt handles dependencies ... and since Wolvix Hunter has everything I need, I didn't really have to add any software ...

But the one thing about Slackware is that once you get behind on the patches, it can be a real ordeal to get the thing up to date.

> But the one thing about Slackware is that once you get behind on the patches, it can be a real ordeal to get the thing up to date.

I don't see that it's that difficult. My procedure would be:

Use gftp to go to download the current patches from one of the mirrors (by my count, there are currently 33 for Slackware 12), go to single user mode, cd to the download directory, run upgradepkg *, then either reboot (if you installed a new kernel) or return to your normal runlevel.

If you already have some patches installed, gftp lets you compare a local and remote directory, so it's easy to identify what you've already downloaded and what you haven't.