security (PCs)

[Anton Rang]

In article <19896 at adm.BRL.MIL> bzs at bu-cs.bu.edu (Barry Shein) writes:
  [ about security ]
>Although I'd probably agree with what you're trying to say I just want
>to point out that 10 Million PC's and about 1 Million Mac's say you're
>(we're?) wrong. There's no concept of security on those machines
>(heck, there's no concept of a "user" tho various things have been
>hacked on top for network add-on software.) I'd have to call that
>representative of "many" people. We can go back to "reason" but, hey,
>11 million user's voted with their pocketbooks, hard to dispute.

Then again, my Macs aren't connected to a network where anybody can
come in and (ab)use them.  They're in my dorm room.  It's locked if
I'm not there.  I don't know of any businesses which leave valuable
information on PCs which are not in locked offices.
  I don't CARE about security on a single-user machine.  If I had my
own VAX with VMS, and it wasn't networked, I could disable all the
security and just run with all the privileges all the time.  (I
wouldn't, because security helps prevent mistakes too, but I could.)
  If you want an OS for a multi-user machine, you need security.

					Anton

+---------------------------+------------------------+
| Anton Rang (grad student) | "VMS Forever!"         |
| Michigan State University | rang at cpswh.cps.msu.edu |
+---------------------------+------------------------+