Microsoft Now OpenBSD Foundation Gold Contributor

Ralf Mardorf ralf.mardorf at rocketmail.com
Fri Jul 10 22:09:28 UTC 2015


On Fri, 10 Jul 2015 14:30:21 -0700, Mehmet Erol Sanliturk wrote:
>This means that , claiming that "copy-left licensed software is more
>secure than permissive licensed software" is a groundless and
>incorrect claim .

I agree, but there is a valid claim that doesn't depend on the chossen
free license.

This one:
 A non-restrictive, open source OS is more secure than a restricted OS.
 But even for non-restrictive, open source operating systems there are
 differences. It has less to do with the chosen system or license, BSD,
 GNU/Linux or what ever, but with the policy.

 A FreeBSD or Arch Linux or Linux from scratch user will set up the
 install, the user has much control over the install. An Ubuntu Linux
 flavour user installs an environment that works out of the box, so
 there is less control and it already leads to issues.

https://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/ubuntu-spyware-what-to-do

Today I started a discussion on several Linux mailing lists after a
Xubuntu user reported that the root password is required, when bug
report pop up windows ask to generate and send a bug report.

IOW there are two approaches, the approach from restricted OSes, that
is used by some OOTB non-restricted open source OSes too, that usually
claim to be user-friendly and the "real" non-restricted open source
user-centric approach.

The non-restricted open source user-centric approach is more secure.
The approach has less to do with the chosen OS or used free license.

2 Cents,
Ralf


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