Re: [vox] From another Linux list...something worth pondering

[Don Werve <donw@exaMAPSmen.com>]

"Mark K. Kim" wrote:
>
> Still, Microsoft can argue that it says somewhere to use Windows Update
> on a regular basis to keep the system up-to-date to avoid viruses and
> trogens.  They can also argue Nimda is trogen and people shouldn't have
> opened the mail.  They can also argue sysadmins and those who decide
> to run webservers on the public internet should know better.  A defense to
> these (and countless others) should be well thought-out before going after
> them.

I think the big issue is ease-of-update; on the multitude of Debian
boxes I administrate, all I need to do is go to each system weekly (or
when I get an email from Sans regarding a new vulnerability) and apt-get
the updates; I can use console-apt to preview what I'm getting, and
unless it's something BIG (like a libc update), the services provided by
that machine are down for *seconds* at most.  And I can do this all via
ssh from my desk.

With WindowsNT, patching requires console access (or something like a
Citrix solution which isn't cheap), downtime from reboots, and the
prayer that the patch *didn't* roast your system (requiring an on-site
OS reload and data restore from backups).  Big pain-in-the-ass.

Add to this the ridiculously low Linux hardware costs (e.g., upgrade
your servers every decade rather than semi-anually), and incredibly
simple remote administration, and it sounds like a winning combo to this
sysadmin. *grin*

Then again, I'm biased...

-- 
Don Werve <donw@examen.com>
Jr. Unix System Administrator

"...a lion wants to eat an antelope's body, but the antelope has very
different plans for its body. This is not normally regarded as 
competition for a resource, but logically it is hard to see why 
not." - Richard Dawkins.