Travers Buda wrote:
quoted text
> * Karel Kulhavy <clock@twibright.com> [2007-03-17 19:47:00]:
>
>   
>> It would be better if OpenBSD could be maintained secure even without a skilled
>> security professional.
>>
>> Today's trend is that things are accomodated to ordinary people. You don't need
>> a driver anymore to professionally drive your car. You don't need to understand
>> how the engine works anymore to operate the car properly. You don't need to
>> understand megahertz anymore to tune your TV set.
>>
>>     
>
> Are you kidding me? OpenBSD does everything for you! Hardware and software shipped with the system works right out of the box. The documentation is complete, so you don't need to google for basic man pages. And don't even get me started on the 2.4 radio support. Kismet just works. You don't have to track down some crazy linux kernel patch, make sure you have all the right modules loaded, etc. The installer is sparse, and it's a good thing. You partition the disks, extract the OS and set your root password. It's all very simple. You've probably noticed this stuff, well, the security works just the same. You don't have to do anything to make the system more secure. You can only reverse that. 
>
> OpenBSD is the easiest operating system I have ever worked with.
>
>   
You're both right!

The security Karel describes, in the most ideal of plausible scenarios, 
would be the security
of the automobile: it's pretty secure against dolts, but experts can 
still steal it.

And Travers is right that it's the easiest. Because it's the simplest 
and most thematically
coherent. Which is the best hope for the amateur secure systems buff.

-- 
Jack J. Woehr
Director of Development
Absolute Performance, Inc.
jwoehr@absolute-performance.com
303-443-7000 ext. 527