2010 May 03 archive at Robert Pogson

Archive for May 3rd, 2010

Trusting GNU/Linux

Published by Robert Pogson May 3rd, 2010 in technology. 2 Comments

One of the trolls threw this in a comment about building share for GNU/Linux:

““Have a supply of GNU/Linux installation CDs available on a moment’s notice”

Maybe include a rootkit or keylogger to see how well it is being used later.”

I do not think the troll gets GNU/Linux. FLOSS is about sharing and trust. Debian GNU/Linux has a well-defined social contract in addition to the GPL and other Free Software licences used in the distribution. If, after all that a person does not trust a CD marked “Official Debian GNU/Linux” (“Official images are built by a member of the Debian CD team and have undergone some testing to ensure they work. Once they have been released, the images never change – if they turn out to be broken, a new set with a different version number is released..“) one can check the md5sums of individual packages or whole images. If you want to go past that, you can examine all the sources and build your own installation CDs. That is a huge job… Give thanks that Debian GNU/Linux takes care of it.

Of course, we know that other OS phones home. I will stick with GNU/Linux.

- Robert Pogson

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.