On Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 12:35 PM William Porquet, <william@2038.org> wrote:
I've come to the realization that, in this day and age of hypervisors and virutalization, Windows has become a rather complex and somewhat buggy service that runs under Linux. Or is has for me, anyway.

My CDN$0.02.

I purchased a copy of Win4lin in 1999 so I could work on the software the NGO's I volunteered for were using. I use to resent being asked to install cracked copies of Windows, in the name of social justice or for any other reason for that matter. I deleted windows from my PC and could honestly say I dont have a copy and I can't do that for you in good conscience, even if you tell me the disks that you have are legal when I can see they are not.

If I examine what I do know about Windows these days as a non-user

In Practical Unix and Internet Security 2nd Ed. O REILLY et. al. on Pg 331 the authors wrote.

"As a matter of good policy, new software should first be installed on some noncritical systems for testing and familiarisation. This practice gives you an opportunity to isolate problems, identify incompatibilities, an note quirks, Don’t install new software on a “live” production system!

Note that you should not automatically trust software from a commercial firm or group. Sometimes commercial firms insert back doors into their code to allow for maintenance, or recovering lost passwords. These back doors might be secret today, but become well-known tomorrow. ...”


Outside of whether Linux considers Windows TM a non critical system or not, the questions I have from a Linux perspective of WSL convergance are; will the corporation become more like the people accessing the technology? or, will the people become more like the corporation providing the technology? 

To make the argument for Open Source vs. Closed Source knowledge and intelligence, I always tell people that I chose Linux because I always learn something rather than just how to do something. 

I note some kernel now integrate ebpf tools, so the term trust but verify hasn't lost all meaning as a core value.

https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/introduction-ebpf-red-hat-enterprise-linux-7


William

On Mon, 26 Aug 2019 at 12:31, Russell Reiter <rreiter91@gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 11:48 AM William Porquet via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
"It's trivial to make fun of Microsoft products, but it takes a real hacker to make them work, and a god to make them do anything useful." - anonymous hacker

Still true today? :-)

I'd say so, considering the corporation which basically said Linux was not secure, in order to keep their own market dominance, has now embraced Linux with its own WSL. 

Perhaps the gods have their own ways of making things useful. 



On Mon, 26 Aug 2019 at 11:43, James Knott via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
On 2019-08-26 11:34 AM, Russell Reiter wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 10:05 AM James Knott via talk, <talk@gtalug.org
> <mailto:talk@gtalug.org>> wrote:
>
>     On 2019-08-26 08:49 AM, Russell Reiter wrote:
>     > Nobody likes to be called a thief and a parasite by somebody. This
>     > situation, after Gates et. al. purloined acadamec knowledge for
>     > commercial endeavor, was kind of "the pot calling the kettle
>     black," 
>     > all things considered.
>
>     Of course, we can't forget BG was a dumpster diver, looking for
>     source code.
>
>
> Sssh, you,re leaking M$ trade secrets. :-o
>

It's not a secret to anyone who's used Windows.  ;-)
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--
William Porquet, M.A. ⁂ mailto:william@2038.org ⁂ http://www.2038.org/
"I do not fear computers.  I fear the lack of them." (Isaac Asimov)
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William Porquet, M.A. ⁂ mailto:william@2038.org ⁂ http://www.2038.org/
"I do not fear computers.  I fear the lack of them." (Isaac Asimov)