As much as I loathe m$, the one thing they got right was forcing casual users (windows home) to install security updates as top priority, whether they like it or not. I know we all hate on windows, and rightly so, but that policy does nullify this particular vector and that is great for the consumer-level users.
(… for the sake of argument lets just pretend windows doesnt have 10,000 other vulns the malware devs can just exploit instead)
Also keep in mind that the main reason Windows is targeted for so many exploits is because of the consumer market share. If Linux consumer market share goes up, so will general malware targeting it. We already saw it happen when OSX share increased and Apple had to abandon the whole “Macs don’t get viruses” schtick.
We already saw it happen when OSX share increased and Apple had to abandon the whole “Macs don’t get viruses” schtick.
It’s kinda crazy that Apple got away with spinning “Our products don’t sell well enough for this to be a problem” into a marketing point for as long as they did.
Linux has had a long history of worms and viruses, fortunately (sorta) thanks to its server legacy. Dumb and lazy server admins have given it pretty good ‘secure by default’ behaviours and cultures.
Desktop users though: whole different set of challenges.
I mean, I don’t think I would mind forced updates if they didn’t take so damned long and fail half the time. And then, just when you think you’ve finished installing all updates, you reboot and there’s more updates! Why can’t they just install it all at once?
Plus, after each major update, Microsoft wastes your time by advertising to you about Edge, Office 365, and OneDrive before they even let you get back into the desktop.
Forced security updates is addressing a symptom but not addressing the root cause, which is that the Windows update process is just painful for a myriad of reasons. In Linux, I run one command, wait 5 minutes, reboot, and I am back to work.
There is occasional weirdness if you don’t powercycle though. In particular, certain KDE updates will make the desktop misbehave until you reboot. I get where you’re coming from though. Quick updates and the ability to decide when you want to restart means that I have no qualms about updating frequently.
I am on Arch too and pacman -Syu is usually a snack I have with my morning tea.
You can log out, then CTRL + ALT + F1 , log in and run the update command. If there was no kernel update, you don’t have to reboot. If some service got updated restart the service (if that was not done by the updater.) Then you can switch back to the graphical session usually by CTRL + ALT + F7) and log in again.
Linux has good security updates too. Fedora installs pending updates on restart, and I believe flatpaks are updated automatically in the background.
The virus discussed in the article doesn’t affect Linux PCs, only servers. Windows-style forced reboots wouldn’t make sense in a server environment, and it’s up to the server administrators to implement good update policies for their nodes and containers.
I am aware, it’s just a relevant and closely related observation about consumer OSes. You make good points. A professional server admin > automstic updates (most of the time…)
As much as I loathe m$, the one thing they got right was forcing casual users (windows home) to install security updates as top priority, whether they like it or not. I know we all hate on windows, and rightly so, but that policy does nullify this particular vector and that is great for the consumer-level users.
(… for the sake of argument lets just pretend windows doesnt have 10,000 other vulns the malware devs can just exploit instead)
Also keep in mind that the main reason Windows is targeted for so many exploits is because of the consumer market share. If Linux consumer market share goes up, so will general malware targeting it. We already saw it happen when OSX share increased and Apple had to abandon the whole “Macs don’t get viruses” schtick.
It’s kinda crazy that Apple got away with spinning “Our products don’t sell well enough for this to be a problem” into a marketing point for as long as they did.
I assume they said it was due to other reasons than obscurity, although we know better.
Linux has had a long history of worms and viruses, fortunately (sorta) thanks to its server legacy. Dumb and lazy server admins have given it pretty good ‘secure by default’ behaviours and cultures.
Desktop users though: whole different set of challenges.
I mean, I don’t think I would mind forced updates if they didn’t take so damned long and fail half the time. And then, just when you think you’ve finished installing all updates, you reboot and there’s more updates! Why can’t they just install it all at once?
Plus, after each major update, Microsoft wastes your time by advertising to you about Edge, Office 365, and OneDrive before they even let you get back into the desktop.
Forced security updates is addressing a symptom but not addressing the root cause, which is that the Windows update process is just painful for a myriad of reasons. In Linux, I run one command, wait 5 minutes, reboot, and I am back to work.
I love that on my arch setup, I update every single day, usually more than once, and doing so almost never requires me to powercycle my computer.
There is occasional weirdness if you don’t powercycle though. In particular, certain KDE updates will make the desktop misbehave until you reboot. I get where you’re coming from though. Quick updates and the ability to decide when you want to restart means that I have no qualms about updating frequently.
I am on Arch too and
pacman -Syuis usually a snack I have with my morning tea.You can log out, then CTRL + ALT + F1 , log in and run the update command. If there was no kernel update, you don’t have to reboot. If some service got updated restart the service (if that was not done by the updater.) Then you can switch back to the graphical session usually by CTRL + ALT + F7) and log in again.
Market share is only any kind of excuse for desktop. Linux dominates servers, routers, and any IOT big enough for a OS. This article is about servers.
For Linux you install unattended upgrades and security updates are done automatically.
Linux has good security updates too. Fedora installs pending updates on restart, and I believe flatpaks are updated automatically in the background.
The virus discussed in the article doesn’t affect Linux PCs, only servers. Windows-style forced reboots wouldn’t make sense in a server environment, and it’s up to the server administrators to implement good update policies for their nodes and containers.
I am aware, it’s just a relevant and closely related observation about consumer OSes. You make good points. A professional server admin > automstic updates (most of the time…)
The problem with Windows Updates is that they force new ‘features’ on you along with the patches.
With Linux you get to choose how bleeding edge you want to be, and can generally avoid the monetization crap.
I don’t want to install security updates. You cannot and will not force me. Case closed.
I have no idea if this is satire or not. Well done.