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'Twas not just Microsoft. Back then, "enabled by default" was the rule. I recall Linux distributions of that era also enabling a lot of network-facing stuff by
by cesarb 11y ago
'Twas not just Microsoft.
Back then, "enabled by default" was the rule. I recall Linux distributions of that era also enabling a lot of network-facing stuff by default.
For Microsoft in particular, there's also some path dependence: they began with non-networked (or with local-only networking) desktop operating systems, where the drawbacks of default-enabling many useful services were not as severe.
- benjarrell 11y agoSolaris came with everything turned on by default for a quite a while as well.
- kbenson 11y agoYes. Having your newly installed linux box connected to the internet after a base install without first enabling a firewall (or configuring the existing one to block a bunch of default allowed items) wasn't as bad as the same thing with a windows box, but it was still bad. Circa 2000/2001 I believe you would likely be infected or hacked by some SSH or Apache worm within a few hours. Windows around the same time, maybe a few years later, was much worse though. They actually had to patch a bug where the system would boot after install and the firewall might not come on until a second or two after the network, and there were so many exploits and worms that systems were getting exploited in this very short time-frame.