5 ms·

Is this a serious comment? I'm genuinely uncertain whether you mean this seriously.

TheOtherDave 7y ago
It kinda depends on the context. If your machine isn’t on the internet and is dedicated to running like a large computational fluid dynamics simulation or something, security isn’t as much of an issue because there is no untrusted code running on the machine and there’s no way for hackers to access it. If your machine is Google’s public DNS server, security is critical.
- sachdevap 7y ago
  > If your machine isn’t on the internet I don't think there are many such machines anymore. I am not seeing this as a common case at all. And in the present context of the Linux memory controller, they would never sacrifice general kernel security for performance.
  - snovv_crash 7y ago
    Outside of your bubble they are pretty relevant. Hell, the biggest computers in the work generally run Linux without an internet connection.
    - sachdevap 7y ago
      Fun of you to assume my bubble. What are these biggest computers that you refer to that are not connected to the internet?
      - snovv_crash 7y ago
        Scientific supercomputers used for academic and industry needs. Eg. weather prediction, CFD and FEM simulations, image processing, deep learning, and much more.
    - imhoguy 7y ago
      And they are usually LAN connected thus Stuxnet-like worm infected laptop can still cause a damage. Security is always important.
badsectoracula 7y ago
Not the person you asked that, but yeah, personally i also find performance more important than security for my personal computer. The chances of me being attacked are practically zero (theoretical attacks do not count, most of these security issues you read focus on the possibility and totally ignore probability) while the chances of me wanting my computer to be faster are 100%. I hate waiting for my computer to do things. Note BTW that there is a difference between "i find performance more important" and "i do not care about security at all". I do care about security, but i am not willing to sacrifice my computer's performance for it. I simply consider performance more important.
- holy_city 7y ago
  >the chances of me being attacked are practically zero That's because the OS developers have placed value on security over performance. Whooping cough is rare too, we still vaccinate against it. If you want a classic example, bounds checking an array is important to avoid RCE and sandbox escape attempts. It can also have a hefty performance penalty, under some scenarios it trashes the branch predictor/instruction pipeline. But I'm glad that my browser isn't as fast as machine-ly possible when streaming video, because I'd prefer if there wasn't a risk of having my emails from various banks, stored passwords in the browser, etc from being collected and sent to a bad actor.
  - badsectoracula 7y ago
    > That's because the OS developers have placed value on security over performance. No, that is mainly because nobody knows nor cares about me personally. As for your example, i already addressed it with that last part in my message: > Note BTW that there is a difference between "i find performance more important" and "i do not care about security at all". I do care about security, but i am not willing to sacrifice my computer's performance for it. I simply consider performance more important. The browser is a case where i'd accept less performance for better security because it is the primary way where things can get into my computer outside of my control. However that doesn't mean i'd accept less performance in, e.g., my image editor, 3d renderer, video encoder or whatever else. In other words, i want my computer to be reasonably secure, just not at all costs.
sverige 7y ago
When I'm concerned about security, I run an OS that is not Linux. When there's nothing critical on a system (from a security perspective), I run Linux. Why would I care if someone hacks my machine and gets my browsing history? Half the companies in SV already have it.

It kinda depends on the context. If your machine isn’t on the internet and is dedicated to running like a large computational fluid dynamics simulation or something, security isn’t as much of an issue because there is no untrusted code running on the machine and there’s no way for hackers to access it. If your machine is Google’s public DNS server, security is critical.

sachdevap 7y ago
> If your machine isn’t on the internet I don't think there are many such machines anymore. I am not seeing this as a common case at all. And in the present context of the Linux memory controller, they would never sacrifice general kernel security for performance.
- snovv_crash 7y ago
  Outside of your bubble they are pretty relevant. Hell, the biggest computers in the work generally run Linux without an internet connection.
  - sachdevap 7y ago
    Fun of you to assume my bubble. What are these biggest computers that you refer to that are not connected to the internet?
    - snovv_crash 7y ago
      Scientific supercomputers used for academic and industry needs. Eg. weather prediction, CFD and FEM simulations, image processing, deep learning, and much more.
  - imhoguy 7y ago
    And they are usually LAN connected thus Stuxnet-like worm infected laptop can still cause a damage. Security is always important.

badsectoracula 7y ago

Not the person you asked that, but yeah, personally i also find performance more important than security for my personal computer. The chances of me being attacked are practically zero (theoretical attacks do not count, most of these security issues you read focus on the possibility and totally ignore probability) while the chances of me wanting my computer to be faster are 100%. I hate waiting for my computer to do things. Note BTW that there is a difference between "i find performance more important" and "i do not care about security at all". I do care about security, but i am not willing to sacrifice my computer's performance for it. I simply consider performance more important.

holy_city 7y ago
>the chances of me being attacked are practically zero That's because the OS developers have placed value on security over performance. Whooping cough is rare too, we still vaccinate against it. If you want a classic example, bounds checking an array is important to avoid RCE and sandbox escape attempts. It can also have a hefty performance penalty, under some scenarios it trashes the branch predictor/instruction pipeline. But I'm glad that my browser isn't as fast as machine-ly possible when streaming video, because I'd prefer if there wasn't a risk of having my emails from various banks, stored passwords in the browser, etc from being collected and sent to a bad actor.
- badsectoracula 7y ago
  > That's because the OS developers have placed value on security over performance. No, that is mainly because nobody knows nor cares about me personally. As for your example, i already addressed it with that last part in my message: > Note BTW that there is a difference between "i find performance more important" and "i do not care about security at all". I do care about security, but i am not willing to sacrifice my computer's performance for it. I simply consider performance more important. The browser is a case where i'd accept less performance for better security because it is the primary way where things can get into my computer outside of my control. However that doesn't mean i'd accept less performance in, e.g., my image editor, 3d renderer, video encoder or whatever else. In other words, i want my computer to be reasonably secure, just not at all costs.

sverige 7y ago

When I'm concerned about security, I run an OS that is not Linux. When there's nothing critical on a system (from a security perspective), I run Linux. Why would I care if someone hacks my machine and gets my browsing history? Half the companies in SV already have it.