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That blame still appropriately lies with maladaptive behaviors learned from Windows. The only way to completely stop users being susceptible to the "attack" of

That blame still appropriately lies with maladaptive behaviors learned from Windows. The only way to completely stop users being susceptible to the "attack" of them phrasing their desires as web searches and then blindly following whatever malicious instructions come up is to fully remove administrator privileges and lock them out of "their" computers. But doing this at the level of the OS producer is utterly at odds with the foundation of a free and open society. The incremental way to solve this problem is through various rules based around users engaging with details of the OS. One very simple one of these is "only install software through the system package manager". If users violate those rules, short of the above "solution", there is literally nothing that can be done to help them.

the_af 3y ago
What about things that are not in their package manager, like most games? "Only download through this walled garden [Steam, GOG Galaxy, etc]"? So walled gardens are the answer?
- mindslight 3y ago
  Yes, gardens are one answer, and likely the best one currently, for non-webapps. Distro package repositories themselves are the original gardens. People tend to give them a pass because having good incentives have kept them decently honest, but distro package repositories are fundamentally gardens. Gardens allow you to make a small number of trust decisions, and then trust all the software they have vetted by extension. Note that I'm leaving out "walled" because multiple software sources can coexist. "Walled" only comes about when some company tries to constrain you to their singular source.
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  Gardens are the solution, but people shouldn't be locked into any garden against their will. Users should be free to choose the garden they prefer any time they wish, or to start their own garden and invite other's to visit it. I choose the F-droid garden and the OpenSUSE garden. Other people may prefer other gardens, and they should be free to choose the ones they prefer as I am free to choose mine. When people criticize walled gardens, it's because the wall is like the Berlin Wall; a wall designed to keep people in against their will.
  - the_af 3y ago
    > When people criticize walled gardens, it's because the wall is like the Berlin Wall; a wall designed to keep people in against their will. Fair enough. You are right there. But in essence, it's not that Linux is "safer" than Windows against malware. It's that it's a nerdier culture with different practices that don't translate well to the mainstream. Like user kbenson above who suggested "reviewing the installer"... I hope we all agree that's ridiculous, right?
    - kbenson 3y ago
      That is not what I said, there was a conditional on that sentence. The real point I was making was the last paragraph of what I posted. Don't use that method if you care about security, it's never, ever been the sole option in any case I've seen which wasn't meant to be nefarious (at a minimum, there should be directions to manually do step by step what the script automates). That everyone jumped on the "review what you run" part because they weren't paying attention to what I actually said and it looked similar to other arguments when this comes up I think has less to do with what I said and more to do with people wanting to argue that discussion yet again. The bottom line is that Linux is no different than Windows in this respect (look at the Deno install directions if you want to see the powershell equivalent of curl piped to bash), and this is more a matter of the developer communities being okay with this method, and promoting it regardless of OS. In that respect, saying "Linux security best practices of curl | bash" was just inflammatory and wrong, and deserved to be called out as such. It's not only a Linux thing, it's not anything like a best practice (it's a convenience method provided that trades away security), and as such the statement is just plain wring.
      - the_af 3y ago
        Ok, I'll readily admit I misunderstood that part of your comment then. I stand corrected. So let me rephrase what I think is the key point here: Linux is only "safer" than Windows because it has fewer users and they tend to be more technically minded. However, were Linux to somehow become as mainstream a desktop OS as Windows, two things would happen: - The userbase would become less technically minded and security aware. I don't want to call them "stupid" however, they likely know other stuff instead. I can't drive a car for example, am I stupid? - It would become a juicier target for malware creators, and therefore malware would be as widespread as in Windows-land. There's nothing magical in Linux that would protect a large and careless enough userbase.
- pessimizer 3y ago
  If someone gives you a guarantee of safety, you get to blame them when things go wrong. If you demand to strike out on your own, you have no one to blame but yourself. And you should honestly be proud of taking the risk; it's literally the only reason to use all this proud, evocative language about being trapped and needing to be free. You want to be cutting edge, but not get cut.
  - the_af 3y ago
    Wait. Linux users "strike on their own" all the time! Who here is a Linux user and never downloaded stuff outside the repo, or compiled sources and run them without reviewing every security loophole? Linux users are the most "demand-ey" of users, even starting flamewars over being forced to do things this way or that way! I'm really skeptical that this wouldn't introduce malware if malware authors deemed Linux a worthy target.
- ilyt 3y ago
  Just gardens. Package repositories are just that, you can pick whatever you want. Games are a bit of special case as they don't exactly play nice with Linux and many of them are also run thru emulation like Proton
  - the_af 3y ago
    But that's it. Games and games downloaded from dubious sources are one of the primary infection vectors. It doesn't happen enough in Linux because there aren't enough Linux users to make it a worthwhile target for malware authors!
    - zzo38computer 3y ago
      For this and other reasons (including compatibility issues), when I want to download a game, I will prefer a version for DOS, NES/Famicom, Game Boy Advance, etc, instead of native code on Linux or Windows. (I also prefer FOSS when available, especially for native code; I will not run any non-FOSS program on my computer that is not running as native code.) (And, in some cases, the game might follow rules that I can just reimplement myself instead. For some types of puzzle games, it is relatively easy to reimplement it in Free Hero Mesh, so I am glad I wrote that program. Other times, other reimplementations can be written.)
    - ilyt 3y ago
      <citation needed> Most people don't go on random torrent sites to get their games. And most people that do also don't get infected because usually the top rated torrent is just fine. I pirated a lot as a dumb kid without income and haven't managed to catch anything at least.
gspencley 3y ago
Yeah this conversation is borderline philosophical. What does "secure software" mean? As a software engineer I've always thought about secure software as software that does not have bugs that can be exploited by non-authorized users. Be it privilege execution, code injection, remote code execution etc. As an end-user, I choose to use Linux because it does not stand between me and my computer. I am the master of the machine. I tell it what to do, and it obeys. That is the relationship I want to have with a piece of tangible property that I paid money for. So if I do something unsafe, even through ignorance or naivety, I still see that as being my fault. Not the software's. In other words, the software was behaving as expected. There were no bugs. It did what the authorized user told it to do. But I can see the point of view that secure software could also mean software that makes it difficult for the authorized user to do dangerous things. Especially in an organization setting where the user is not actually the owner of the machine, but is using company equipment and software.
pessimizer 3y ago
> That blame still appropriately lies with maladaptive behaviors learned from Windows. The only way to completely stop users being susceptible to the "attack" of them phrasing their desires as web searches and then blindly following whatever malicious instructions come up is to fully remove administrator privileges and lock them out of "their" computers. And making it a class at school. We have universal education in most places, we can use it for something useful. There's no reason that we have to capitulate to corporations and their moats. We can teach children how the devices that surround them and order them around work, and how to deal with the predators that they'll encounter while interacting with them.
ilyt 3y ago
The way of solving it would be streamlining adding new repositories for the 3rd party stuff. Way too often it's "download some dumbass script running some half-assed autodetection just to add a line of text to config and a GPG key.
haswell 3y ago
> That blame still appropriately lies with maladaptive behaviors learned from Windows. As a Linux nerd who started tinkering around 2001, I’m having a hard time with this framing. Being a Linux user around that era involved regularly compiling code that practically I couldn’t review. While the steps involved were different, the behaviors associated with installing software were not inherently more secure than windows at the time. The main differences were: 1) I was more technically savvy and thus not as likely to install something obviously dangerous and 2) One just wasn’t very likely to run into a repo impacted by supply chain compromise or somesuch. Those same behaviors today are pretty risky in comparison, leading to threads like this one. I’d argue that it’s less about windows being a source of maladaptive behavior, and more about windows attracting users who don’t know better than to behave the way they do. If those same low-tech users were somehow using Linux at the time, I don’t think they’d have learned anything more adaptive, and/or Linux would have been a much larger target, changing the threat landscape entirely. But to go a step further, I guess the question that comes up for me is: why does it matter if it’s the fault of Windows? The typical “OS war” rhetoric never made much sense to me. To me, the point of running Linux or really any desktop OS is to allow me to go beyond walled gardens. My brother is a non-technical artist/creator type. If he relied only on the system package manager, he might as well use an iPad. What you’re framing here as “violating rules” is really just “using the computer for its intended purpose”. Following those rules may fix the security problem, in the same way that never leaving my apartment will probably protect me from most seasonal illnesses. We need better ways to universally indicate trust in distributed software beyond system package managers.
- the_af 3y ago
  > The main differences were: 1) I was more technically savvy and thus not as likely to install something obviously dangerous and 2) One just wasn’t very likely to run into a repo impacted by supply chain compromise or somesuch. Those same behaviors today are pretty risky in comparison, leading to threads like this one. Yes, and I would add 3) there was no meaningful malware made for Linux back then, because it wasn't a target for malware authors. Otherwise you (and I!) would have been hit. I didn't understand half the stuff I installed on my Linux box back then, and many install instructions were positively arcane. > To me, the point of running Linux or really any desktop OS is to allow me to go beyond walled gardens. My brother is a non-technical artist/creator type. If he relied only on the system package manager, he might as well use an iPad. Fully agreed! Furthermore, anyone using Linux back then would have found your opinion entirely uncontroversial. The point of Linux back then was freedom to do whatever. Gardens -- even non-walled gardens -- were not the point.

the_af 3y ago

What about things that are not in their package manager, like most games? "Only download through this walled garden [Steam, GOG Galaxy, etc]"? So walled gardens are the answer?

mindslight 3y ago
Yes, gardens are one answer, and likely the best one currently, for non-webapps. Distro package repositories themselves are the original gardens. People tend to give them a pass because having good incentives have kept them decently honest, but distro package repositories are fundamentally gardens. Gardens allow you to make a small number of trust decisions, and then trust all the software they have vetted by extension. Note that I'm leaving out "walled" because multiple software sources can coexist. "Walled" only comes about when some company tries to constrain you to their singular source.
mcpackieh 3y ago
Gardens are the solution, but people shouldn't be locked into any garden against their will. Users should be free to choose the garden they prefer any time they wish, or to start their own garden and invite other's to visit it. I choose the F-droid garden and the OpenSUSE garden. Other people may prefer other gardens, and they should be free to choose the ones they prefer as I am free to choose mine. When people criticize walled gardens, it's because the wall is like the Berlin Wall; a wall designed to keep people in against their will.
- the_af 3y ago
  > When people criticize walled gardens, it's because the wall is like the Berlin Wall; a wall designed to keep people in against their will. Fair enough. You are right there. But in essence, it's not that Linux is "safer" than Windows against malware. It's that it's a nerdier culture with different practices that don't translate well to the mainstream. Like user kbenson above who suggested "reviewing the installer"... I hope we all agree that's ridiculous, right?
  - kbenson 3y ago
    That is not what I said, there was a conditional on that sentence. The real point I was making was the last paragraph of what I posted. Don't use that method if you care about security, it's never, ever been the sole option in any case I've seen which wasn't meant to be nefarious (at a minimum, there should be directions to manually do step by step what the script automates). That everyone jumped on the "review what you run" part because they weren't paying attention to what I actually said and it looked similar to other arguments when this comes up I think has less to do with what I said and more to do with people wanting to argue that discussion yet again. The bottom line is that Linux is no different than Windows in this respect (look at the Deno install directions if you want to see the powershell equivalent of curl piped to bash), and this is more a matter of the developer communities being okay with this method, and promoting it regardless of OS. In that respect, saying "Linux security best practices of curl | bash" was just inflammatory and wrong, and deserved to be called out as such. It's not only a Linux thing, it's not anything like a best practice (it's a convenience method provided that trades away security), and as such the statement is just plain wring.
    - the_af 3y ago
      Ok, I'll readily admit I misunderstood that part of your comment then. I stand corrected. So let me rephrase what I think is the key point here: Linux is only "safer" than Windows because it has fewer users and they tend to be more technically minded. However, were Linux to somehow become as mainstream a desktop OS as Windows, two things would happen: - The userbase would become less technically minded and security aware. I don't want to call them "stupid" however, they likely know other stuff instead. I can't drive a car for example, am I stupid? - It would become a juicier target for malware creators, and therefore malware would be as widespread as in Windows-land. There's nothing magical in Linux that would protect a large and careless enough userbase.
pessimizer 3y ago
If someone gives you a guarantee of safety, you get to blame them when things go wrong. If you demand to strike out on your own, you have no one to blame but yourself. And you should honestly be proud of taking the risk; it's literally the only reason to use all this proud, evocative language about being trapped and needing to be free. You want to be cutting edge, but not get cut.
- the_af 3y ago
  Wait. Linux users "strike on their own" all the time! Who here is a Linux user and never downloaded stuff outside the repo, or compiled sources and run them without reviewing every security loophole? Linux users are the most "demand-ey" of users, even starting flamewars over being forced to do things this way or that way! I'm really skeptical that this wouldn't introduce malware if malware authors deemed Linux a worthy target.
ilyt 3y ago
Just gardens. Package repositories are just that, you can pick whatever you want. Games are a bit of special case as they don't exactly play nice with Linux and many of them are also run thru emulation like Proton
- the_af 3y ago
  But that's it. Games and games downloaded from dubious sources are one of the primary infection vectors. It doesn't happen enough in Linux because there aren't enough Linux users to make it a worthwhile target for malware authors!
  - zzo38computer 3y ago
    For this and other reasons (including compatibility issues), when I want to download a game, I will prefer a version for DOS, NES/Famicom, Game Boy Advance, etc, instead of native code on Linux or Windows. (I also prefer FOSS when available, especially for native code; I will not run any non-FOSS program on my computer that is not running as native code.) (And, in some cases, the game might follow rules that I can just reimplement myself instead. For some types of puzzle games, it is relatively easy to reimplement it in Free Hero Mesh, so I am glad I wrote that program. Other times, other reimplementations can be written.)
  - ilyt 3y ago
    <citation needed> Most people don't go on random torrent sites to get their games. And most people that do also don't get infected because usually the top rated torrent is just fine. I pirated a lot as a dumb kid without income and haven't managed to catch anything at least.

gspencley 3y ago

Yeah this conversation is borderline philosophical. What does "secure software" mean? As a software engineer I've always thought about secure software as software that does not have bugs that can be exploited by non-authorized users. Be it privilege execution, code injection, remote code execution etc. As an end-user, I choose to use Linux because it does not stand between me and my computer. I am the master of the machine. I tell it what to do, and it obeys. That is the relationship I want to have with a piece of tangible property that I paid money for. So if I do something unsafe, even through ignorance or naivety, I still see that as being my fault. Not the software's. In other words, the software was behaving as expected. There were no bugs. It did what the authorized user told it to do. But I can see the point of view that secure software could also mean software that makes it difficult for the authorized user to do dangerous things. Especially in an organization setting where the user is not actually the owner of the machine, but is using company equipment and software.

pessimizer 3y ago

> That blame still appropriately lies with maladaptive behaviors learned from Windows. The only way to completely stop users being susceptible to the "attack" of them phrasing their desires as web searches and then blindly following whatever malicious instructions come up is to fully remove administrator privileges and lock them out of "their" computers. And making it a class at school. We have universal education in most places, we can use it for something useful. There's no reason that we have to capitulate to corporations and their moats. We can teach children how the devices that surround them and order them around work, and how to deal with the predators that they'll encounter while interacting with them.

ilyt 3y ago

The way of solving it would be streamlining adding new repositories for the 3rd party stuff. Way too often it's "download some dumbass script running some half-assed autodetection just to add a line of text to config and a GPG key.

haswell 3y ago

> That blame still appropriately lies with maladaptive behaviors learned from Windows. As a Linux nerd who started tinkering around 2001, I’m having a hard time with this framing. Being a Linux user around that era involved regularly compiling code that practically I couldn’t review. While the steps involved were different, the behaviors associated with installing software were not inherently more secure than windows at the time. The main differences were: 1) I was more technically savvy and thus not as likely to install something obviously dangerous and 2) One just wasn’t very likely to run into a repo impacted by supply chain compromise or somesuch. Those same behaviors today are pretty risky in comparison, leading to threads like this one. I’d argue that it’s less about windows being a source of maladaptive behavior, and more about windows attracting users who don’t know better than to behave the way they do. If those same low-tech users were somehow using Linux at the time, I don’t think they’d have learned anything more adaptive, and/or Linux would have been a much larger target, changing the threat landscape entirely. But to go a step further, I guess the question that comes up for me is: why does it matter if it’s the fault of Windows? The typical “OS war” rhetoric never made much sense to me. To me, the point of running Linux or really any desktop OS is to allow me to go beyond walled gardens. My brother is a non-technical artist/creator type. If he relied only on the system package manager, he might as well use an iPad. What you’re framing here as “violating rules” is really just “using the computer for its intended purpose”. Following those rules may fix the security problem, in the same way that never leaving my apartment will probably protect me from most seasonal illnesses. We need better ways to universally indicate trust in distributed software beyond system package managers.

the_af 3y ago
> The main differences were: 1) I was more technically savvy and thus not as likely to install something obviously dangerous and 2) One just wasn’t very likely to run into a repo impacted by supply chain compromise or somesuch. Those same behaviors today are pretty risky in comparison, leading to threads like this one. Yes, and I would add 3) there was no meaningful malware made for Linux back then, because it wasn't a target for malware authors. Otherwise you (and I!) would have been hit. I didn't understand half the stuff I installed on my Linux box back then, and many install instructions were positively arcane. > To me, the point of running Linux or really any desktop OS is to allow me to go beyond walled gardens. My brother is a non-technical artist/creator type. If he relied only on the system package manager, he might as well use an iPad. Fully agreed! Furthermore, anyone using Linux back then would have found your opinion entirely uncontroversial. The point of Linux back then was freedom to do whatever. Gardens -- even non-walled gardens -- were not the point.