LINUX : LINUX KDE & Gnome Linux vs Windows in viruses
Slide 2 : “Should I use KDE or GNOME?“
The KDE or GNOME desktop environment is like a blueprint of how the working parts fit together.
Selecting a desktop environment should probably be one of the last things you worry about when just getting started with Linux.
Hardware detection, email set-up, etc. are far more important to day-to-day functioning than your desktop environment. vs
KDE & GNOME (similarities) : KDE & GNOME (similarities) Start menu, taskbar, icons, screensavers and theme options
Clocks on the taskbar/panel, theme-able log-in screens
Both have similarities of windows and ease of use.
Q: What is KDE ? : Q: What is KDE ? KDE was founded in 1996 by Matthias Ettrich.
The name KDE was intended as a word play on the existing Common Desktop Environment available for Unix systems. The K was originally suggested to stand for "Kool", but it was quickly decided that the K should stand for nothing in particular.
KDE Overview : KDE Overview KDE did not start out as freeware. Matthias used the Qt toolkit for the KDE project. Other programmers quickly started developing KDE/Qt applications, and by early 1997, large and complex applications were being released.
Members of the GNU project GNU project became concerned about the use of such a toolkit for building a free software desktop and applications.
Two projects were started: “Harmony", to create a Free replacement for the Qt libraries, and the GNOME project to create a new desktop without Qt and built entirely on top of free software.
Overview cont. : Overview cont. In November 1998, the Qt toolkit was licensed under the free/open source Q Public License (QPL).
This same year the KDE Free Qt foundation was created Starting with the release of Qt 4.0, it is available as free software for the Unix, Mac and Windows platforms, indicating that the next major version of KDE applications and libraries will have native support on these platforms.
Both KDE and GNOME now participate in Freedesktop.org, an effort to standardize Unix desktop interoperability, although there is still some friendly competition between them.
KDE (Splash Window) : KDE (Splash Window)
KDE Characteristics : KDE Characteristics Programmers find the Konsole (KDE) terminal window to be more efficient and feature rich over gnome-terminal.
KDE Characteristics cont. : KDE Characteristics cont. Runs smoothly even on slow computers.
KDE characteristics cont. : KDE characteristics cont. DIGIKAM
Ease of use for transferring pics from your digital camera to your pc.
KDE Characteristics cont. : KDE Characteristics cont. Konsole is KDE’s terminal emulator.
Those that still enjoy the “command line….”
KDE characteristics cont. : KDE characteristics cont. KMAIL
The "little" email client that can.
KDE characteristics cont. : KDE characteristics cont. KAFFEINE
The "yeah! I can play that too," slick and powerful media player.
Gnome GUI : Gnome GUI
Q: What is GNOME? : Q: What is GNOME? A: The initials stand for GNU Network Object Model Environment. This doesn't really help explain what it does, though. GNOME is a part of the GNU Project and an attempt to make a desktop environment which is free software, which:
runs on lots of platforms;
is consistent so that you use the same approach to do the same tasks in different programs;
can be used by developers to develop software easily;
is fun to use.
Slide 16 : Close this window
GNOME : GNOME http://home.comcast.net/~modean52/oeme_gnome_user_faq.htm
http://osdir.com/Article1625.phtml
Linux vs Microsoft in viruses : Linux vs Microsoft in viruses “To mess up a Linux box, you need to work at it; to mess up your Windows box, you just need to work on it.” writes SecurityFocus columnist Scott Granneman.
There are about 60,000 viruses known for Windows, 40 or so for the Macintosh, about 5 for commercial Unix versions, and perhaps 40 for Linux.
Why is Linux safer? : Why is Linux safer? Two factors that cause email viruses and worms to spread
Social engineering: Is the art of conning someone into doing something they shouldn't do, or revealing something that should be kept secret.
Poorly designed software: Makes it easier for social engineering to take place, but such software can also subvert the efforts of a knowledgeable, security-minded individual or organization.
Why Microsoft Windows is not so safe : Why Microsoft Windows is not so safe It's easy to run executables in the Windows world, and users who get an email with a subject line like "Check out this wicked screensaver!" and an attachment, too often click on it without thinking first, and bang!
Microsoft's email software is able to infect a user's computer when they do something as innocuous as read an email.
Windows XP, supposed Microsoft's most secure desktop operating system, automatically makes the first named user of the system an Administrator.
Microsoft is vulnerable … : Microsoft is vulnerable … The collection of files on a Windows system - the operating system, the applications, and the user data - can't be kept apart from each other. Things are intermingled to a degree that makes it unlikely that they will ever be satisfactorily sorted out in any sensibly secure fashion.
The growth of the Microsoft monoculture in computing is a dangerous thing for users of Microsoft products, but also for all computing users, who suffer the consequences of disasters in that environment, such as wasted network resources, dangers to national security, and lost productivity.
Why Linux is safer … : Why Linux is safer … Linux user would have to read the email, save the attachment, give the attachment executable permissions, and then run the executable.
The strong community of Linux provides education and encouragement in areas such as email security that are currently lacking in the Windows world.
The strong separation between normal users and the privileged root user, our Linux user would have to be running as root to really do any damage to the system.
Supporting Linux : Supporting Linux Linux runs on many architectures, not just Intel, and there are many versions of Linux, many packaging systems, and many shells. But most obvious to the end user, Linux mail clients and address books are far from standardized.
A virus targeted to a specific vulnerability in Evolution, on the other hand, might affect some people, but not everyone using Linux.
“The differentiator for customers is not the number comparison, but which vendor makes the patching and updating experience the least complex, most efficient and easiest to manage." …. says Bill Hilf, director of Platform Technology Strategy at Microsoft and heads its Linux and open-source lab. : “The differentiator for customers is not the number comparison, but which vendor makes the patching and updating experience the least complex, most efficient and easiest to manage." …. says Bill Hilf, director of Platform Technology Strategy at Microsoft and heads its Linux and open-source lab. QUOTE FROM EWEEK.COM
Slide 47 : Mark Cox, security response team leader at Linux vendor Red Hat, agrees, saying that one of the top reasons machines are ensnared by security exploits is that they don't obtain the latest security updates.
"So it updates as easy and painless as possible, across the entire application stack." QUOTE FROM EWEEK.COM
Which platform requires more patching? : Which platform requires more patching? The answer to number one is Windows any way you look at it.
While the number of vulnerabilities is in dispute, the majority of desktops in a corporate environment run Windows, so even a couple of distinct vulnerabilities require waves of patching.
It is either more Windows PCs with fewer vulnerabilities, or more with more. Either way, Windows requires more patching.
On that platform, is patching easy enough to make up for the fact that it's required in the first place? : On that platform, is patching easy enough to make up for the fact that it's required in the first place? Microsoft has improved the patching process by leaps and bounds over the way it used to be.
Do you want direct control over updating?
Install Windows Server Update Services, approve patches and set up a group policy object directing your computers to that machine.
You can target systems or groups of computers or set up staging. Once you set it up, it's a cinch.
Patching can be pain-free. On Linux, where is the distributed patching mechanism? And is it this easy?
www.kde-look.org : www.kde-look.org THE END …OR IS IT JUST THE BEGINNING?