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From: chuck@amdahl.amdahl.com (Charles Simmons)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.unix.wizards,comp.os.misc
Subject: Re: GNU Security (was Re: FSF et all)
Message-ID: <16129@amdahl.amdahl.com>
Date: Tue, 13-Oct-87 20:38:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: amdahl.16129
Posted: Tue Oct 13 20:38:43 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 15-Oct-87 06:22:49 EDT
References: <1494@geac.UUCP> <287@usl>
Reply-To: chuck@amdahl.amdahl.com (Charles Simmons)
Organization: Amdahl Corp, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 29
Xref: mnetor comp.arch:2635 comp.unix.wizards:4889 comp.os.misc:291

In article <287@usl> elg@usl (Eric Lee Green) writes:
>Remember, RMS's background is not commercial high-security data
>processing, but, rather, academia, research, and program development,
>where security is actually an IMPEDIMENT to productivity, because it
>impairs the sharing of code, algorithms, test data, and other things
>of that sort. In his view, at least as expressed in various books and
>articles that included interviews with him, security features are
>unnecessary and are a Definite Evil for various reasons also mentioned
>in the GNU Manifesto (needless to say, Multics would not be his
>favorite OS :-).  
>
>Call him a Utopian if you will, for believing in the Better Nature of
>Man. But hey, since he's doing it for free, and providing complete
>source, you can do whatever the heck you want to once you get the
>stuff, including, of course, adding your own security features to it.
>
>Eric Green  elg@usl.CSNET       from BEYOND nowhere:
>{ihnp4,cbosgd}!killer!elg,      P.O. Box 92191, Lafayette, LA 70509
>{ut-sally,killer}!usl!elg     "there's someone in my head, but it's not me..."

Arguing philosophy here...  I always take the view that people won't
intentionally trash the system (in particular, my files).  I also
could care less about security in environments like the NSA and CIA.
But I do appreciate security features.  In particular, I like the ability
to read source code using a text editor, while knowing that I won't
unintentionally trash it by accidentally modifying the file and
writing out the result.

--. Ma