Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!previous.cis.ohio-state.edu!jgreely From: jgreely@previous.cis.ohio-state.edu (J Greely) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Cooperation Message-ID: <43293@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 13 Apr 89 16:49:57 GMT References: <16913@obiwan.mips.COM> <7515@zodiac.UUCP> <1534@Portia.Stanford.EDU> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Reply-To: J Greely Distribution: usa Organization: The Ohio State University, Department of Computer and Information Science Lines: 38 In article <1534@Portia.Stanford.EDU> apte@Portia.Stanford.EDU (R Apte) writes: >Steve Jobs has decided that the risk of virus is too great on the internet >and will not allow anyone at NeXT to perform any internet functions other >than mail. I hope this is not hard-wired corporate policy, because it sounds (as written) like a knee-jerk reaction to an over-hyped problem. Hell, even MILNET came back once they were sure the worm was caught. The people who operate anonymous ftp sites supporting NeXT software and information come out looking like idiots ("we allow anonymous ftp for NeXt-related stuff, but *they* think it's too big a risk. But not a big enough risk to encourage their customers to do the same"). If the Internet is too risky, why isn't there an easy way to disable these hideously unsafe features from my NeXT, or at least something in the documentation giving me a brief explanation of what to do? *I* happen to know, but a novice user/administrator could get *very* confused/annoyed/disturbed/miffed about this. Is any mention of this in 0.9, or does NeXT not mention their concerns about network security to customers? (NOTE: The above is intentionally slightly inflammatory, but is not intended as a criticism of the product or the company. At this time, I'm responding to an un-proven allegation, criticizing it as a bad idea of the first magnitude. Anything potentially tactless (or "tacky") is mine, and does not represent the opinion of the Ohio State University. Now, if it were revealed by a company representative that this *were*, in fact, official policy, my approach would be similar, but better researched and thought out. I do know that it is at least partially true, since next.com refuses anything but mail, telnet, and name-server connections (not that I tried everything, mind you). But all the lack of connections shows is the effect, not the intent.) -=- J Greely (jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu; osu-cis!jgreely)