[plug] Installfest - distributions

[Christian]

On Fri, Aug 25, 2000 at 01:48:37PM +0800, skribe wrote:
 
> I'm a hobbyist linux user as I suspect most of us on the list are.  Hiring 
> someone isn't feasible and defeats the purpose of being a hobbyist 
> anyway.  We want to know how things work.  What makes them tick.  So we can 
> fix it later if it breaks.  Investing the time to learn isn't a problem 
> (presuming we can fit it in with all of life's other necessities), except 
> there's nowhere to learn other than the unis and only then in the longer 
> courses.

Ah, by "real world" I thought you mean industry. ;-)  I definitely
wouldn't recommend hobbyist hire a security consultant! :P

> So what do we do?  The information on the web is disseminated and 
> basic.  Books are expensive and very often out of date by the time they're 
> published. We end up with a mish-mash of information that may be useful but 
> will undoubtedly be incomplete.  I don't know all that much about computer 
> security (what I do know comes from reading web pages and books), but more 
> importantly I don't know what I don't know because I don't know where to 
> find out what I need to know, ya know? =).

The information is surprisingly good if/when you know where/how to look.
It does take a lot of time though but, if you're a hobbyist, time is all
you have...

> I agree with you, Christian.  The vendors really need to do a better 
> job.  But so does the community.  The people who know their shit really 
> have to make this info available in an accessible form so that even newbies 
> can get a grasp of it.

I think it mostly is... but it's hard to say I guess.

Regards,

Christian.