full-disclosure - Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ]

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From: damian at sentex.net (Damian Gerow)
Subject: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ]

Thus spake William Warren (hescominsoon@...lphia.net) [12/11/03 15:33]:
> again many folks forget that Red Hat is not Linux..only the linux kernel 
> is linux..the rest are third party apps..so if you really want apples to 
> apples..then take MS and their(ie is critical to the os and therefore 
> part of the OS therefore making it native to the kernel) and the Linux 
> kernel and check vunls..windows will be many orders of magnitude 
> worse..apples to apples that is..:)

bash/tcsh/zsh/ash/whatever are *also* critical to a Linux system (how else
do you interact with it?), and by your reasoning, are thus native to the
kernel.  I don't think they are *native* to the kernel, but I *do* think
that they are part of the OS.

Sticklers can make the argument, and I technically agree with them, that
'Linux' just means what you get from zeus.kernel.org.  However, from the
Public's point of view, Linux means the kernel, the shell, X, Gnome/KDE,
etc.  Microsoft and Apple have bundled basically the entire workstation into
one package, and presented it as their OS.  So Linux is grouped into that,
even though Linux itself is just the kernel.

The line between OS and Application has grown pretty fuzzy in recent years.
The term 'OS' has grown from 'kernel' to 'that which I need in order to
accomplish interaction with the kernel' (... this just came off the top of
my head, it's probably not as accurate as it could be).