OT, again: Re: [cobalt-security] SUN don't care about security update ?

[Nico Meijer <nico.meijer@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Barbara,

Kudos to you: this is a post I can work with. No bashing, no trashing. Thanks.

> I just recently purchased a SuperMicro 1U case (w/
> dual hotswap SCSI backplane), along with a Maxtor
> Atlas III 10,000 RPM 18Gig Ultra160 drive, and a
> SuperMicro 370SSR MB (with dual Adaptec SCSI Ultra160
> controlers built in, and dual Intel NIC's) -paired
> with an Intel 1G PIII and 512 RAM - all for less than
> $800 (pricewatch.com is my friend)...

I've never purchased any Supermicro boards or cases yet, but am anxious to find out if you like their stuff. For less than $800, you've found a deal alright.

> Toss in OpenNA's
> new darn FAST AND SECURE OS (similar to a hardened
> RedHat system) - http://www.openna.com/  - and you
> have one very quick, and VERY secure machine -running
> all the latest versions of popular programs (Qpopper,
> Apache, Exim, etc).  

Ah, thanks for the heads up on this one. I liked their book a lot, so we'll see what their distro brings once it is released as a stable OS. I'll most certainly give it a spin sometime soon.

FYI, and again off-topic, some folks might like Trustix Secure Linux aswell. Since Linux and Open Source is "all about choice" (shameless plug here ;->), I thought I'd mention it. You can find it @ http://www.trustix.net. There's only proven stuff in that distro, a small footprint (200Mb ISO) and indeed very fast and (pretty) secure by default. Loosely based on RedHat 6.x, it's not a big step if you're used to Cobalt OS. It comes with the latest apache (with mod_ssl) and uses postfix as its mailer. For obvious reasons, kernel 2.4 is not included, but running a 2.4 kernel should pose no problem. Software updates can be handled automatically with their swup tool.

> On the day that CERT announced the Zlib vulerability,
> the OpenNA OS had updated RPM's available for download
> within hours!

That's promising. I hope they can keep that pace up high and you'll have a very decent alternative.

Buhbye and good luck... Nico