My mastodon feed is full of IT security specialist talking about the xz affair where someone let a backdoor in some library.
But beside showing the two side of Free/Libre software (anybody can add a backdoor, and anybody can spot it), I have no idea how it impacts the average person. Is it a common library or something used only by specific application ? Would my home-grade router protects me ?
I don’t even understand what anyone in this thread is saying.
That’s not an invitation, please don’t explain Linux to me.
I’m just saying this means nothing for average people.
It could have meant a lot to the average person if it wasn’t caught. If this was some adversary, they could have used it to cripple critical infrastructure in the largest cyber attack in history.
Luckily it was caught before this software was rolled out to really anything that should be in prod.
Can I explain GUN/Linux to you?
Isn’t that this Windows imitation I sometimes hear about?
(I have a death wish I guess)
But on a serious side: I need an easy to use Linux system next year for my parents who are not very tech savvy. Do you have a recommendation for easy use that feels like Windows? It will only be used for browsing, open office and stuff.
You can to me. I don’t know what gnu is but I know that Linux is a penguin branch of os
No.
It actually means a lot for average people. Only because you are not able to comprehend some things, does not mean you are not affected by it. But feel free to keep on using Windows XP.