Re: [aclug-L] Intellemouse question

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Cheez-Czar <cabrubak@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Unfortunatley some of us have friends that still use windows, (and if you
> think everyone can use linux, try to teach my Mom linux) and aren't
> planning to change. Instead of getting rid of such friends we choose to
> sitll communicate to them. 

OK, perhaps I stuck my foot in my mouth here, it appears that I didn't 
say what I meant to say.  This is what I get for reading mail late at
night when I should be sleeping, I guess :-)

I'm not trying to say that people should never use it.  I just want
people to be aware of its problems.  This way, perhaps you can find a
different tool that suits your needs better, or perhaps it's just a
reminder in case something odd happens.

Perhaps I'm a bit paranoid about this -- but then I'm paid to be
paranoid about security, so it's a bit hard to change.  OTOH, there
has never been a successful breakin to complete.org since it's been
running under Unix/Linux despite multiple attempts, so perhaps
security paranoia is not so bad.

I don't mean to say that ICQ isn't ever a good tool, or that people
should not use it.  I just want people to be aware that there are
problems with it that could have awkward consequences if exploited --
for instance, I want my mother to know that if she receives some rude
remark from me in ICQ, it would have been somebody else that sent it.

One other ICQ client that isn't mentioned, BTW, is Miribilis's own
JavaICQ.  This client, however, is extremely slow and memory-hungry
(eats more RAM than Netscape, in general) so this is why we have a
slew of clones written in C.

Also, they did fix that server bug, but not the spoofing one that's
been around for several months now.

> Besides as we have an exiting system, as we start making better clients
> (even for windows system) than Mirabilis. Hopefully we can convince more
> people including Mirabilis, about the advantage of Open Source (tm)
> software.

There is a project called GNUcq if I remember correctly that is to
make an ICQ clone, but with completely open source software.  I don't
know many details about it, though.

> And besides ICQ is better then the  other alternative is the AOL messenger
> thing they bundle with Netscape now (less features, but you can contact
> AOL people). 

Definately it's better than that.  AOL Instant Messenger has even more
security issues, if I recall correctly -- it's just that fewer people
use it so they don't get as much attention.

> And finally there are some things that being secure doesn't matter much

I disagree that this is such a case, but this is a tangent so I shall
refrain from going off on a security and privacy tirade for the moment 
:-)

-- 
John Goerzen   Linux, Unix consulting & programming   jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx |
Developer, Debian GNU/Linux (Free powerful OS upgrade)       www.debian.org |
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