# Help bust my linux cherry! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 16, 2006, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-bust-my-linux-cherry/356931 "2006-05-16T05:03:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-bust-my-linux-cherry/356931/21 "2006-05-17T02:22:39Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > As I understand it, they’ve actually locked the root account in Ubuntu - although I understand it can be fairly easily unlocked. Yeah, it’s a simple matter of “sudo passwd root” to reenable root access. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-bust-my-linux-cherry/356931/22 "2006-05-17T03:20:00Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Name one piece of spyware that has successfully infected a \*nix system. [Here is a good page on the general issue of malware under Linux](http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/index.php?page=virus) Calm down. I didn’t say Linux suffered from spyware; merely that it isn’t completely immune to it,though it does avoid exploitation in part by being under the radar for crackers, and in part because of the inherent security protocols of modern \*nix systems. But there are plenty of exploits on older, unpatched systems. When it becomes more popular as a desktop OS, one can expect to see more challenges. But the developer base will also be more responsive to holes than Microsoft is willing to admit their errors. > [@Derleth](#): > > Holes are discovered and patched. This is in contrast to the Windows model, where holes are merely discovered. 😉 I totally agree. Window (of various flavors) all suffers from the falacy of “security through obscurity.” The open source \*nixes, on the other hand, invite challenge as part of the development and ongoing improvement processes. > [@waterj2](#): > > Yeah, it’s a simple matter of “sudo passwd root” to reenable root access. What he said. root is disabled by default, but you can enable the account should you so desire. But there’s little reason to unless you are doing some serious kernel hacking. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-bust-my-linux-cherry/356931/23 "2006-05-17T04:36:19Z")
okie dokie…believe it or not I am posting this having booted my machine with an Ubuntu live CD. It pretty much auto detected everything and fired itself up. For some reason, i love the default background…it just calls to me for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-bust-my-linux-cherry/356931/24 "2006-05-17T04:55:38Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > I didn’t say Linux suffered from spyware; merely that it isn’t completely immune to it,though it does avoid exploitation in part by being under the radar for crackers […] When it becomes more popular as a desktop OS, one can expect to see more challenges. Nonsense. Linux is a widely-used platform already. Making these arguments simply shows that you don’t know what you’re talking about and haven’t even read the pages I’ve linked to. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-bust-my-linux-cherry/356931/25 "2006-05-17T04:58:38Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Nonsense. Linux is a widely-used platform already. Making these arguments simply shows that you don’t know what you’re talking about and haven’t even read the pages I’ve linked to. From what I have read already it sounds like basically as long as you don’t do something stupid logged in as root, it pretty much bulletproof. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-bust-my-linux-cherry/356931/26 "2006-05-17T04:59:27Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Nonsense. Linux is a widely-used platform already. Making these arguments simply shows that you don’t know what you’re talking about and haven’t even read the pages I’ve linked to. This comes off as curt. How about this: Linux has increased in popularity over the last few years. According to your theory, there should be a concomitant increase in malware. Has that occurred? ---
**Author:** ![Dragonblink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Dragonblink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragonblink)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-bust-my-linux-cherry/356931/27 "2006-05-17T05:15:33Z")
Another vote for Ubuntu. My main desktop box now dual boots Windows 2000 and Ubuntu – at my girlfriend’s suggestion I switched from the Gnome GUI to KDE, but otherwise I’m using it pretty much exactly as it installed. I like it, it’s quite neat, and the GUI doesn’t work terribly differently from Windows. There’s also a fair number of “getting started with Linux” type books available to help people learn how to use it. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-bust-my-linux-cherry/356931/28 "2006-05-17T09:33:37Z")
> [@Dragonblink](#): > > at my girlfriend’s suggestion I switched from the Gnome GUI to KDE, but otherwise I’m using it pretty much exactly as it installed. There is a modified version of Ubuntu with KDE as the default GUI called Kubuntu. It is still officially part of Ubuntu, apparently, it just caters to those who like KDE better than GNOME. Installing Kubuntu if you already have Ubunutu is as simple as this: > [@The FAQ](#): > > 1. Make sure you are using hoary or breezy in your apt sources list > 2. Install kubuntu-desktop either with Synaptic or the command line apt-get install. Gee, I wonder why apt and Synaptic are so popular. 😉 [Kubuntu FAQ](http://www.kubuntu.org/faq.php) ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-bust-my-linux-cherry/356931/29 "2006-05-17T10:23:01Z")
> [@drachillix](#): > > okie dokie…believe it or not I am posting this having booted my machine with an Ubuntu live CD. It pretty much auto detected everything and fired itself up. Congratulations – an easy way to check it out, no? I don’t recall how functional _synaptic_ is from the LiveCD (after all, the point isn’t really to **install** software packages), but if it’s there, do check it out. The breadth of free software is pretty astounding. On a tangent ( **not** for installation as the OP asks, but a good tool to have available), another Linux-based LiveCD that might be worthwhile knowing about is for system recovery. They’re built specifically for booting up and repairing a hosed system. Although I’ve never had a reason to use one, there’s a list of recommended ones [here](http://www.darknet.org.uk/2006/03/10-best-security-live-cd-distros-pen-test-forensics-recovery/). Seems like [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiveCD) has a pretty good list of all sorts of LiveCDs also. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-bust-my-linux-cherry/356931/30 "2006-05-17T16:55:28Z")
> [@Digital Stimulus](#): > > Congratulations – an easy way to check it out, no? I don’t recall how functional _synaptic_ is from the LiveCD (after all, the point isn’t really to **install** software packages), but if it’s there, do check it out. The breadth of free software is pretty astounding. synaptic does not seem to be there from what I have explored, but I will look into it. > [@](#): > > On a tangent ( **not** for installation as the OP asks, but a good tool to have available), another Linux-based LiveCD that might be worthwhile knowing about is for system recovery. They’re built specifically for booting up and repairing a hosed system. Although I’ve never had a reason to use one, there’s a list of recommended ones [here](http://www.darknet.org.uk/2006/03/10-best-security-live-cd-distros-pen-test-forensics-recovery/). Seems like [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiveCD) has a pretty good list of all sorts of LiveCDs also. just grabbed one to play with, if it can do FAT/NTFS file recovery something like this can be a godsend. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-bust-my-linux-cherry/356931.md?page=1)