[Coco] Re: [Long] [OT] That Big Shadow Over Your Shoulder, Part 1,

KnudsenMJ at aol.com KnudsenMJ at aol.com
Mon Mar 1 12:08:55 EST 2004


In a message dated 2/29/04 8:20:58 PM Eastern Standard Time, wb8tyw at qsl.net 
writes:

> At one point timesharing machines where the popular standard.  Just 
>  about all of the exploits seen on Windows / Unix were tried on them at 
>  the schools, but the lessons were lost on the PC developers.  After all, 
>  a person would not attack their own machine?

True, true.  Originally, a "personal computer" was just that, and the only 
access to it was physical -- someone had to sneak into my house to mess with my 
PC, Coco, MM/1, whatever.  The Internet changed all that.

BTW, OS-9 must be the most insecure OS around!  Hardly any protections on 
files, ability to open /D0@ raw mode, system calls to *write* into System DP -- a 
hacker's paradise!  But those features are also what makes writing fancy 
real-time apps so straightforward.

And of course OS-9 was intended for friendly environments of programmer teams 
working on embedded systems and process controls.  Protecting against a rogue 
team member is a document-control issue, not an OS thing.
--Mike K.



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