How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 14, 2013 22:55 UTC (Thu) by tglx (subscriber, #31301)
In reply to: How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com) by arjan
Parent article: How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

if you ignore the people who are smart enough _NOT_ to use smartphones

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 14, 2013 23:21 UTC (Thu) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (20 responses)

Because smartphones make them look stupid? :)

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 15, 2013 1:56 UTC (Fri) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link] (15 responses)

No because what is he point, what is the functionality that you want ?

Doubt anyone could do any useful work while they are walking, so the ultre-thin ultra-book concept makes much more sense...specially if by some way you could hook a mobile phone (anyone call it what they like) and softphone anywhere(which is only one functionality possible).

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 15, 2013 9:51 UTC (Fri) by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784) [Link] (4 responses)

The functionality I want is "being able to carry Wikipedia and Google Maps in my trouser pocket". Your ultrabook doesn't even appear on the radar.

On the radar

Posted Feb 15, 2013 14:30 UTC (Fri) by pboddie (guest, #50784) [Link]

I knew ultrabooks were supposed to be thin, but I didn't know they had stealth capabilities!

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 18, 2013 13:25 UTC (Mon) by ibukanov (subscriber, #3942) [Link] (1 responses)

For wikipedia and maps one does not need a smart phone. I have relatively dumb phone with a tiny (less than 2 inch), but readable screen. It runs Java and Google has good clients for Mail and Maps. Opera Mini provides the rest. The phone lasts one week on a single charge with occasional mail/web usage and bluetooth data connections. The phone is lighter than most smart phones and does work when it is -20C (-4F) outside.

As a big bonus the complexity of software on the phone is much less than what is available on a typical smartphone so I can trust it more.

Also a smartphone

Posted Feb 19, 2013 18:59 UTC (Tue) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link]

In case you did not notice: what you are carrying around is called a smartphone. Yes, even primitive Symbian devices were smartphones. They are not defined by the big screens or the short battery life, but by having a general purpose OS with the ability to load user programs.

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 21, 2013 1:22 UTC (Thu) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

This[1] could become a reality. It also looks like some have tried[2] (not that I'd trust any of those as-is).

[1]http://ipadpockettees.com/
[2]http://news.tacticalpants.com/the-perfect-ipad-2-pants-po...

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 15, 2013 12:55 UTC (Fri) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link] (9 responses)

> No because what is he point, what is the functionality that you want ?

* Take decent photos.

* find stores. Find store times. Find phone numbers. Look up prices while at store to see if it's a good deal or not. See review of products. Look up technical information when buying computer parts.

* Keeping track of phone numbers.

* Be able to communication with a number of people via their favorite method. Some people are most easily reached via text message as they don't answer their phones usually. Some people prefer to get stuff via email. etc.

* Calenders. Reminders. Notifications.

* Maps and other things for determining speed, direction, location, etc.

* Looking up how to do something. If your in the midst of working on your car, plumbing, heart surgery, or whatever then you can easily find videos, howtos, and guides for most anything quickly.

* playing videos games. Playing card games with others. reading stuff. Watching videos, movies, television shows, listening to the radio, listening to online radio, listening to mp3s, listening to streaming mp3s, podcasts, books, newspapers, magazines, etc.

* Being able to be easily reached at any place. Easily being able to disable being easily reached at any place.

Generally speaking they are pretty awesome. Ultimate use of functionality depends on how often you are out and about.

However honestly?

Most people buying them probably do it to do email, facebook, and surf the web while at work since most businesses do quite a bit of filtering to prevent virus infections at work and other issues.

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 15, 2013 18:34 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] (1 responses)

* Be able to communication with a number of people via their favorite method.

... as long as that method isn't a phone call. I've avoided smartphones like the plague myself, but every single one of my telephonic correspondents who has a smartphone (even the highly technical ones) has terrible trouble actually getting it to work as a phone. Some of them crash in the middle of calls or when getting cut off and require rebooting: some of them require rebooting whenever you associate a Bluetooth headset: some of them just have really really bad call quality. Not one appears to be tolerable. This seems to be a universal across iPhone and Android: I don't know anyone with a Windows Phone to judge, but I suspect that sucks too. (Curiously, BlackBerries, at least before the latest revision, were not too incompetent at being a simple phone.)

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 18, 2013 13:33 UTC (Mon) by nye (subscriber, #51576) [Link]

>every single one of my telephonic correspondents who has a smartphone (even the highly technical ones) has terrible trouble actually getting it to work as a phone

I submit that this is largely selection/confirmation bias.

There are at least a couple of *billion* people with smartphones, the majority of whom are entirely non-technical and have no trouble using one as a phone. If the situation were even remotely as bad as you suggest, it would be very obvious.

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 15, 2013 19:48 UTC (Fri) by Lennie (subscriber, #49641) [Link] (5 responses)

And battery life is overrated ?

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 16, 2013 3:42 UTC (Sat) by hummassa (subscriber, #307) [Link]

My phone makes all of the above continuously (I am a heavy, heavy user w/skype, facebook, twitter, gps, bluetooth, two email accounts all active at the same time) and has a maximum battery life of ~30h. It was like 40h when it was still on 2.3 and it got to less than 25h when it went to 4.0, so 30h is ok for me now. Just plug it in every night, and if I forget to do so, it still can survive 'till I get to the office to plug it in there for one hour or so.

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 18, 2013 13:49 UTC (Mon) by nye (subscriber, #51576) [Link] (3 responses)

>And battery life is overrated ?

Battery life if obviously a trade-off against what you want to do. If you want to do those things, it's not reasonable to expect that battery life will not be reduced.

(To take the argument ad absurdum, I could suggest that it's stupid to have a mobile phone at all when a landline never needs charging, but almost everyone acknowledges that having the extra mobility in exchange for the necessity of charging batteries is a worthwhile trade-off.)

If you literally never need any of those facilities, then of course a smartphone is a bad choice; that shouldn't even need saying.

If you *might occasionally* need them but don't use them in the normal course of events, the battery life is likely to be on the same order as a dumbphone. It will be less, to be sure, but not ten times less - you might be looking at around a week versus two weeks. The reason a smartphone's battery life is typically less in practice is that it turns out people want and use those features.

This isn't theoretical BTW; on some very rare occasions I've left my phone largely unused for a week or more and not had the battery run out, and it's an HTC Desire which is now pretty long in the tooth and wasn't particularly known for its stellar battery life even new.

(Random addendum: the real battery-killer is of course travelling, as the phone desperately tries to find a connection presumably by boosting its output power, then has to do it all over again 30 seconds later. Back when I had a non-smart mobile phone, it would have a battery life of around two weeks, or three hours on a train, which is a bit of a bugger really. Things don't seem to have improved much in that department.)

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 21, 2013 1:45 UTC (Thu) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link] (2 responses)

There's a widget in the F-Droid repo which allows you to turn of the data signal. It still acts as a phone, but if you know data service is going to be spotty, you can save lots of battery that way.

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 21, 2013 11:54 UTC (Thu) by nye (subscriber, #51576) [Link] (1 responses)

I'll try to remember that, thanks.

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 22, 2013 3:51 UTC (Fri) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

It's called "ApnSwitch" if scrolling through the app is too annoying (it is for me).

Bacteria on cellphones

Posted Feb 19, 2013 19:07 UTC (Tue) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link]

Looking up how to do something. If your in the midst of working on your car, plumbing, heart surgery, or whatever then you can easily find videos, howtos, and guides for most anything quickly.

Just in case some real doctors just came out from hibernation, are reading this and planning to take their cellphones to their next operation: many bacteria are found in cellphones, including methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. For the rest of you: wash your hands after fondling your smartphone and before doing the same to your closest ones, or cooking dinner. They are filthy!

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 16, 2013 3:21 UTC (Sat) by idupree (guest, #71169) [Link] (3 responses)

Smartphones are more insecure and more expensive (in the U.S.; including the price of mobile data) than modern computers. These will change, but haven't yet.

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 18, 2013 13:33 UTC (Mon) by ibukanov (subscriber, #3942) [Link] (2 responses)

> Smartphones are more insecure ... than modern computers.

Insecure in what sense? A typical application on Windows/Mac/Linux PC can read/change all my data, but this is not so on Android. The only advantage of a PC AFAICS is the hardware visualization so OS can run wireless and other complex drivers isolated from the rest of the system. But such advantage is mostly theoretical as very few PC utilizes that.

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 21, 2013 3:59 UTC (Thu) by draco (subscriber, #1792) [Link] (1 responses)

YMMV, but my last (Android) smartphone got 1 OTA update over the course of 2.5 years. Something tells me it wasn't because the software was so secure it didn't need an update...

How The Linux Foundation and Fedora are Addressing Workstation Security (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 21, 2013 10:20 UTC (Thu) by hummassa (subscriber, #307) [Link]

You apparently chose your handset poorly. Mine went from 2.3.x to 4.0, then 4.0.1, then 4.1, then 4.1.1, then 4.2, 4.2.1, and some days ago to 4.2.2.