Podcast Season 1 Episode 19

Posted at 3:56pm on Thursday October 15th 2009
Podcast

Title: A Hero's Welcome

In this episode: Linux is reported to be safer for online banking and international stock exchanges than Microsoft Windows, we reveal our personal geek heroes and our Open Ballot asks whether we should embrace Microsoft's open source work.

What's in the show

Presenters: Andrew Gregory, Paul Hudson, Graham Morrison and Mike Saunders

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Your comments

Kernels are not

Muzer_cbatli (not verified) - October 15, 2009 @ 5:42pm

Kernels are not binary-compatible (AFAIK), so it can't be pluggable.

Re: Kernels are not

Kenshin (not verified) - October 15, 2009 @ 6:25pm

I believe FreeBSD has a binary compatibility layer with Linux binaries :)

Boycott "boycott Novell"?

Sslaxx (not verified) - October 15, 2009 @ 7:15pm

Is Boycott Novell still going then? Blimey. Not sure what to make of the site hugely, but does raise some thinking points (such as sexism and the schism between Open Source/Free Software).

As for the reasons behind the original site, eh... can't say I trust Microsoft nor am I happy with Novell making the original deal, but the sky hasn't fallen in (even taking the .NET/Mono stuff into consideration).

I love the radio jingles,

BoBTFish - October 15, 2009 @ 10:43pm

I love the radio jingles, are they here to stay? And can't you just go with "discovery of the show". I suppose then you'ld have to find a way to describe how often the shows come out.

The radio jingles?

Qjet (not verified) - October 16, 2009 @ 2:18am

I dunno didn't family guy do a bit like that once?

Screw it just be yourselves guys, don't try to impress us.

Unless it's a joke, then it's clearly gone over my head. Is a joke right?

Is that beer glass offer valid in the U.S

Andrew Cole (not verified) - October 16, 2009 @ 3:59am

and what about the coffee cup offer? If it is a matter of shipping I would be willing to pay extra, I would love to get a shirt/mug/glass combo, maybe you guys should just open a store?

Glad to see you guys agree about accepting Microsoft's code.

Mike_IronFist (not verified) - October 16, 2009 @ 4:27am

I'm glad to see that you guys understand that having code Open Source means that we must consider code from Microsoft based on its qualities, and not its origin.

Hi guys, glad the podcast

buzzomatic - October 16, 2009 @ 8:19am

Hi guys, glad the podcast quality keeps on improving, just wish you'd ditch that horrible music. Silence would be preferable.

You should teach the OSNews guys how to do it, because they seem clueless.

Oh yeah, and where would an

buzzomatic - October 16, 2009 @ 8:22am

Oh yeah, and where would an Australian go to subscribe?

Password protect your bios.

BubbaT (not verified) - October 16, 2009 @ 8:47am

Even if you use a liveCD, if the malware flashes the bios, and modifies it so that it bootstraps from your Win hard drive a little program which simulates the liveCD ( I won't say how ) but with modified code. It take someone very technical minded and determined, but that's what these malware writers are.

BubbaT... what?

Anonymous Penguin (not verified) - October 16, 2009 @ 3:52pm

As far as I've heard, bios rootkits have at best being theoretical. The only examples being academic. With the exception of Chernobyl virus, which by the way only targeted a specific MoBo. Also, I could be wrong here, but im pretty sure that when you flash the bios, the "flash" errases all of the bios, A virus would really have to be specifically targeted. Now adays this is beyond not practical.

Assuming this attack was performed.
More likely it would act like a hipervisor virus and log keystrokes, (a much more likely attack, which If im not mistaken, LiveCD's are also immune too, as the hard disk is never read when booting the CD, no malicious code can execute in the hypervisor attack scenario.)

Also seriously I don't like the radio jingles. Seriously

Re: BubbaT... what?

BubbaT (not verified) - October 16, 2009 @ 8:17pm

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/bios-virus-rootkit-security-backdoor,7400.html
In fact such an attempt was made on me. Winpatrol ( wonderful program if you have to use Windows) warned me that a program was asking to be be run at startup, and that an attempt to rewrite my hosts file was underway.

Turned out that the program was a bios flashing program and the host file was redirecting mobo's manufacturers sites to some dotted address.

Wouldn't have mattered, because I had already password protected my bios.

As for liveCDs being immune to a bios hack because the hard drive is never read, say what? A compromised bios can and probably will read the hard drive, even if the CD comes first in the boot sequence.

bubbaT

Qjet (not verified) - October 17, 2009 @ 12:27am

I would like details on this bios flashing virus if you please. Because I would seriously like to see a non academic example of a bios rootkit.

About the Hypervisor thing, I was referring to a liveCD's immunity to a malicious hypervisor. Something that seems a little off point I'll admit, I just felt like mentioning it.

Also I am slightly confused as to how a password is going to protect your bios from a flash. Seeing as that's like password protecting your login in to prevent someone from formating your HDD.

http://www.dewassoc.com/support/bios/bios_password.htm

Jingles

TuxRadar - October 17, 2009 @ 9:51am

Relax, folks: regular listeners will know that every episode kicks off with a different "Contrary to popular wishes" intro, and this one was "Contrary to popular wishes we haven't given up our day jobs to record radio jingles" - hence the use of radio jingles in the podcast.

Similarly to how we used a variety of music back in episode 12, it's a one off just for fun. We have something special planned for next time, although it might generate complaints - believe us, though, we really tried :)

I liked the jingles!

Anonymous Pregnant Koala (not verified) - October 17, 2009 @ 11:01am

Still gestating...

for Andrew

Lord Kelvin (not verified) - October 25, 2009 @ 12:31am

http://zapatopi.net/kelvin/

LSE

avoura - October 27, 2009 @ 11:48pm

So glad to hear that the London Stock Exchange is saving money by using Linux instead of MS crapware. Maybe share trading will get cheaper?

beer glass

Anonymous Penguin (not verified) - October 28, 2009 @ 4:45pm

It's a pity that existing subscribers cannot get the beer glass. Or maybe I should cancel my sub and then start a new subscription?

What he said

Bicko (not verified) - October 29, 2009 @ 8:08am

Totally agree about the beer glass.
I want one, I already subscribe, therefore I can't have one!

Also, was someone using a marker pen on a flipchart during the podcast?

Good, informative show as usual, guys.
Can I buy a beer glass please?

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