[sugar] perceived sugar performance

[Paul Fox]

michael wrote:
 > On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 02:54:15PM -0400, Paul Fox wrote:
 > > michael wrote:
 > >  > Depends. Any software you run can write to your .xsession, yes?
 > >  > Afterward, will you really notice an extra instance of 'bash', or
 > >  > 'kdmgd', or some other nonsense running in the background, capturing all
 > >  > your keystrokes, aliasing 'sudo', running 'xauth ++', setting up a
 > >  > spambot, or querying an IRC server for recent local root exploits?
 > > 
 > > eek!  time to retire.  ;-)
 > > 
 > > your point is well taken, but since any program i run manually
 > > can also write to lots and lots of things that i run, or use as
 > > config, 
 > 
 > On an XO running a recent build (including 703), almost all activities
 > are prevented from writing to interesting places like .xsession. We just
 > invent new uids and gids (user ids and group ids) for them on demand.
 > Also, there's plenty left to do to help control the current exceptions.

this paragraph is an argument that autostart is "okay" on the XO --
not as dangerous as it is on my traditional workstation.

 > 
 > > i'm not sure why autostart makes a huge difference.  
 > 

i think i should have added "... from a security perspective."

 > Avoiding autostart means that reboot is much more powerful - rebooting
 > will actually have some chance of restoring your system to a workable
 > state. It also gives you a small mischief diagnosis tool - you can do
 > controlled experiments to determine whether your system does annoying
 > things when you run specific activities. (We're thinking of trying to
 > add some power usage monitoring and some network isolation that will
 > further support this use.) Combined with a button or option on each
 > activity that lets one wipe away cached state, this system will
 > plausibly have achieved a new plateau of mischief resilience.

i never considered that there wouldn't be a "safe mode" override for
autostart.  (just as you wouldn't implement hibernate without the
ability to still do a true cold boot.)

paul
=---------------------
 paul fox, pgf at foxharp.boston.ma.us (arlington, ma, where it's 46.2 degrees)