[Info-vax] VMS83A_UPDATE V11

[Tim E. Sneddon]

Tim E. Sneddon wrote:
> Michael Kraemer wrote:
>> In article <4B21294E.6010106 at bigpond.com>, "Tim E. Sneddon"
>> <tim.sneddon at bigpond.com> writes:
>>
>>> That is 1.6 patches per month.  What's the excuse for 8.3-1H1?  I'm
>>> not up to date, yet have 69 patches installed.  That was since
>>> Nov 2007.  So, that's 2 years and 2.9 patches per month. 
>>
>> Which is not that far (and increasing) from Mr. Main's notorious 
>> sermon about "xx patches per month" for the other OS's.
>>
> 
> My point exactly.
> 

Kerry Main is having problems with c.o.v access and contacted me directly
asking that I post his response, below...

Tim,

For whatever reason, my HP account has been blocked from posting to c.o.v.
(it's on listserver - not HP where I am blocked), but I want to clarify my
statements about 5-20 patches per month.

Those are 5-20 SECURITY patches per month with Windows and Linux - not
normal bug fixes which come out on a regular basis on every platform.

And while patch Tues (monthly SECURITY fixes for Windows) is well known,
here is link to Red Hat site that lists their MONTHLY security fixes:

https://www.redhat.com/archives/enterprise-watch-list/

(click on thread for each month and add them up yourself. The scary part is
that most Linux admins are not even aware of all these security patches.)

Every platform has security patches, but it is a question of volume because
security patches are typically viewed as must be deployed quickly and in
mission critical environments, this means re-testing to some level of the
important applications. So how do you do this when you have 5-20 security
patches per month?

Answer - you do not test applications before rolling out patches or you do
not roll-out patches. Either answer is not a good one as there is significant
risk with both.

Would appreciate you replying on c.o.v. with this clarification for me.

Regards

Kerry Main
Senior Consultant
HP Services Canada
Voice: 613-797-4937
Fax: 613-591-4477
kerryDOTmainAThpDOTcom
(remove the DOT's and AT)

OpenVMS - the secure, multi-site OS that simply works.