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List:       nessus
Subject:    Re: nessusd errors [OFF-TOPIC]
From:       Renaud Deraison <deraison () nessus ! org>
Date:       1999-03-25 14:58:51
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On Thu, 25 Mar 1999, A.Da Fonseca wrote:

> well i guess pple misunderstood exactly what i said:
> can we run nessus with a MacoS?( macos 8.5, OR MacOS X= Mach 2.5
> microkernel, 100% java comptatible and a full
>   BSD 4.4--->http://www.apple.com/macosx/server)
> 	I thought Nessus Project was cross platforms (and that a java compiler
> like MacJikes was ok for this).

Nessus is written in C. It uses an unix-like API. NessusJ is a client for 
the nessus server.

> "MacOS 8.x is an obsolete operating system": i won't make any comment
> about this, this not the place to reply to this provocation...it's more
> a 10 years old answer than anything else!

This is absolutely not a provocation. I used to be a MacOS developper
first (in pascal, then C, then C++, then back to C then switched to
linux).

I'm sorry to tell you that, I used to be a great Apple fan when I was
young, but MacOS 8 is an obsolete OS. Ok, it has a very nice GUI, maybe
the best around, but everything else is obsolete, and this is not a
provocation. Just facts :

	- threads support : minimal. And since MacOS does cooperative
	   multitasking, well... no comment. 

	- memory protection : none. You can easily crash your system
	   by free()ing twice the same pointer or writing anywhere in
   	   memory
	
	- sockets API : the last time I wrote a network program under
	   MacOS, which was supporting MacTCP and OpenTransport, there
	   was something like 200 lines to initialize the network
	   layer, and I had to include a 35Kb big library. 

	- Even the TCP code is not good... MacOS 8.5.x's TCP layer is
  	  still subject to the 64K sequence rule.

I also have a MacOS 8.5.x (.1 I think) running around here, on my bold
PowerMac 8100/80, and it crawls for a lot of things that went smoothly on 
the same computer running MkLinux (mach3 kernel with linux on the top of
it). But well, I'm getting off topic.

On the other hand, it's very likely that Nessus will run on MacOS X which
has nothing to do with MacOS 8, except its name 'MacOS'. I someone gives
me one of those nice G3's with MacOS X installed (because it's not that
cheap), I will even port it myself (only if I get one of those G3's and
their nice screens), and maybe there is even nothing to do to make the
server work under this operating system (which is too expensive).


> Plus let me remind you something:
> 
> http://www.nessus.org/projects/index.html
> we can read this:
> The 'NessusJ' project is a Nessus client written in Java. This way,
> Nessus can be used under any operating system (including MacOS and
> Windows 95).
> So?
> I thought Nessus Project was open Minded program for open minded OS, is
> it really?I not sure any more.

Once more, NessusJ is a client. A simple frontend. All the security checks
are performed by the server (nessusd) which is multiplatforms but not
multi-APIs.

Speaking of open-mindness, I'll just point out that I even spent a lot of
time in porting Nessus to WindowsNT this summer (I have stalled for
several reasons), even though I really loathe this operating system. 
In addition to other Unices that I don't like. (Ok, the Solaris port
was not a good one too, but it should work by now).

Last but not least, I don't like to support proprietary systems. Porting
Nessus to MacOS 8.x would take me a lot of time, which could be spent 
somewhere else.

(add to that that Metrowerks Codewarrior was far from being free when I
left the MacOS world, and being a poor student, I can not afford to spend
the price of a P90 and its screen in developement tools).


Now, I don't think that this is necessary to continue this thread because
most of the people around here just do not care about MacOS, Windows,
Apple, and all this stuff. If you want to reply, send me a private mail.


Just to make sure everything is clear,



				-- Renaud

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