Notes on Linux

   In the march towards greater security there is a downside that affects older computers and older software. Older web browsers that support older versions of SSL are often locked out of certain web sites. Naturally web browsers that don't support SSL at all won't work either.

   Recently I tried to access forums.freebsd.org and osdisc.com and always got the message "The connection was interrupted" in firefox 16.0.2, the newest version which would run on an older version of Vector Linux. At first I tried to disable IPV6 within firefox but that made no difference. Then I wondered 'could the version of SSL supported in firefox be too old?' so I tried again using Q4OS with iceweasel 38.2.0 and it worked.

   To my thinking the extra security for web sites is rather nullified by the result of locking out many systems. Even my online banking worked on firefox 16.0.2 and surely the freebsd forums are not more important than that. Web site developers need to be aware that by locking out older computers they are reducing the utility of their sites.

   Older computer users face another more serious problem which can't be fixed by newer versions of software: As encryption becomes more elaborate it requires more and more computing power to make use of it. To put it another way an older computer like a MicroVAX or an Amiga running NetBSD would run the security layer so slowly as to make it unuseable.

   Informational web sites or forums should not lock out older computers. I don't see the necessity for using new versions of SSL on such sites. With online banking obviously there is no argument, the strongest security should be implemented, but for sites like wikipedia or forums I see no need for https.