Well the message "distro makers should have done it" is equally true or false depending on _what_ is "it".

They're routinely doing a bunch of things administrators would have to even more routinely perform otherwise, and the only sane proposal I see here is some kind of "security level" (btw, don't know how it's now but exactly Mandrake had msec several years ago although was completely horrid in a bunch of other aspects).

And the _major_ knob is the distro itself: don't judge "Linux" on Mdk, get Owl, Adamantix or ALTLinux there to see. These are hardened distros, people using them are or become aware that the usability/security balance is quite different from most other distros.

PS: frankly, I'm thinking Symantec could have done a better job of finding a person of judging on these matters. Sorry but it's the first and still lasting impression after having partially followed the discussion...

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