[nickpegg]

I agree with this to an extent, a complete novice probably shouldn't take this sort of leap without understanding the configuration involved in securing down a Linux box. I wouldn't say it's out of the reach of most people familiar enough with Linux, though.

Regarding security programming, etc., I expose as little as possible to the world. Of the services that I do expose, I'm relying on pre-packaged software and the maintainers of Debian to keep it patched for me. I trust that those people mostly know what they're doing, and any code I write will mostly just be for internal automation.

[blueking]

Well if you really care about security you should run OpenBSD not linux. And it installs secure by default. Just grab the book of pf and write out your firewall rules.