[clug] Are outgoing firewalls of any use?

[Francis Markham]

A quick question to the CLUG hivemind:

Is there any point in having desktop outgoing firewalls?  They are
common-place on Windows, but are generally considered unnecessary for
desktop linux.

I can think of two use-cases:

   - Block proprietary software from phoning-home (see, for example,
   http://lwn.net/Articles/129729/ ).  The correct answer is probably "don't
   use proprietary software" but that is not always a possibility.
   - Provide Windows users with familiar security theater (not really useful
   I guess)

Any thoughts on this?

Cheers,

Francis