multilanguage support, and a bad virus experience

bscott at ntisys.com bscott at ntisys.com
Fri Feb 13 09:11:52 EST 2004


On Fri, 13 Feb 2004, at 1:22pm, invalid at pizzashack.org wrote:
> On the virus front: To make a long story short, I installed XP on my
> laptop ... in that short time, my windows XP install had become infected
> with not one, but FIVE different worms... This kind of thing would never
> happen to me on Linux, because it's a simple matter to shut down all
> running services before connecting to the Internet for the first time to
> get updates.

  Right.  And it would never happen to me with Windows XP, either.  Why?  
Because before I connected to the Internet, I would have turned on Windows
XP's built-in firewall, which would have completely protected you from all
of those worm attacks.  I do the same thing on Linux.

  FWIW, Microsoft has decided that, as of Windows XP SP2, the firewall will
be on by default.

  Let me also point out that versions of Windows prior to XP did *not* have
a built-in firewall.  This meant you were largely screwed if you did not
have a separate firewall.  This trend continues for all of Microsoft's
products.  The further back in time you go, the worse they get.  However,
the same is true for Unix.  The first Unix systems were hideously insecure
by today's standards.  Unix did not stand still.  Neither is Microsoft.  
If, as FOSS proponents, we continue to base our arguments in favor of FOSS
on Microsoft of the past, we will lose.

  That, ultimately, is the point I am trying to make.

> Finding information on how to do things on Microsoft systems is often very
> difficult, tedious, and/or expensive...

  Call 1-866-PC-SAFETY.  Microsoft provides free technical support for all
security-related issues.

  Alternatively, go to http://www.microsoft.com/ and click the "Protect my
PC" link that's displayed right on their home page.

  Again, these are relatively new developments in the Microsoft world.  The
security hotline was created only a few years ago, and that link on their
homepage only appeared after the "Blaster" worm last summer.

> This is, of course, only my opinion, which is based on my own personal
> experience.

  As you, by choice, have avoided Microsoft as much as possible, I really
don't think you're qualified to speak on how much information is available
on Microsoft systems.  FWIW, I envy you for that fact that you have the
choice of avoiding their stuff.  I do not.

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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