Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, the Linux world's very own Thurrot-before-he-lost-his-faith, writes: "People tell me I bash Microsoft too much; that Microsoft's products really are great. OK, so I won't bash Microsoft this time around. I'll let Microsoft's own friends do it."
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Member since:2006-02-27
Celerate, this is a particularly obnoxious troll, I am sorry to say. There are plenty of Windows users who never get viruses or malware. I have personally not had a virus since the mid-1990s, when my brother infected the family machine with a boot block virus from a floppy from school. However, I do not use anti-virus software, nor am I particularly cautious about which web pages I visit.
It is not magic. It is not luck. Honestly, informed Windows users can avoid malware without much trouble.
Look, running Linux takes a certain amount of expertise, even if you never touch a command line. It is the same as Windows. The only difference is, in Linux, the expertise is in making the machine do what you want it to, while in Windows, the expertise is in preventing the machine from doing what you don't want it to.
Member since:2006-04-16
Member since:2005-06-29
While I don't dissagree that knowing what you're doing gives you a better chance at keeping your system clean, it also doesn't make you impervious, and that's the point I'm trying to make. By implying that you're safe if you know what you're doing, you're practically saying that you know more than everyone else out there who has had their computer compromised, and I'm just not inclined to believe that.
Like it or not, you don't get a whole decade or more using Windows without having your computer compromised just because you think you're the king of the geeks, you owe most of your good fortune to luck. You don't have to go looking for trouble for it to find you.
Plus, according to your claim: "However, I do not use anti-virus software, nor am I particularly cautious about which web pages I visit" you make yourself out to be uncautious on the internet and without anti-virus, all under the assumption that you are running Windows since that is what the subject of all this debate. If you aren't running anti-virus software you assume that you don't have a virus because you haven't yet been told so. Even watching for symptoms isn't a good solution because well written viruses aren't obvious like the script kiddie "connect the dot" virus builing kits are.
You don't carry much credibility when you say you don't have any viruses, but you also don't have any means to know if you did. Sure, there's online scanners using active X and Java, but if the virus is on your computer first those can be circumvented, fooled, and even disabled.
Member since:2005-07-06
This reminds me about a little discussion I had last year: I was a guest at a friend of mine parents' place, and my friend and I were using his father's Windows XP box to surf the Internet. The thing literally crawled, you had to wait a little after every single keystroke. I'm no Windows expert, but looking at the quantity of software installed and noticing that it was 24/24 connected to the Internet I guessed that the cause could be a load of spyware and possibly a virus. So, even with automatic patching and anti-virus software always on that system was on the verge of usability.
Since then, and perhaps because of that experience, my friend has happily moved to Linux, I don't know about his father 
rehdon
PS It's not only the big picture troubling me about Windows, it's also the many small annoyances I experience (no pun intended) when I have to use it. For instance, my Windows laptop (yeah, had to pay the Microsoft tax on that one) is now misbehaving with no apparent reason: every time I try to create a new directory clicking with the right mouse button the shell freezes, any idea about that? Ok, I use Windows only every now and then, but this is really a PITA ...
Member since:
2005-06-29
There's a post like that every time the security of Windows is brought under the microscope. Someone always has to come up and say they've been running Windows since dinosaurs roamed their backyards and they have yet to have their computer compromised.
There are several explanations for this, for example as you have said the lack of credibility. Then there's the example of someone not using anti-virus software, and as long as no obvious symptoms pop up, that person assumes that his or her computer is fine because they haven't been told otherwise. Finally there's the people who make up a statistically miniscule portion of the Windows user base and are actually never discovered to have compromised computers; these people don't necessarily need to know more about Windows than the most bewildered of grandparents seated in front of a "newfangled computer thingy", they just need to be in the right part of the statistics.