On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 14:24:13 -0500, J. Clarke wrote:

Keep encouraging people to use something other than Windows and maybe
something else will become popular enough to become an attractive target,
at which point you'll have screwed all the Mac, Unix, Linux, BSD, OS/2,
Plan 9, BeOS, or whatever users out there who get caught by the resulting
flood of malware.

This is the standard Windows advocate response but it's not likely, at
least to the same degree and for many reasons. The folks who do make the
switch are inclined to and must learn more than the plug & play of Windows
- things such as not to run everything with root/administrator priviliges,
the importance of properly configured and operating firewalls, never
auto-opening attachments, running spam/virus filters, etc. Having
upgraded windows machines that auto reboot / freeze up for no reason, many
times I have found they run without problems after installing linux, bsd,
etc. which speaks to the quality/reliability of the software. Of the 5
machines that are currently in use in my house, one is a new Dell XP for
my wife and the other four are ex Windows boxes that had the
reboot/blue-screen/freeze-up syndromes that having been reloaded with
linux/bsd have never suffered any of these afflictions. I'm hoping the
the new XP machine with all it's service packs/critical upgrades is an
improvement over previous experiences, and for it's one weeks worth of
use, it hasn't had to be rebooted or done it on its own. At least I've
been able to start the weaning process of getting my wife off the never
ending Windows costs by opting for OpenOffice rather than the $495 MS
Office Professional suite. That would have doubled the cost of the new
Dell! So far, she has no problems with OpenOffice and there are some
bucks for the shop/wood available that wouldn't have been otherwise.

- Doug

--

To escape criticism--do nothing, say nothing, be nothing." (Elbert Hubbard)