On Sun, 2004-06-13 at 02:10, John Andersen wrote:
On Saturday 12 June 2004 14:25, Mike McMullin wrote:
And XP is? You mean the same XP that will be infected within 15 minutes of putting it on the net right out of the box?
Which is why you pre-order MS' security CD. I've got the Feb,2004 in my hand right now. When SP2 for XP is out I'll order that as well. When my brother upgrades to XP on his system, well, I might get over there in a few weeks. Fact is the typical home Windows user does not really do their security updates, nor invest in the time to get the update CD's.
Well you did a good job of deflateing your own argument there Mike, but I suspect you knew that. ;-)
That's arguable John. I'm always doing my Windows the way I want it, not the way it came. When I set up my 386 under 3.11 WFWG I used a ram drive, the guy who bought the system off of me, let his brother, a typical windows user at it, and turned it into a paperweight, he also seemed to have used one of the install disks for other data. I've now got that system back and it is running 98se, when it does run, which has been a few years. I keep meaning to install debian on it and hack away at that until I'm comfortable with it. I just don't do a windows install, I do a system setup, anti-virus, office suite - OOo, decent lightweight multifile editor - Edit Pad, clipboard functionality extender - clipboard magic, web browser - Opera. All of the stuff that I think makes windows usable in an effective way. I usually tell the person who gets the system to invest in Norton Utilities. It'll save me time when I have to come over and fix things. :) I ordered the the Feb-2004 security CD because my son has a laptop that he needs for school, and it came with XP-Pro already installed. (Sigh I had tried to get them to go Linux, but the school board tech folks don't do linux officially. I've been lobbying for him to be able to access the school's network. No way!! I'm told. There's no guarantee that his laptop is secure. Well duh, you guys chose the worst OS for that didn't you! I suppose when I get it dual booting with Linux this summer, they'll shoot back that Linux is going to be a source of infestation to their NT network, not to mention they probably won't know how to get things properly set up, and won't let me do it for them.)
Again, the need for a SP2, and the need for a virus checker, and the need for MS Office, and the need for Quicken, etc. etc. before the XP machine is usefull speaks against the so called "Out of the Box satisfaction" so highly touted for XP.
I spend a lot of time and energy telling people to limit their exposure to the full line of MS products. MS has done a brilliant job of making computing accessible for the likes of Aunt Tillie, but they haven't got their security up to where it needs to be. Virus scanners must now be able to scan .vbs and .doc files looking for malicious code, it's just too much, and it's part of what drives me to Linux. I spend too much time on the Windows system in my home, doing simple and useless maintainance and security, to be able to use the OS to get done what I want to get done. why? Because I got four typical Windows users who count on it all being done for them, by someone who isn't a typical windows user. Mike -- and don't get me started on Win-ME