Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (2803 mails)

[Jim Henderson <hendersj@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:48:34 -0500, Ben Rosenberg wrote:

> > Yeah, so of course it makes no sense at all to spend time on
> > implementing on-access scanning.  Ever.
> >
> > It's so much better to use much more complicated solutions.  I should've
> > seen that at once! ;-)
>
> It's not ANY more complicated then the ritualistic reinstall of Windows
> to clean it up .. that most users have to do or have done on a regular
> basis. *rolls eyes* ;D

I can't remember the last time I reinstalled Windows from scratch, VM or 
otherwise.  Of course, I don't run it on native hardware any more - I use 
a combination of VMware, WINE, and Citrix to use Windows apps for work - 
and there aren't many I need any more.

> If it's just Linux with NO VM or Wine and your in some kind of danger of
> passing on a virus via your mail client .. change mail clients cause if
> a Linux/UNIX developer doesn't have it built into their client to warn
> the user they are doing anything with a file that is a binary exe file
> ... that's a crappy mail client.

Maybe it makes sense that people who write mail clients write mail 
clients and not AV software.  Why a monolithic app to deal with them 
both?  Again, that seems antithetical to the whole idea behind *nix 
development, which is to make things modular and to reuse those modules.

> As I said .. I see nothing wrong with a user having ClamAV or some other
> solution scanning their files if they so choose to do so .. 

And I see nothing wrong with giving the user *the choice* of on-access 
scanning if they want it.

> but unless
> someone gets a self-perpetuating virus to buzz around a UNIX system as
> root without any interaction from me as a user .. I'm not wasting cpu
> cycles on that stuff. I know what I send out via email and windows
> virus/trojans can't hurt a UNIX system. Just like in life .. a little
> care and no passing of infections is needed. ;D
>
> It boils down to that personal responsibility thing. :D

Sure, and part of that personal responsibility is protecting yourself 
from being infected or put in a position where you might spread an 
infection.

Jim

-- 
 Jim Henderson
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