On Sunday 03 October 2004 09:46 am, Paul W. Abrahams wrote:
On Sunday 03 October 2004 12:40 am, Maura Edelweiss Monville wrote:
It's well known that Linux is not affected by any of the viruses that catch Windows as soon as the computer is turned on ... Nevertheless Linux is affected by spyware. My computer is unfortunately a victim of this form of advertising although I've been running SuSE since I bought it 3 years ago. I'd appreciate some help to get rid of these parasitic processes dwelling in my computer. Thank you in advance.
I'm puzzled by this. So far Linux has not been an attractive target for parasites -- why waste your effort on a system with such a small market share (even though, as we all know, it deserves a far bigger one)? Aren't all those spywares system-specific?
Paul Abrahams
Paul, your question seems to suggest you buy into the Microsoft Myth which claims the only reason Microsoft systems are the target of spyware, worms, and viruses is because Windows is "Popular". There are major qualitative and structural differences between Windows and Linux that Microsoft would like to have you believe don't exist. Unlike windows, drive-by installs of spyware are very difficult in linux and as such would require social engineering to trick the user into stalling them. -- _____________________________________ John Andersen