On Sun, 2004-10-03 at 08:08 -0500, David Krider wrote:
On Sat, 2004-10-02 at 23:40, Maura Edelweiss Monville wrote:
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.
Please. She knows enough to get Linux installed and usable, and knows spyware when she sees it, but can't give us an attack vector? Or even a process name? What I'm saying is that surely a Linux user (of 3 years) knows enough about the situation to recognize a popup saying something to the effect of "your computer has been infected!", which is the only "spyware" problem that Linux has.
I think this is the same sort of thing as the stupid thread on performance problems. What a bunch of FUD.
Please be aware that everybody that use Linux is not a Linux guru. On the one hand there is huge drive to make Linux distro's more user friendly so that the non-computer-savvy user can also use it. SuSE is one of the distro's that have managed to do this. Now that we have a number of normal users who use Linux as thier OS and not thier hobby or job, people frown on them if they don't understand all the intricacies of the system. You can easily install SuSE without knowing how things work in the background. Also, everybody that use a computer does not necessarily know what spyware is or what spam is. Every SuSE user does not read slashdot or any IT-related site. It turned out that Maura has been getting a lot of spam recently and she thought this was because of spyware that were installed on her machine. So, please don't flame everybody that does not know how to compile a kernel or know how the internet work. If we want Linux to effectively make a dent in the desktop world, then we need to cater for users who use Linux as tool to get a job done, like they would use a microwave oven to heat up a TV dinner. Just think quickly for yourself how many people that use a microwave oven know how the machine actually works? Do you learn what a magnatron is before you heat up your TV dinner? -- Andre Truter | Software Engineer | Registered Linux user #185282 ICQ #40935899 | AIM: trusoftzaf | http://www.trusoft.co.za ~ "Oh Bother!" said the Borg, "We assimilated the Pooh!" ~