----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Henderson"
This is wasteful and even unsafe; unsafe because only accessed files are scanned. Wasteful because a file is scanned every time it is accessed, repeatedly, which is slow. I don't do that even when I use windows.
Unsafe? I want to protect my machine from files that I'm using. Personally, I don't care about the files I'm not using.
Heh, you just made _our_ point. I don't consider merely handling a file "using" it. My linux box doesn't "use" most of the files that may reside on it's hard drive which may contain a virus. Even the ones that are actually used, say via wine, have only the same very limited ability to cause harm that any other user-owned file has, which has proven over time to be limited enough that viri do not spread via them. Think of the basic unix system like rip-stop nylon cloth. With effort you can poke a hole or make a little rip here & there, but they don't spread. With effort and luck a user here or there may lose a few files, or even their whole account. With more effort and more luck, a whole box here or there might be killed or owned. But the virus that did it still can not proliferate. Frankly, a given lost file or whole user account or even whole box, those aren't why viri are a problem. The only reason viri are a problem is because they proliferate and have the ability to cause that harm not once but to all boxes in an unstoppable and lightning fast wave. That doesn't happen here. This is why they're just not a problem here. They can not proliferate like that. So, full-time, all-files, on-access kernel level scanning is pretty much like swatting at flies with a sledgehammer. Sometimes overkill is cool and desireable and fun, and sometimes it's just ignorant, stupid, and wasteful. -- Brian K. White brian@aljex.com http://www.myspace.com/KEYofR +++++[>+++[>+++++>+++++++<<-]<-]>>+.>.+++++.+++++++.-.[>+<---]>++. filePro BBx Linux SCO FreeBSD #callahans Satriani Filk! -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org