On Thursday 10 July 2008 06:39:47 am Joe Morris wrote:
On 07/10/2008 05:34 AM, Jim Henderson wrote:
So we just continue with assuming that all Linux users are smart enough to not do something stupid to their system?
Of course they are, but stupid is incredibly limited as a Linux user as compared to Windows, by design. IOW, a stupid Linux user stands a much better chance of NOT messing their system up because of their stupidity simply because they cannot write to privileged file system areas, whereas a smart Windows user can get their machine infected and potentially damaged just by surfing the internet or in some cases just by going online.
Hi Joe, Everybody is talking about damage to the system which is important when machine is used by number of users. When one goofs his home no one else suffers, unless he has access to some common documents and that is in case of multiuser machine likely happen. Even in case of one person computer data loss, or unauthorized access is bigger problem than 40-50 minutes reinstallation time. System is almost impossible to break, but the reason for computer system existence, to work on some data, is still fragile. There is many solutions to remedy this, but none is comfortable and will not be used by majority that have no idea what can happen until it is too late. How many times we had here questions: "I'm only user on this computer, why password? How to disable it?" and requests to make that default for everybody. That is how majority thinks and that is where antivirus solution makes sense. With all holes in windows I needed antivirus 2 times. Firewall was on all the time. I retired my old XP without single reinstallation, and in the same time I reinstalled many times all kind of windows for friends. The difference, I kept firewall and antivirus up to date, didn't looked for trouble in all corners of Internet, learned where to find information about treats. They often let subscription to run out, skipped virus definitions update (it takes too much time), went in any place that was linked somewhere. The difference is usage pattern and experience, and that Jim tried to tell few times. Average Linux user today is advanced computer user that knows a lot about computers and Internet, that is the reason they use Linux, while average computer user knows very little. The operating system in use will not change their knowledge. They don't want to know more than they think it is necessary to communicate, or browse the web. It is similar to automatic vs. manual transmission in cars. Manual is not much more to learn, it is cheaper and in average use lesser gasoline, but most of the people use automatic. -- Regards, Rajko http://en.opensuse.org/Portal needs helpful hands. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org