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#21
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"duck" wrote in message
How many copies of the Swen virus have you received? I've had to set up a filter to delete copies off of my email account before I retrieve my email because it takes too long to download them all. snip babble How many spam messages have you received coming from compromised Windows hosts? I personally think Windows is the worst thing to happen to computing. It never ceases to amaze me how idiotic some people can be about such things. I hope you're not an adult, because if you are it shows an amazing inability to study all the facts. Whatever OS holds the title of most popular will have most people (and therefore most morons) using it. It therefore goes without saying that a good proportion of them will not use AV and will be dumb enough to open attachments that come from people they don't know or are unexpected (and obvious looking!) from people they do know. Linux attracts more serious hobbyists and professionals - there are therefore far fewer morons using it. If it were mass-market like Windows it would have just as many problems. In fact - just have a look at the amount of advisories coming out recently ... doesn't trial Windows behind too far. Sendmail and Apache together account for a *huge* amount of patched vulnerabilities. If you don't like Windows, don't use it. However, Bill Gates is merely a successful kid who turned an idea into one of the biggest businesses in the world. At least he's done something good with some of the profits - which he's perfectly entitled to make btw, unless you have a serious problem with capitalism! Take a look at some other big businessmen out there and tell me what good they've done the world? Windows has had a huge impact on modern computing. Without it, we would be a long way behind where we are now. Ruthless competition has pushed them forward at a rate of knots. This doesn't condone some of their dodgy business practices. But how bad are they compared to the Murdoch empire, any given oil company/textile company/pharmaceutical company? I think you'll find the answer is not very. With the many good things they have done, they've done some pretty dumb things - every company and every person does. Live with it ... a |
#22
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On Sun, 25 Jan 2004 17:31:17 +0000, Andrew Ratcliffe wrote:
How many copies of the Swen virus have you received? I've had to set up a filter to delete copies off of my email account before I retrieve my email because it takes too long to download them all. Personally I never get any viruses. This is because I have good AV software, and I never give out my e-mail address to anyone except friends. I would never post it to usenet! I don't get viruses either. Though it's not because I have an AV scanner :-) Giving out my address to only friends and associates would be a viable solution, as long as they aren't susceptible to viruses themselves (which they aren't). I used to use a fake From address too when posting to mailing lists and Usenet, but on one occasion I accidentally used my real address. I got a new email address after that. The address in the From field isn't my main account and I delete all messages over 147KB in size (the size of the Swen virus) before running it through a spam filter. Of course all of what you say is true. But as with anything that is the dominant on the planet all the assholes out there try their best to hack it/steal it/destroy it simply because of the huge target potential... Yes, but the damage can be mitigated by good security practices. For instance, allowing email attachments to run was (is?) a stupid thing to do. A virus like Swen sent via email would never take off on Unix-type systems. I am heartened to see that XP SP2 will come with the firewall enabled by default though, which will stop compromised Windows machines from being used to relay spam. Of course, if Microsoft release the specs for the .DOC and .XLS formats, NTFS, SMB etc. we can help them to reduce their level of world domination and therefore reduce the number of virus attacks on Windows... :-) |
#23
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Steve wrote:
|| "R D S" wrote in || : || ||| Parish wrote: ||||| Now we know for certain that this country has gone stark staring ||||| mad...... ||||| ||||| http://tinyurl.com/2teet ||||| ||||| Time to buy that delapidated farmhouse in France methinks. ||| ||| Unbelievable. ||| This country seems to love to celebrate sportspersons and greedy ||| capitalist monopolising money hoarders. || || Actually Gates plans to give most of his money away. || || http://society.guardian.co.uk/charit...049184,00.html || || The main problem with this country is small minded knee jerk || reactions to headlines without bothering with small details like || facts; the article posted reported his donations had you got managed || to get past the headline. So WTF doesnt he give some away now? Im sure he has plenty. Why isnt Windows half price, why cant i sell my old OEM's, why did he use underhanded tactics from day one to become the richest person in the cosmos? When win 98 was ****e why did we still have to pay for SE? Why can I not use my copy of Office on more than one machine? If he is making so much money and intends to give it away then what is he doing? Showboating his monopoly? Rick |
#24
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"Fat Freddy's Cat" writes:
[...] Personally, I think Microsoft was the best thing that ever happened to the world of computing and he deserves such an honour. Yeah. Services to the antivirus industry, if nothing else. |
#25
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On Sun, 25 Jan 2004 18:22:57 +0000, al wrote:
"duck" wrote in message How many copies of the Swen virus have you received? I've had to set up a filter to delete copies off of my email account before I retrieve my email because it takes too long to download them all. snip babble How many spam messages have you received coming from compromised Windows hosts? I personally think Windows is the worst thing to happen to computing. It never ceases to amaze me how idiotic some people can be about such things. I hope you're not an adult, because if you are it shows an amazing inability to study all the facts. OK, perhaps I over exaggerated. Maybe not the worst, but Windows is a bad thing. Regardless, if you're going to insult someone by calling them a child, it doesn't look good if you call them idiotic in the same paragraph. Whatever OS holds the title of most popular will have most people (and therefore most morons) using it. It therefore goes without saying that a good proportion of them will not use AV and will be dumb enough to open attachments that come from people they don't know or are unexpected (and obvious looking!) from people they do know. In the example of the Swen worm, why is it even possible to for email attachments to be run? Mutt, Balsa, Evolution, KMail, Elm, Pine, Sylpheed et al do not allow email attachments to run just by clicking on them. Linux attracts more serious hobbyists and professionals - there are therefore far fewer morons using it. If it were mass-market like Windows it would have just as many problems. In fact - just have a look at the amount of advisories coming out recently ... doesn't trial Windows behind too far. Sendmail and Apache together account for a *huge* amount of patched vulnerabilities. On CVE, Apache has 86 CVE entries. IIS has 121. Apache has a higher, or equal, or similar markets share that IIS. I can't defend Sendmail. It is widely known to be rubbish, use Exim or Postfix instead. I made a lovely list of the number of entries each MTA has on CVE. Draw your own conclusions. Sendmail 48 Exchange 42 Exim 6 Postifx 3 And before anybody says otherwise, Exim and Postfix aren't MTAs that nobody uses. Just looking through my mailbox, Exim is used by 1&1, Freeserve and BT Internet, and Postfix is used by PayPal, Pipex and ebuyer amongst others. If you don't like Windows, don't use it. However, Bill Gates is merely a successful kid who turned an idea into one of the biggest businesses in the world. Could you please elaborate on what idea you are talking about. The WIMP metaphor perhaps? Word? Excel? Messenger? Internet Explorer? Operating systems? Windows has had a huge impact on modern computing. Without it, we would be a long way behind where we are now. Ruthless competition has pushed them forward at a rate of knots. The current version of IE doesn't even have a popup blocker. Or tabbed browsing. As of the 24th they still haven't patched the URL spoofing vulnerability from 11/12 that has just been exploited in the wild. Has Word/Excel etc. really changed since 95? This doesn't condone some of their dodgy business practices. But how bad are they compared to the Murdoch empire, any given oil company/textile company/pharmaceutical company? I think you'll find the answer is not very. But just because a given entity isn't as bad as Esso doesn't mean it's misdeeds can be ignored. |
#26
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"R D S" wrote in message news:bv12ec$m7dj6$1@ID-
So WTF doesnt he give some away now? Im sure he has plenty. Why isnt Windows half price, why cant i sell my old OEM's, why did he use underhanded tactics from day one to become the richest person in the cosmos? When win 98 was ****e why did we still have to pay for SE? Why can I not use my copy of Office on more than one machine? If he is making so much money and intends to give it away then what is he doing? Showboating his monopoly? Because his business model works and you don't deserve the money! Charities do. a |
#27
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"duck" wrote in message
OK, perhaps I over exaggerated. Maybe not the worst, but Windows is a bad thing. Regardless, if you're going to insult someone by calling them a child, it doesn't look good if you call them idiotic in the same paragraph. Apologies if I went a little OTT ... just annoys me the way so many kids take this anti-MS stance because they believe it will give them some sort of street cred with the underground scene. It really doesn't, it just shows business naivity. In the example of the Swen worm, why is it even possible to for email attachments to be run? Mutt, Balsa, Evolution, KMail, Elm, Pine, Sylpheed et al do not allow email attachments to run just by clicking on them. Because MS caters for the mass market unfortunately. You can bet if linux was the OS of choice for he masses that any money making software house would make the same choice for security settings so their product looked great, even at the expense of the above mentioned attacks. On CVE, Apache has 86 CVE entries. IIS has 121. Apache has a higher, or equal, or similar markets share that IIS. OK, Apache wansn't the best example, it's matured a lot now. It still has it's limitations (which perhaps leads to it being more secure do to less code) - how many web sites can run Apache only to acheive what they want without having to add a bunch of other products to expand it's power. I can't defend Sendmail. It is widely known to be rubbish, use Exim or Postfix instead. I made a lovely list of the number of entries each MTA has on CVE. Draw your own conclusions. Sendmail 48 Exchange 42 Exim 6 Postifx 3 The two most widely used, as one might expect, are the two most targetted. Qmail I think has always been good. And before anybody says otherwise, Exim and Postfix aren't MTAs that nobody uses. Just looking through my mailbox, Exim is used by 1&1, Freeserve and BT Internet, and Postfix is used by PayPal, Pipex and ebuyer amongst others. Yes, I think sendmail is finally on its way down. On the corporate scene, who knows where Exchange 2003 will lead with it's "trustworthy computing" initiative. One thing I can say in it's favour is at least it's trying a bit harder. Interested to see how much difference that makes! Could you please elaborate on what idea you are talking about. The WIMP metaphor perhaps? Word? Excel? Messenger? Internet Explorer? Operating systems? Not sure what you mean ... Windows has had a huge impact on modern computing. Without it, we would be a long way behind where we are now. Ruthless competition has pushed them forward at a rate of knots. The current version of IE doesn't even have a popup blocker. Or tabbed browsing. As of the 24th they still haven't patched the URL spoofing vulnerability from 11/12 that has just been exploited in the wild. Has Word/Excel etc. really changed since 95? Commercial pressure because it's the market leader. Popups I believe will be an option in the next version though. At least MS have a security team that respond quickly to problems - not all companies bother at all. You got to wonder about some of the stuff they haven't patched ... presumably there's some reason for this that's too painful to face up to! And yeah, Word/Excel has changed - it's much bigger and less compatible now All about OLE type things now ... the business market is what drives it. But just because a given entity isn't as bad as Esso doesn't mean it's misdeeds can be ignored. No, it doesn't. But MS is demonised far more than it seems it deserves. Or perhaps other companies are demonised far less than they deserve!! Either way, far too many people jump on the bandwagon because it seems "cool" to slag of MS. They've done a lot of bad things but their contribution can't be ignored today. a |
#28
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al wrote:
|| "R D S" wrote in message || news:bv12ec$m7dj6$1@ID- ||| So WTF doesnt he give some away now? Im sure he has plenty. ||| Why isnt Windows half price, why cant i sell my old OEM's, why did ||| he use underhanded tactics from day one to become the richest ||| person in the cosmos? When win 98 was ****e why did we still have ||| to pay for SE? Why can I not use my copy of Office on more than one ||| machine? ||| If he is making so much money and intends to give it away then what ||| is he doing? Showboating his monopoly? ||| || || Because his business model works and you don't deserve the money! || Charities do. || || || || a So will we send an end to famine before much longer do you think? Thanks to Bill Gates? Makes me wonder why i still see the Oxfam 'please give £(x)/month adverts on TV since Microsoft are harvesting such a massive amount of money for good causes. |
#29
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you can use your copy of Office on more than one machine. Read the small
print. |
#30
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"R D S" wrote in message news:bv1atl$mupoe$1@ID-
So will we send an end to famine before much longer do you think? Thanks to Bill Gates? Makes me wonder why i still see the Oxfam 'please give £(x)/month adverts on TV since Microsoft are harvesting such a massive amount of money for good causes. Look .. you can grumble all you like, but he gives far more than almost anyone else. He's not responsible for ending world famine - we all are! What exactly would it take for him to be "just" in your eyes? Give every penny he owns? What exactly do *you* do? a |
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