Off-topic: Avoiding Exploiter

[Patricia M Godfrey pmgodfrey@xxxxxxxx]

Any veteran of the struggle against the bully of Redmond know which is
the better procedure, when an ISP is trying to force you to use its
crummy "customization" of Internet Exploiter, rather than Netscape or
Mozilla? To run the ISP's setup program first, then install your
preferred browser? Or install the browser, then run the ISP's app?
Another case of "making things easy for the end user"--I don't think.
Granted, entering ports and masks was a nuisance, but at least you knew
what you were doing, and if you had the wit to write it down, you could
do it again when you--inevitably--had to reinstall. But then the ISP had
to give you that info, and I suppose that could let crackers do nasty
things. So now they kindly give you a disk that automates the whole
process and installs a whole lot of bots, spyware, et hoc genus omne
nefandum, not to mention the 'nefandissimum' (no, it doesn't really admit
of comparison, any more than 'unique' does), Exploiter. Sorry, end of
rant.
Patricia