Re: OFF TOPIC: Antivirus software for Windows

[Wendell Cochran atrypa@xxxxxxxx]

                                      
Wed, 08 May 2002 08:05:58 -0700
Jay Harlow :
      
[snip]
> PS. Anyone have any good reasons for installing an OS beyond
> Win98SE?

Well, operating systems & mail programs from Microsoft are peculiarly
susceptible to mischief-making: by one estimate, 60,000 viruses are
MS-specific. In the Linux world, 2 or perhaps 3 viruses have been
built as proof of concept, but none at all are known in the wild.

Of course Linux doesn't confer immunity to human error, & a Linux
user running as root is a fool. A WinDOSe user _always_ runs as root --
MS gives no choice.

Now to follow up on Rene's understandable exasperation: a virus
infects; a worm propagates; a trojan pretends to be something else.
Combined forms are common.

Wendell Cochran
West Seattle