As I think I understand it, Apple computers are not vulnerable to the
spy/malware discussed here, because they do not use a Windows
operating system. Is this legend or is it fact?
T.
========================
Tony Roder, speaking his mind....
As I think I understand it, Apple computers are not vulnerable to the
spy/malware discussed here, because they do not use a Windows
operating system. Is this legend or is it fact?
T.
========================
Tony Roder, speaking his mind....
On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 18:12:32 GMT, null@zilch.com wrote:
>You may be interested in this document which lists quite a number of
>(old) Macintosh viruses:
>
>http://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-virus/macintosh-faq/
Informative, yes... My question was prompted by the realization that
I/we spend a fair amount of time thrashing about to protect our
investment (time, development, money) in the Windows system, and in my
specific case, by trying to decide whether to install the more
vulnerable XP over the fussy W98 -- not to mention selling my soul to
MS in the process, or whether to simply stop throw in what looks
increasingly as a bad hand and go play another game. Along with the
Mac, Linux for instance looks more and more attractive despite the
learning curve they would entail.
T.
========================
Tony Roder, speaking his mind....
On Sat, 30 Aug 2003 17:43:23 GMT, tony@well.com wrote:
>On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 18:12:32 GMT, null@zilch.com wrote:
>
>>You may be interested in this document which lists quite a number of
>>(old) Macintosh viruses:
>>
>>http://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-virus/macintosh-faq/
>
>Informative, yes... My question was prompted by the realization that
>I/we spend a fair amount of time thrashing about to protect our
>investment (time, development, money) in the Windows system, and in my
>specific case, by trying to decide whether to install the more
>vulnerable XP over the fussy W98 -- not to mention selling my soul to
>MS in the process, or whether to simply stop throw in what looks
>increasingly as a bad hand and go play another game. Along with the
>Mac, Linux for instance looks more and more attractive despite the
>learning curve they would entail.
The main problem is the use of Microsoft apps for email, newsgroups
and browsing. I use Pegasus, Free Agent and Mozilla. I used Win 98 for
four years and have no complaints. Now I'm using Win ME and have no
complaints about it either. It's so much easier to take care of the
network situation for a stand-alone and close all internet ports on
Win 9x/ME. I like to use just DOS antivirus scanners so I'm not
attracted at all to NTFS. IMO, M$ has made the actual security
situation .... the kind that matters .... much worse rather than
better after Win ME IMO.
Art
http://www.epix.net/~artnpeg
On Sat, 30 Aug 2003 1804 GMT, null@zilch.com wrote:
>The main problem is the use of Microsoft apps for email, newsgroups
>and browsing.
A good point, also championed by Blocksom, and perhaps a simpler
solution than switching to another OS.
>It's so much easier to take care of the
>network situation for a stand-alone and close all internet ports on
>Win 9x/ME.
I'm not sure I understand how to close internet ports and still read
the Web, particularly in XP -- which would the only reasonable upgrade
from W98 at this point, given that all the intermediate OSs (ME,
2000,...) have now been removed from the store shelves.
T.
========================
Tony Roder, speaking his mind....
On Sat, 30 Aug 2003 22:12:50 GMT, tony@well.com wrote:
>On Sat, 30 Aug 2003 18
>
>>The main problem is the use of Microsoft apps for email, newsgroups
>>and browsing.
>
>A good point, also championed by Blocksom, and perhaps a simpler
>solution than switching to another OS.
>
>>It's so much easier to take care of the
>>network situation for a stand-alone and close all internet ports on
>>Win 9x/ME.
>
>I'm not sure I understand how to close internet ports and still read
>the Web, particularly in XP -- which would the only reasonable upgrade
>from W98 at this point, given that all the intermediate OSs (ME,
>2000,...) have now been removed from the store shelves.
It's not difficult with Win 9x/ME. I've put up a page on it for
stand-alone PC users:
http://home.epix.net/%7Eartnpeg/internet.html
It's far more difficult with Win 2K and XP. Most throw up their hands
and use a firewall.
Anyway, I recently got a steal on a used Hp Pavilion with a 900 mhz
PIII and Win ME install CDs. I'm hoping this PC will hold me for
several years. It's important to install the OS patches which M$ still
supports for Win ME. And use a cloned hard drive on a removable tray
as backup. And make damn sure you aren't backing up malicous code
Art
http://www.epix.net/~artnpeg
<tony@well.com> wrote in message
news:n6o1lvkvldlv9es3jot23ldjq08rofb11q@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 18:12:32 GMT, null@zilch.com wrote:
>
> >You may be interested in this document which lists quite a number of
> >(old) Macintosh viruses:
> >
> >http://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-virus/macintosh-faq/
>
> Informative, yes... My question was prompted by the realization that
> I/we spend a fair amount of time thrashing about to protect our
> investment (time, development, money) in the Windows system, and in my
> specific case, by trying to decide whether to install the more
> vulnerable XP over the fussy W98 -- not to mention selling my soul to
> MS in the process, or whether to simply stop throw in what looks
> increasingly as a bad hand and go play another game. Along with the
> Mac, Linux for instance looks more and more attractive despite the
> learning curve they would entail.
Gotta tell you Tony, I would cheerfully take a Mac over this XP system any
day in the week. Cut my teeth long, long ago on VAX, PC and Mac running a
college computer lab. When I started my own business and had to purchase a
computer I went with a PC because of the cost difference - hundreds back
then. These days the difference isn't all that much, but now I have
thousands invested in softwareAdobe anything doesn't come cheap and I
don't want to replace it.
We have a Linux box rolling around the house. The learning curve wasn't all
that great - the 6 year old managed to find herself a comfort zone within a
couple of days. If you're using any kind of highly specialized software,
though, finding what you need for Linux can still be tough. (Graphics,
scientific, that kind of thing.) The learning curve for a Mac is close to
zilch - nearly everything you see now as Windows started life as Mac back
when MS products came in green on black.
From everything I've seen/heard it looks like MS intends in the long (or
maybe not so long) run to move most programming to a situation where you use
software from a centralized network and pay annual subscriptions to do so
rather than having a copy on your own machine. What happens then to my very
expensive software I don't want to have to buy again anytime soon? And is
it really worth it to me to pay out a couple of hundred or more bucks a year
to type a few - or even a few hundred - documents & use the internet?
(Probably not.) Windows is spendy, getting spendier and never was anything
more than a bad - and very slow - copy of the Mac OS.
On Sat, 30 Aug 2003 21:13:48 -0400, "mto"
<nobody@dontsendmeanyspam.thanks> wrote:
>Gotta tell you Tony, I would cheerfully take a Mac over this XP system any
>day in the week.
Encouraging words...
>but now I have
>thousands invested in software
>don't want to replace it.
Same here, but you have just inspired an idea: I wonder whether Adobe
would be interested in cutting some slack to people who switch OSs as
a consideration for their loyalty to the Adobe product.
>We have a Linux box rolling around the house. The learning curve wasn't all
>that great - the 6 year old managed to find herself a comfort zone within a
>couple of days.
Easy for a 6-year-old, they are a clean slate, harder (much harder?)
for someone who is orders-of-magnitude-more-year-old.
>If you're using any kind of highly specialized software,
>though
Aye, there's the rub.
T.
========================
Tony Roder, speaking his mind....
<tony@well.com> wrote in message
news:4i24lvcio0gfmfjrkn2hri0kp86ern0lf4@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 30 Aug 2003 21:13:48 -0400, "mto"
> <nobody@dontsendmeanyspam.thanks> wrote:
>
> >Gotta tell you Tony, I would cheerfully take a Mac over this XP system
any
> >day in the week.
>
> Encouraging words...
>
> >but now I have
> >thousands invested in software
I
> >don't want to replace it.
>
> Same here, but you have just inspired an idea: I wonder whether Adobe
> would be interested in cutting some slack to people who switch OSs as
> a consideration for their loyalty to the Adobe product.
>
> >We have a Linux box rolling around the house. The learning curve wasn't
all
> >that great - the 6 year old managed to find herself a comfort zone within
a
> >couple of days.
>
> Easy for a 6-year-old, they are a clean slate, harder (much harder?)
> for someone who is orders-of-magnitude-more-year-old.
The six year old started playing with the computer age 0.5 sitting on my
left knee ROFL. She's a wiz at computer graphics, has figured out how to
type now that she can spell and has her very own internet start page
(courtesy of you-know-who, favorite kid safe sites only.) She wants her own
email account - NOT - and has been bugging me for a week straight now to
teach her to use Illustrator. Says Paint "doesn't do enough" ROFLMAO.
She'll be better than I am with it in a month flat. Mindblowing.
Seriously, though, if you can take one of them for a walk around the block,
you can manage just fine. Not too much harder than for the 6-year-old. Her
main advantage is that she doesn't know it is supposed to be "hard" - thinks
it is a game, right up there with puzzles, blocks, Playstation and Barbie.
On Sun, 31 Aug 2003 15:09:56 -0400, "mto"
<nobody@dontsendmeanyspam.thanks> wrote:
>Seriously, though, if you can take one of them for a walk around the block,
>you can manage just fine.
I'm sure I can, as long as I can suspend disbelief... I remember
enjoying computers from pre-PC days and I probably can still bring
myself to look upon them as fun...
T.
========================
Tony Roder, speaking his mind....
<tony@well.com> wrote:
> As I think I understand it, Apple computers are not vulnerable to the
> spy/malware discussed here, because they do not use a Windows
> operating system. Is this legend or is it fact?>
*****
It's a fact. No spyware, no current viruses/worms/what have you. It's
quite a coincidence that your post should catch my eye on my first
visit to this NG. I'm a Mac user -- six of 'em -- who recently bought a
Win XP Pro laptop (Sony Vaio) to run specific software. (I'm a
webmaster, and I've been running Win 98 on a Mac with Virtual PC for
some years in order to do an occasional check of my web pages with
Explorer for Windows).
I used to call Windows a cheap imitation of the Mac OS, but I didn't
really know what I was talking about -- Win XP Pro isn't nearly good
enough to be called a cheap imitation of the Mac OS!
So what brought me to this NG? I've never run into spyware before, and
now something is causing eZula to be downloaded to my Vaio. I have a
detector/deleter, but I'm trying to find what is causing it to be
downloaded repeatedly.
Davoud
Mac U.S. market share (all machines in use): about 5 percent.
*Combined* U.S. market share of BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, Audi, Jaguar,
Saab, and Porsche: about 4.3 percent.
--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com
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