On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 19:44:59 -0500, in <alt.privacy.spyware>, shplink
<shplink@removeme.shplink.com> wrote:
>
[snip]
>
> Thank you Jay and Giftzwerg,
> I think we can have a compromise here by keeping it dry and pointing
> readers to questions 16 and 17 (i.e. "see Qs 16 and 17 for more
> information on why Windows users are the primary focus..." that sort of
> thing....?

At first blush, that sounds reasonable. The problem is that those particular
questions don't adequately address the issue. In fact, they are seriously
misleading in at least some ways -- particularly in the baseless disservice
they do to Open Source software in general, and the degree to which they
perpetuate the myth that the sole/primary reason Windows and MSIE/OE are so
chronically malware-ridden is because it's the biggest (i.e., "most popular")
target. That is simply not the case. Sure, the relative popularity of
Windows undoubtedly has *some* impact; but this is definitely *not* the
primary causative factor. In fact, it would be essentially irrelevant if
there weren't so many Mayflower-sized security holes (with neon billboards
pointing to them) in the code itself.

For these reasons, among others, both of those questions are desperately in
need of a rewrite.

--

Jay T. Blocksom
--------------------------------
Appropriate Technology, Inc.
usenet02[at]appropriate-tech.net

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