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Another Day, Another MS Virus...
Author: HumanX | Tuesday August 12, 2003
What would a month be without another Microsoft Infecting Virus? Have you considered what your life would be like, what would you do if you did not have that feeling that at any moment your personal data is potentially being stolen...
And their they are, millions of people around the world dreaming of that day and thousands of computer technicians dreaming the anti-dream.
My personal opinion is that Microsoft is bordering on irreresponsibility. They developed too much, too fast, with little consideration to the ramifications of their efforts.
Some would say, that since so many users are out to vanquish MS it is only natural that these episodes should happen. But, I say, this has been going on for years. Microsoft should look at the Japanese automakers. They develop an automobile and work with the parts for a number of years and make only minor, gradual changes. The result is the continual perfection of parts which lead to cars that run for 200,000 miles without service.
This may be counterproductive, but, maybe Microsoft should consider the safety of our networks and our personal data the next time they plan to unleash software with vulnerabilities which potentially costs computer users around the world hundreds of millions of dollars.
Some inroads have been made, but it is still not enough. First of all, why not default Windows XP with the Firewall installed? Why not disable all of the services which you tell people to in the knowledge base. FTP, WWW,DNS, most of these services are not used by the everyday citizen who want to only use microsoft word, play a game, surf the net and read email.
I would like to see Microsoft release a version called XP Simple. What does it have? It removes everything that most people at home do not use. All of the web services, terminal services and things of that nature. The simple version allows the end user to connect to the internet, play games, and run their standard non-network applications. This is what the home user needs. All of these users could add the additional services on their own by connecting to MS and downloading them, it seems easy enough to me.
I think the better answer is a slimmed down version of Linux which is attractive enough to home users to consider a change. Lindows is coming along nicely. Maybe MacOS-X is the answer. It is not to often viruses are found their. At this moment in time, I would say that MAC-OS/X is the best answer for the home user.
A simple user interface, limited number of infections, linux/unix backend. mmm. Maybe my next article may be written from Safari.
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