Yet Another Windows Worm

kraksmoka writes "MSNBC is reporting that yet another active worm is taking over computers in 115 countries today. 'Antivirus companies were on high alert Thursday after the rapid spread of a new computer worm that includes particularly malicious snooping techniques. Bugbear.B, a variant of a worm released last year, installs keylogging software, back-door software, and in some cases even attempts to control infected computersâ(TM) modems. Some of the wormâ(TM)s functions are designed to specially target financial institutions.' Yummy!"

Comments

Switching, may be hard, but it can pay off! or not

[danalien]

I switched, from running $ms's OS (used it for about ~10 years; sure I tried linux/bsd/other during that time, but I kept running $ms OS...). Until one day I got so fustraded of the restrictiveness/"things like this" in $ms software, that I backed up my privates files, reformated my HDD, and booted it with a pair of netinstall disks of Debian (of them all I tested during the years, I found it suiting my needs best, specially with KDE3.* coming out and all, *nix for the desktop got on equal-footing with any other established OS out there with this release).

Sure I ended up with a linux box, but that was just my chooice mostly because I'm a studend (don't got tons of bill's to spend on things like apple does... so cost is something I have to think about). So now you're asking yourself, did I loose any features by going with a free OpenSource over Proprietary? I have to say a firm "no". Going either one, I have to say you will always have the same features, though features sometimes don't operate in the same manor (I mean that sometimes you have to type different commandos, press different things, etc etc, I can't see things like this beeing the same cross-platform in every OS out there; but what really counts is that in the end they accomplish the same thing). Often, by going with a different OS you'll either spend more money or save some, rarelly will both cost equally the same (and yes, I saved and save many bill's with the chooice I made).

There's one thing I have to make sure people understand, is that OpenSource don't equall "free", or that it allways is free and will be, or that you can't make money by beeing a OpenSource'r, or by going OpenSource. All OpenSource truelly means is that for the price you pay for the OS (or software) you buy is that in that price the source code is also included; you get it free of charge so that if you want to improve your OS (or software) you can do so. Sure there is a licence you have to follow if you want to redistribute the code, but so is is with any other form (may it be propietary or opensource), just read the licence and stick to it. Back to the "prize"-thing, I didn't pay anything for the OS, but since when is that if someone gives away an OS (opensource or not) for free, that every other (opensource or proprietary) there is also "for free"? I think that if you think abouit it you'll somewhat agree with me that it's a case-by-case thing.
So, if you want to make money by useing something that is OpenSource, and the licence it came with don't go hand-in-hand with what you want, then you can allways write a letter/email to the creator and ask for a custom licence, and so can you with everything out there. Basically if you tend to offer some monetary compensation, I think most software can be licenced with a custom licence for you. Just because OpenSoure'rs don't allwys advertise this, don't mean you can't pop the question, and make an offer.

As Days pased, I leared all similarites and new functions my new OS had, as weeks pased I meet some setbacks (mostly because my unfamiliraty with the way you operated the OS, have to say, that everyone OS has it's own way to it and that it can take a little while to learn how to fully opperate it. What I found out is that no OS is better or wores then the other when it come to features. It all depended on mostly two things, a) "YOU", the human factor, the more your "into it" the easier things tend to get. b) and the big _one_, "Openness", is a key factor of the OS, and only you can be the judge of than (basically don't care what everyone says, though listen, do your thing and try things out, and at the end make up your own mind). I don't know if openness can be a negative, I find it a positive; and a positive thing I encountered in my chooice is that the creators, behind the softwares/OS I came to run, were extremely open with what was happening with their code, they didn't try to cover things open, you could subscribe to their mailinglists (dev or announcement lists, xor both) and keep up-to-date with what is r