Slashdot Mirror
Spyware Removal: Drop PC in Dumpster
morganx writes "The New York Times is reporting that some users prefer throwing out their PCs and buying new ones to actually removing their spyware. Does this mean lots of free hardware for the dumpster-divers among us?"
I wonder why it is cheaper to buy a new $400 PC than paying top rate of, say $100 per machine, to get someone to insert the recovery CD and get everything back to factory defaults.
I find people disposing affected PCs highly irresponsible. Would someone think of those homeless children who dumpster-dived and brought home (or somewhere whatever) such PC? It's like throwing out old smoke alarm with perfectly good Uranium bits inside, someone's going to get hurt.
The friendly article mentioned that "people are increasingly unwilling to take out their 'software tweezers' to clean their machines", maybe it's time for manufacturers to install a HardReset button (like in a PDA) with a 1 GB ReadOnly Flash drive, which resets everything back to factory.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
Do you really think the kind of person who (1) lets his PC fill up with spyware, then (2) chooses to spend $500 on a new PC instead of spending a couple hours cleaning it out, is going to want to learn Linux?
"OMG WTF happened to My Computer? Where's Internet Explorer? Why do I have to have a password?"
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
I'm quite shocked to see so many dupes posted all the time. Do the editors scan the stories being posted, at all? They seem to be so unaware of what is already posted... the worst cases being dupes occuring on the same day (not this story).
Seriously, I think that given that Slashdot has become so big in terms of users, the editors need to be more serious about making sure dupes don't happen... if the editors are too busy, appoint a dupe editor who will catch the dupes before they are posted. All it requires is for the dupe editor to do a search on Slashdot to see if a story has already been posted...
I'm completely convinced all the dupes and extended mysterious future posts(Not to mention increase paid subscriptions) are merely to increase page views and therefore site reloads to increase revenue. There's just no way the editors could post so many dupes within hours by mistake.
(\_/)
(O.o) This is Bunny. (> <)
I have several customers who have migrated to Linux for similar reasons. They are all beginner consumers.
The problem largely is that tech support people treat consumers as idiots incapabile of learning the system. I usually start by explaining spyware, how it gets on your computer, how to avoid it/prevent it, etc. Then if it continues, I start suggesting Linux. I show them via a demo system how easy it is to use, and they are usually sold on the idea pretty quickly.
Computers aren't that hard to understand if we dispense with the tech talk and actually focus on communicating with the consumers.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
I would guess most people don't see an OS, they see a computer. When they get pissed at the OS, they are really pissed at the computer. So they throw it away. In their thinking, the Compaq running Windows XP is very different from the Dell running Windows XP. After all, the computer boxes look different.
Maybe people think of their computer like a VCR. If it stops working, you don't get the $2 cleaning fluid tape, you throw it away and buy another.
It is too bad these people don't donate their old computers.
I am a person who believes it is a SCAM when colleges buy bran spanking new computers every 2 years, and use property tax to do it. Whenever I have walked around a computer lab, all I see is Word and papers being written, IE and the web being surfed, and the very occasional comp sci student writing code. All this could be done on PIII's. Hell, PII's would work, although it would take a few minutes to load software.
There is a saying in the advertising world. Don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle. It is a shame, because often people buy hardware they will never utilize. If someone wants to check email, what good is the newest computer? Salespeople don't sell based on your needs. They want to make the largest commision possible, or push whatever product their managers told them to get out the door. And they lie to do it. I was at Best Buy, just walking around. Most of the time, the salespeople in the Computer section are so busy that it is impossible to get one (good thing in my opinion). But this time one saw me, and came up. He said "What computer do you have?". I lied, I did not want a hard sell, I just wanted to browse, so I said I had a P4 2.0ghz with XP. The sales guy said "Oh, I guess that is okay, but if you want the latest security, and more speed, our P4's have XP with the latest security updates, and they will run the latest games better".
The SOB tried to sneak in a "latest secuirty updates" in the middle of his sales pitch, to put a seed of fear in my mind about my current OS. Gee... thanks for saying anyone can download the latest patches. Gee... thanks for trying to sell me an e-machines.
The friendly article mentioned that "people are increasingly unwilling to take out their 'software tweezers' to clean their machines", maybe it's time for manufacturers to install a HardReset button (like in a PDA) with a 1 GB ReadOnly Flash drive, which resets everything back to factory.
Oh God NOOO!!!! Please, no! These assholes who sell computers are already sending CD's with images only. I have a laptop which the recovery CD's are not the OS which I can configure, but an Image of the hard drive, which sets up the partitions the way Microsoft wants. I can't install the OS with a partition left over for Linux.
Give us the freaking OS we paid for. If I buy a computer, and the OS is forced on my, that I must buy it if I want the PC, then at least give me the OS on a CD and not an image.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
Yeah but if you're willing to throw the computer in the dumpster, then reformatting is an option. The question isn't buying a new computer versus cleaning the spyware, the question is buying a new computer versus formatting-and-reinstalling. I don't see anyway the former should be cheaper.
"The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others." Thomas Jefferson.
Have you forgotten the age-old maxim? Do not ascribe to greed that which can be readily explained by sheer idiocy.
It just boggles the mind that people would throw out a Windows machine and then replace it with another! Windows machine which is immediately susceptible and commonly infected within twenty minutes or so of being re-connected to the Internet.
The smarter move would be to migrate to a system that is less affected by worms/virus/security issues.
The majority of people have only been exposed to Windows. They think computers simply wear out. They don't see it as getting infected over and over again by dozens of worms, they see it as "oh well, computer's worn out, better replace it".
In that context, it's perfectly reasonable to go and get something similar to what they already had. They don't think anything happening is wrong. They think this is normal.
Until something happens to teach the average person that this isn't right and can be avoided by switching to something like Mac OS X, this will carry on happening. I have no idea what that something is. Maybe a virus that forces the person to read an explanation of the issues before it gives access of the computer back or something? I dunno.
Think about it for a minute. A typical college kid who's working as a techie in a computer store is going to expect about $20/hr for their time. This means the cost to actually employ that kid (after taxes and regulatory requirements) is closer to $35/hr.
You will never get even close to 1/2 utilization out of your staff of repair kids, you need to collect at least double that from the customers ($70), and then another $20 for the cost of keeping your doors open (and for the store manager to spend at least part of his/her time making sure the techies aren't stealing all the 2 GB Ram sticks or slacking off or whatever.)
That leaves $80 a day of sweet, sweet profit, all for the joy of dealing with angry assholes who will often take out their frustrations on you. Gosh, I wonder why there aren't more places fighting to get a piece of that action?
From the users perspective, they could pay $100/hr to lose all their data and end up with the same crappy computer they always had, or for a mere $300 more they could have a shiny new computer with 5 times the CPU power, 4 times the memory, 4 times the hard drive space, a DVD burner, a massively better video card, and a pretty new keyboard. It's not surprising that a lot of people decide that they'd rather spend a little extra than pouring more money into a system which has been giving them fits.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.