"Are you from another country? The infrastructure here is fine."
By what standards, exactly? The people from other countries tend to have higher standards than our clueless denizens who can't be bothered to open an engineering text. How many US citizens graduate with advanced degrees in engineering? How many graduates of MIT and other top level schools are from India, Pakistan, China, or even freaking CUBA?
The infrastructure here does suck, because we keep electing one of two parties, each of which uses our tax dollars for pork barrel projects, rather than real maintenance and improvement. How 'bout that famous "Bridge to Nowhere", made famous by Sarah Palin?
I suspect that California educated engineers had a lot to do with the problem. A panel had to decide how to fix the problem. The panel was composed, by law, of one gay, one lesbian, one transvestite, one Mormon, one Moslem, one Black, one Hispanic - the list goes on and on. And, among the engineers, the various engineering disciplines had representation, including the Doctors of Basketweaving from Berkeley.
Its not hard to understand why the bridge is falling apart.
We don't need any more file sharing, or file sharing rules. We really need politician sharing! Let's start sharing politicians with the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and especially with Uranus. Oh - wait - that last would be redundant, wouldn't it?
Haven't I read this suggestion elsewhere? Are you a plegiarist? WTF?!?!
Alright, I'm not being fair. The solution is so obvious, hundreds of people have suggested it here and elsewhere, and thousands more will do so. But, the obvious, easy, simple solution will never gain traction. Someone has to make money, or the solution will never be implemented. I'm afraid we'll have to incorporate a couple charges into the scheme. Save the children, save the baby seals, and buy a carbon credit, THEN is will work!!
Mankind is opposed to elegance, after all. It's GOT to have BLING!!
I would cite the various "good samaritan" laws, as well as implied consent. The braindead gave implied consent to have viral infections cleaned from their computers by having an infection to start with.
FFS - everyone worries about being sued, so they do nothing. You bet your arse, if I were smart enough to program the virus to self destruct, I would do so in an instant. No thoughts about being sued, period.
Well - as of this posting, first post remains the most intelligent comment on the story. To bad some dickweed modded the post down - the moderator is totally clueless regarding the problem, or the suggested solution.
For the clueless: we have, on earth, an ecosystem, at the bacterial level. Determining what controls the growth of pathogens would enable us to introduce those controls onto the ship. Viruses, germs, and bacteria that may prey on those pathogens are part of that ecosystem. Humidity, temperature, and radiation are other parts of the system. Gravity may or may not be an important part of the system.
The core of the problem is controlling those bacterial populations - not eliminating them. There are some good posts below explaining why it might be bad to eliminate them.
Diversified ecosystem. lannocc really has a clue about what is going on, so mod him up, folks.
I installed Windows 1.1 and 1.3 from 5" floppies. It was labeled "Microft Windows" as nearly as I can recall. And, they were quite clunky - you could find a variety of DOS programs better suited for whatever you were doing. Even Windows 3.1 was pretty clunky - it wasn't until Windows 3.11 for Workgroups came out that the product really became worth anything at all. Then they ruined things with Win95, by putting a 32 bit overlay on top of a 16 bit operating system. Phhht.
"the majority of the internet users won't either."
Sorry, but that sounds like typical American ethnocentricity. The MAJORITY of internet users actually are people who don't natively speak English. Chinese speakers, Russian speakers, European people, many of whom use cyrilic alphabets, Arabs, South Americans, Indians, and others that I'm surely missing.
How can you possibly speak for "the majority of internet users", when people who speak English as their native language constitute a pretty small percentage of the world's people? I could google, but I'm almost willing to bet that more people on this earth grow up speaking Chinese, than people who grow up speaking English as their first language.
If a guy is more comfortable using his own language, I'm all for him doing so.
Wouldn't THAT be a mess! We still have neanderthals who live to 80, and never think of ANYTHING except food, sex, booze and sleep. It's a step up for some of them to think about mind altering drugs - the first taste of abstract that they ever experience!!
So stop using email. Set up an IRC server, invite your close circle of freinds, and you can exchange group and private messages all day long. If you want to transfer photos, videos, music, just DCC them to each other from the IRC server. Only use email where you can't get the other party to join IRC.
Of course, that is much to complicated for most people. Phhht.
That's all well and good. Any computer semi-literate can do so, if he only bothers. He may have to google a little to do so, but he can do it.
My brother in-law is 66, sister in-law is 67. They finally let the nieces and nephews talk them into getting a computer. Totally clueless, they bought something from WalMart. I don't even know what it is, I haven't visited in quite a long while. After the wife went over to straighten out the computer about half a dozen times, she asked me if I remembered how her Compaq was, with spyware and trash from the factory. I answered, "Yes, I sure do!" and handed her an installation disk for XP-Pro. Says she, "You expect me to pirate this?" Says I, "I don't care what you do with that disk. You can install XP-Pro just like Microsoft intended it to be, or you can keep trying to fix your sister's computer time after time."
Needless to say, BIL and SIL have a pirated copy of XP Pro on their machine now.
But, RobDude - several other people have pointed out that there are alternatives to Adobe reader, that are lighter to download, lighter to install, and lighter on system resources, not to mention being faster AND better. Let's suppose that Adobe really is the end-all, be-all, ultimate shitzls for reading a PDF. Why does it autostart at system startup? Joe Sixpack might look at two PDF files a MONTH, but Adobe is loaded on his box at each startup and/or logon. Why? All he wants to do is play a game of Doom, drink his sixpack, and pat the wife on the ass, but he's forced to sit there watching the startup screen for 2/3 of eternity. By definition, crapware. Adobe can get in line, and wait for the user to call it.
The OEM's need to install fewer of these apps, they need to find the fastes, lightest weight app to do the job, and they need to configure those apps properly. And, DO NOT add things in that EVER "phone home" - even for updates - without the owner's explicit permission.
Call me biased - I only work on machines that freinds, family and acquaintances bring me. I believe the summary, and TFA to be pretty much on target. IMHO - if the vendor won't include a clean MS installation disk with your purchase, there's a reason for that. Always insist on that clean installation disk, NOT a recovery disk. Dell, in general, is the cleanest machine to work on, and they don't install tons of crapware. Maybe half a ton, but not tons. There is no introductory software, or free software, or whatever else that is worth bothering with. Whatever it is that you want, you can download it straight from the source, without Lenovo, Compaq, or any of the others deciding what you need.
Crapware - anything on the system that I didn't specifically ask for and explicitly consent to.
"If you have a machine with less than that you need an alternate install disk."
Maybe I'm missing something here. I use the "alternate install". The "Desktop" disk is exactly that - desktop. A laptop needs to be set up differently than a laptop, doesn't it? Everything is different on a laptop. To be honest, I haven't downloaded their Desktop disk since - uhhhmmm - 7.04 I think.
If you're really interested in running *buntu on a laptop, I suggest you try installing from that alternate disk.
I believe that you will find the Grand Cherokee has a lower center of mass than many other SUV's. That center of mass affects handling as much as, or more than, all the fancy technological things that manufacturers build into their vehicles. A plain old pickup truck actually has a lower center of mass than some of those godawful SUV's. (not counting those modified pickups with huge wheels, aftermarket suspension, etc)
No matter how much money they put into suspension and handling technology, the basic laws of physics trump all. Naval and merchant marine ship designers as well as cargo handlers get some pretty intensive training on that center of mass. Every ton loaded above the water line increases the chance of capsizing in a storm. Every ton loaded BELOW the water line makes the ship more stable. Obvious, I know, to most people - but not all.;^)
Oh-kay - you're right. It matters little whether the politicians thought the new asinine law up by themselves, or the public pressured them into creating the law. Your original statement is true in either case.;^)
Anyone who fails to understand that his undivided attention belongs on his SURROUNDINGS, rather than his toys, is indeed an idiot. Anyone care to explain away those pilots who flew 150 miles past their destination, only to have to admit they were on their laptop computers? There have been studies on people's ability to multi-task. Everyone's assumptions have been blown away by the studies - google for it if you care to. Women multi-task better than men, that has always been true, and the studies bear that out. But, even the best multi-taskers aren't as good as they THINK they are. One of the little bits of data found in the studies, is that those people who THINK they are great at it, are actually worse at multi-tasking than many people who don't claim to be good.
But, studies aside - common sense should tell people that ALL distractions should be laid aside while operating a motor vehicle. Only the most momentary distractions should be permitted, like reaching for your drink. Even that isn't tolerated very well where people are serious about their driving. There was an article some months back about Autobahn drivers. Some of those Germans asked why ANYONE would even WANT a cupholder in their car. Getting behind the wheel means driving, not relaxing, or entertaining yourself, or eating.
In short, SHUT UP AND DRIVE!! Use the phone at home.
You're not wrong, but just a little off target. People, being idiots, have picked up on all these electronic devices, and moved them into their cars. People, being idiots, have killed other people, as a result of these moronic decisions. To be more accurate, people have CHOSEN to distract themselves while driving with electronic devices. These decisions have been met with a public outcry - "There ought to be a law!" Citizens around the world are demanding that drivers pay attention to their driving, or don't drive.
The idiots have argued that their electronic devices are no more distracting than the dozens of activities that non-idiots engage in while driving. Many idiots say that reaching down to adjust the stereo volume WITHOUT taking their eyes off the road, is just as distracting as texting. Because they are idiots, the argument makes sense to them. (Meanwhile, no one suggests that complicated sound systems simply do not belong in an automobile - all of my sons have stereos in their dashboards that I can't figure out without parking the car, and studying the damned things!)
So, the whole thing is handed off to the politicians. Idiots vote for politicians. Some politicians are idiots. We get idiot laws.
Welcome to the land of idiots, where laws are designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator amongst the voters.
While parent's opinion is a little skewed, it's not as bad an evaluation as first glance suggests. I do really think the Bush administration was hostile to OSS, and the Obama administration is friendly towards OSS. Given one or more administrations friendly to OSS, anything may happen in the next several years. Advances equivalent to the past 8 years may only take 2 or 3 years. Once OSS gains a little momentum, well, just use your imagination.
And, the payoff may be decades away. There are a number of future programmers and system's administrators and upper management people serving NOW, who are going to be exposed to the advantages of OSS. We may see the same philosophy moving into mainstream business 5 to 10 years from now.
You make a fairly good point. But - as the summary says - MS claims to be a Nevada company for tax purposes, then claims to be a Washington company for legal purposes. Come on - you can't have your cake and eat it too. It's dishonest. Pick one, and stick with it.
OK, I'm not a linux guru, by any means. But, I don't see how a keylogger is going to be installed on a Linux box, without finding some other exploit to put it there. Weak password, and physical access maybe. I don't see some script kiddie, or even a semi-competent hacker doing it. And, a real hacker isn't likely to waste his time. The single bot-like exploit in the wild (that I'm aware of) for Linux machines relies on a weak password, and a poor security policy within an application. (I think it's a database app - to lazy to go look right now)
The most likely means of getting even a non-tech single user's personal data is by phishing the data from him. Linux is just as prone to phishing and/or MIM attacks as Windows is. I've also had my browser hijacked a couple of times - once rickrolled, and once by a fraudulent antivirus which found infections on my nonexistent C drive. But, in both cases, I killed the browser, restarted it, did a virus scan, and came up clean.
Granted, as Linux becomes more popular, more people are going to be trying to exploit it. But, the other side of the same coin is, more people are working to secure it as well. SELinux has documented exploits, so GRSecurity has come into existence for the purpose of securing Linux again. The non-tech user isn't likely to install either SELinux or GRSecurity - but if he's relying on someone for tech support, the techie is probably going to do it for him.
"Also isn't terror's one meaning to cause, well, terror? What are you going to on the internet, put a scary picture on google.com (if you even could hack it - I bet there have been many that have tried)? It just doesn't sum up."
A list of possible targets: banking transactions being disrupted tends to terrorize people with money taking down the power grid can be scary disrupting mass transit can be scary actually causing crashes of mass transit would be outright terroristic publishing false news stories ranks somewhere between scary and terroristic disrupting news services is at least mildly scary disrupting or taking over Department of Defense networks can contribute to terror actually STEALING Department of Defense secrets is REALLY scary disrupting critical health care services - hospitals primarily, ambulances secondarily disrupting police communications
While there aren't many ways to actually kill people with the intartubez, the potential for terror does exist. I've probably not exhausted all the means to spread confusion and/or terror - but those should be enough to cause concern.
You mean there is a LEGITIMATE way to get books? Interesting. I never got past torrents, newsgroups, and other means of P2P. Hell, I didn't realize they actually SOLD ebooks! I might try it, some day, maybe. If the P2P networks ever run out of books, I KNOW I will!
It's such a shame that you hate yo' mama so badly. Have you ever tried to just sit and talk about it with her? You know, mamas are mamas. She'll be happy to forgive you arrogant, condescending attitude, if you just give her the chance. Bitchy? Stop being an ass, she'll probably stop being bitchy.
Of course, it's not just "regular folks" on mailing lists who share this opinion. Businesspeople have expressed similar attitudes... including ones who work for anti-virus companies. Jack Clarke, European product manager at McAfee, said, "So we will be seeing more Linux viruses as the OS becomes more common and popular."
Mr. Clarke is wrong.
Sure, there are Linux viruses. But let's compare the numbers. According to Dr. Nic Peeling and Dr Julian Satchell's Analysis of the Impact of Open Source Software (note: the link is to a 135 kb PDF file):
"There are about 60,000 viruses known for Windows, 40 or so for the Macintosh, about 5 for commercial Unix versions, and perhaps 40 for Linux. Most of the Windows viruses are not important, but many hundreds have caused widespread damage. Two or three of the Macintosh viruses were widespread enough to be of importance. None of the Unix or Linux viruses became widespread - most were confined to the laboratory." >>Editor's note: unfortunately we have been made aware that this quote by Dr. Peeling and Dr. Satchell is incorrect; the independent WildList organization produces a monthly "in the wild" list of viruses. While the vast majority of viruses in their report are Windows-based, there are still some Linux-based viruses (listed as "Other") found in the wild as well.>>
So there are far fewer viruses for Mac OS X and Linux. It's true that those two operating systems do not have monopoly numbers, though in some industries they have substantial numbers of users. But even if Linux becomes the dominant desktop computing platform, and Mac OS X continues its growth in businesses and homes, these Unix-based OS's will never experience all of the problems we're seeing now with email-borne viruses and worms in the Microsoft world. Why?
---------------- Granted, that article is 6 years old - but you'll be hard pressed to come up with the numbers you give for Linux OR for Windows. I think that it's safe to say that there aren't 800 viruses - real working viruses - for all of open source. Again, I say, citations or it isn't so.
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"Are you from another country? The infrastructure here is fine."
By what standards, exactly? The people from other countries tend to have higher standards than our clueless denizens who can't be bothered to open an engineering text. How many US citizens graduate with advanced degrees in engineering? How many graduates of MIT and other top level schools are from India, Pakistan, China, or even freaking CUBA?
The infrastructure here does suck, because we keep electing one of two parties, each of which uses our tax dollars for pork barrel projects, rather than real maintenance and improvement. How 'bout that famous "Bridge to Nowhere", made famous by Sarah Palin?
I suspect that California educated engineers had a lot to do with the problem. A panel had to decide how to fix the problem. The panel was composed, by law, of one gay, one lesbian, one transvestite, one Mormon, one Moslem, one Black, one Hispanic - the list goes on and on. And, among the engineers, the various engineering disciplines had representation, including the Doctors of Basketweaving from Berkeley.
Its not hard to understand why the bridge is falling apart.
We don't need any more file sharing, or file sharing rules. We really need politician sharing! Let's start sharing politicians with the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and especially with Uranus. Oh - wait - that last would be redundant, wouldn't it?
Haven't I read this suggestion elsewhere? Are you a plegiarist? WTF?!?!
Alright, I'm not being fair. The solution is so obvious, hundreds of people have suggested it here and elsewhere, and thousands more will do so. But, the obvious, easy, simple solution will never gain traction. Someone has to make money, or the solution will never be implemented. I'm afraid we'll have to incorporate a couple charges into the scheme. Save the children, save the baby seals, and buy a carbon credit, THEN is will work!!
Mankind is opposed to elegance, after all. It's GOT to have BLING!!
I would cite the various "good samaritan" laws, as well as implied consent. The braindead gave implied consent to have viral infections cleaned from their computers by having an infection to start with.
FFS - everyone worries about being sued, so they do nothing. You bet your arse, if I were smart enough to program the virus to self destruct, I would do so in an instant. No thoughts about being sued, period.
Well - as of this posting, first post remains the most intelligent comment on the story. To bad some dickweed modded the post down - the moderator is totally clueless regarding the problem, or the suggested solution.
For the clueless: we have, on earth, an ecosystem, at the bacterial level. Determining what controls the growth of pathogens would enable us to introduce those controls onto the ship. Viruses, germs, and bacteria that may prey on those pathogens are part of that ecosystem. Humidity, temperature, and radiation are other parts of the system. Gravity may or may not be an important part of the system.
The core of the problem is controlling those bacterial populations - not eliminating them. There are some good posts below explaining why it might be bad to eliminate them.
Diversified ecosystem. lannocc really has a clue about what is going on, so mod him up, folks.
I installed Windows 1.1 and 1.3 from 5" floppies. It was labeled "Microft Windows" as nearly as I can recall. And, they were quite clunky - you could find a variety of DOS programs better suited for whatever you were doing. Even Windows 3.1 was pretty clunky - it wasn't until Windows 3.11 for Workgroups came out that the product really became worth anything at all. Then they ruined things with Win95, by putting a 32 bit overlay on top of a 16 bit operating system. Phhht.
"the majority of the internet users won't either."
Sorry, but that sounds like typical American ethnocentricity. The MAJORITY of internet users actually are people who don't natively speak English. Chinese speakers, Russian speakers, European people, many of whom use cyrilic alphabets, Arabs, South Americans, Indians, and others that I'm surely missing.
How can you possibly speak for "the majority of internet users", when people who speak English as their native language constitute a pretty small percentage of the world's people? I could google, but I'm almost willing to bet that more people on this earth grow up speaking Chinese, than people who grow up speaking English as their first language.
If a guy is more comfortable using his own language, I'm all for him doing so.
"or did your 1st abstract thinking,"
Wouldn't THAT be a mess! We still have neanderthals who live to 80, and never think of ANYTHING except food, sex, booze and sleep. It's a step up for some of them to think about mind altering drugs - the first taste of abstract that they ever experience!!
So stop using email. Set up an IRC server, invite your close circle of freinds, and you can exchange group and private messages all day long. If you want to transfer photos, videos, music, just DCC them to each other from the IRC server. Only use email where you can't get the other party to join IRC.
Of course, that is much to complicated for most people. Phhht.
That's all well and good. Any computer semi-literate can do so, if he only bothers. He may have to google a little to do so, but he can do it.
My brother in-law is 66, sister in-law is 67. They finally let the nieces and nephews talk them into getting a computer. Totally clueless, they bought something from WalMart. I don't even know what it is, I haven't visited in quite a long while. After the wife went over to straighten out the computer about half a dozen times, she asked me if I remembered how her Compaq was, with spyware and trash from the factory. I answered, "Yes, I sure do!" and handed her an installation disk for XP-Pro. Says she, "You expect me to pirate this?" Says I, "I don't care what you do with that disk. You can install XP-Pro just like Microsoft intended it to be, or you can keep trying to fix your sister's computer time after time."
Needless to say, BIL and SIL have a pirated copy of XP Pro on their machine now.
But, RobDude - several other people have pointed out that there are alternatives to Adobe reader, that are lighter to download, lighter to install, and lighter on system resources, not to mention being faster AND better. Let's suppose that Adobe really is the end-all, be-all, ultimate shitzls for reading a PDF. Why does it autostart at system startup? Joe Sixpack might look at two PDF files a MONTH, but Adobe is loaded on his box at each startup and/or logon. Why? All he wants to do is play a game of Doom, drink his sixpack, and pat the wife on the ass, but he's forced to sit there watching the startup screen for 2/3 of eternity. By definition, crapware. Adobe can get in line, and wait for the user to call it.
The OEM's need to install fewer of these apps, they need to find the fastes, lightest weight app to do the job, and they need to configure those apps properly. And, DO NOT add things in that EVER "phone home" - even for updates - without the owner's explicit permission.
Call me biased - I only work on machines that freinds, family and acquaintances bring me. I believe the summary, and TFA to be pretty much on target. IMHO - if the vendor won't include a clean MS installation disk with your purchase, there's a reason for that. Always insist on that clean installation disk, NOT a recovery disk. Dell, in general, is the cleanest machine to work on, and they don't install tons of crapware. Maybe half a ton, but not tons. There is no introductory software, or free software, or whatever else that is worth bothering with. Whatever it is that you want, you can download it straight from the source, without Lenovo, Compaq, or any of the others deciding what you need.
Crapware - anything on the system that I didn't specifically ask for and explicitly consent to.
"If you have a machine with less than that you need an alternate install disk."
Maybe I'm missing something here. I use the "alternate install". The "Desktop" disk is exactly that - desktop. A laptop needs to be set up differently than a laptop, doesn't it? Everything is different on a laptop. To be honest, I haven't downloaded their Desktop disk since - uhhhmmm - 7.04 I think.
If you're really interested in running *buntu on a laptop, I suggest you try installing from that alternate disk.
I believe that you will find the Grand Cherokee has a lower center of mass than many other SUV's. That center of mass affects handling as much as, or more than, all the fancy technological things that manufacturers build into their vehicles. A plain old pickup truck actually has a lower center of mass than some of those godawful SUV's. (not counting those modified pickups with huge wheels, aftermarket suspension, etc)
No matter how much money they put into suspension and handling technology, the basic laws of physics trump all. Naval and merchant marine ship designers as well as cargo handlers get some pretty intensive training on that center of mass. Every ton loaded above the water line increases the chance of capsizing in a storm. Every ton loaded BELOW the water line makes the ship more stable. Obvious, I know, to most people - but not all. ;^)
Oh-kay - you're right. It matters little whether the politicians thought the new asinine law up by themselves, or the public pressured them into creating the law. Your original statement is true in either case. ;^)
Anyone who fails to understand that his undivided attention belongs on his SURROUNDINGS, rather than his toys, is indeed an idiot. Anyone care to explain away those pilots who flew 150 miles past their destination, only to have to admit they were on their laptop computers? There have been studies on people's ability to multi-task. Everyone's assumptions have been blown away by the studies - google for it if you care to. Women multi-task better than men, that has always been true, and the studies bear that out. But, even the best multi-taskers aren't as good as they THINK they are. One of the little bits of data found in the studies, is that those people who THINK they are great at it, are actually worse at multi-tasking than many people who don't claim to be good.
But, studies aside - common sense should tell people that ALL distractions should be laid aside while operating a motor vehicle. Only the most momentary distractions should be permitted, like reaching for your drink. Even that isn't tolerated very well where people are serious about their driving. There was an article some months back about Autobahn drivers. Some of those Germans asked why ANYONE would even WANT a cupholder in their car. Getting behind the wheel means driving, not relaxing, or entertaining yourself, or eating.
In short, SHUT UP AND DRIVE!! Use the phone at home.
You're not wrong, but just a little off target. People, being idiots, have picked up on all these electronic devices, and moved them into their cars. People, being idiots, have killed other people, as a result of these moronic decisions. To be more accurate, people have CHOSEN to distract themselves while driving with electronic devices. These decisions have been met with a public outcry - "There ought to be a law!" Citizens around the world are demanding that drivers pay attention to their driving, or don't drive.
The idiots have argued that their electronic devices are no more distracting than the dozens of activities that non-idiots engage in while driving. Many idiots say that reaching down to adjust the stereo volume WITHOUT taking their eyes off the road, is just as distracting as texting. Because they are idiots, the argument makes sense to them. (Meanwhile, no one suggests that complicated sound systems simply do not belong in an automobile - all of my sons have stereos in their dashboards that I can't figure out without parking the car, and studying the damned things!)
So, the whole thing is handed off to the politicians. Idiots vote for politicians. Some politicians are idiots. We get idiot laws.
Welcome to the land of idiots, where laws are designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator amongst the voters.
While parent's opinion is a little skewed, it's not as bad an evaluation as first glance suggests. I do really think the Bush administration was hostile to OSS, and the Obama administration is friendly towards OSS. Given one or more administrations friendly to OSS, anything may happen in the next several years. Advances equivalent to the past 8 years may only take 2 or 3 years. Once OSS gains a little momentum, well, just use your imagination.
And, the payoff may be decades away. There are a number of future programmers and system's administrators and upper management people serving NOW, who are going to be exposed to the advantages of OSS. We may see the same philosophy moving into mainstream business 5 to 10 years from now.
You make a fairly good point. But - as the summary says - MS claims to be a Nevada company for tax purposes, then claims to be a Washington company for legal purposes. Come on - you can't have your cake and eat it too. It's dishonest. Pick one, and stick with it.
In short, they are bleeding Washington state.
OK, I'm not a linux guru, by any means. But, I don't see how a keylogger is going to be installed on a Linux box, without finding some other exploit to put it there. Weak password, and physical access maybe. I don't see some script kiddie, or even a semi-competent hacker doing it. And, a real hacker isn't likely to waste his time. The single bot-like exploit in the wild (that I'm aware of) for Linux machines relies on a weak password, and a poor security policy within an application. (I think it's a database app - to lazy to go look right now)
The most likely means of getting even a non-tech single user's personal data is by phishing the data from him. Linux is just as prone to phishing and/or MIM attacks as Windows is. I've also had my browser hijacked a couple of times - once rickrolled, and once by a fraudulent antivirus which found infections on my nonexistent C drive. But, in both cases, I killed the browser, restarted it, did a virus scan, and came up clean.
Granted, as Linux becomes more popular, more people are going to be trying to exploit it. But, the other side of the same coin is, more people are working to secure it as well. SELinux has documented exploits, so GRSecurity has come into existence for the purpose of securing Linux again. The non-tech user isn't likely to install either SELinux or GRSecurity - but if he's relying on someone for tech support, the techie is probably going to do it for him.
Exploits evolve, and so does prevention.
"Also isn't terror's one meaning to cause, well, terror? What are you going to on the internet, put a scary picture on google.com (if you even could hack it - I bet there have been many that have tried)? It just doesn't sum up."
A list of possible targets:
banking transactions being disrupted tends to terrorize people with money
taking down the power grid can be scary
disrupting mass transit can be scary
actually causing crashes of mass transit would be outright terroristic
publishing false news stories ranks somewhere between scary and terroristic
disrupting news services is at least mildly scary
disrupting or taking over Department of Defense networks can contribute to terror
actually STEALING Department of Defense secrets is REALLY scary
disrupting critical health care services - hospitals primarily, ambulances secondarily
disrupting police communications
While there aren't many ways to actually kill people with the intartubez, the potential for terror does exist. I've probably not exhausted all the means to spread confusion and/or terror - but those should be enough to cause concern.
You mean there is a LEGITIMATE way to get books? Interesting. I never got past torrents, newsgroups, and other means of P2P. Hell, I didn't realize they actually SOLD ebooks! I might try it, some day, maybe. If the P2P networks ever run out of books, I KNOW I will!
It's such a shame that you hate yo' mama so badly. Have you ever tried to just sit and talk about it with her? You know, mamas are mamas. She'll be happy to forgive you arrogant, condescending attitude, if you just give her the chance. Bitchy? Stop being an ass, she'll probably stop being bitchy.
Citation, or it ain't so. 800 Linux viruses? I haven't read anything like that. 200,000 Windows viruses?
http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/188
Of course, it's not just "regular folks" on mailing lists who share this opinion. Businesspeople have expressed similar attitudes ... including ones who work for anti-virus companies. Jack Clarke, European product manager at McAfee, said, "So we will be seeing more Linux viruses as the OS becomes more common and popular."
Mr. Clarke is wrong.
Sure, there are Linux viruses. But let's compare the numbers. According to Dr. Nic Peeling and Dr Julian Satchell's Analysis of the Impact of Open Source Software (note: the link is to a 135 kb PDF file):
"There are about 60,000 viruses known for Windows, 40 or so for the Macintosh, about 5 for commercial Unix versions, and perhaps 40 for Linux. Most of the Windows viruses are not important, but many hundreds have caused widespread damage. Two or three of the Macintosh viruses were widespread enough to be of importance. None of the Unix or Linux viruses became widespread - most were confined to the laboratory." >>Editor's note: unfortunately we have been made aware that this quote by Dr. Peeling and Dr. Satchell is incorrect; the independent WildList organization produces a monthly "in the wild" list of viruses. While the vast majority of viruses in their report are Windows-based, there are still some Linux-based viruses (listed as "Other") found in the wild as well.>>
So there are far fewer viruses for Mac OS X and Linux. It's true that those two operating systems do not have monopoly numbers, though in some industries they have substantial numbers of users. But even if Linux becomes the dominant desktop computing platform, and Mac OS X continues its growth in businesses and homes, these Unix-based OS's will never experience all of the problems we're seeing now with email-borne viruses and worms in the Microsoft world. Why?
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Granted, that article is 6 years old - but you'll be hard pressed to come up with the numbers you give for Linux OR for Windows. I think that it's safe to say that there aren't 800 viruses - real working viruses - for all of open source. Again, I say, citations or it isn't so.