Been there, done that, worked with M$ partners before.
The MAJORITY are bottom feeders with a few shining gems in the whole pile of steaming dogshit.
When I left my last company, I was one of their MCSE's (mostly by requirement than by initiative, I'm a *nix guy all day long), and the guys brought in to replace me, well... they weren't entirely convincing to me. I tried teaching them, and to some extent I did, but I used far too many OSS tools to clean those disgusting XP desktops.
As a result I've changed vocations, this way I won't have to argue with an MCSE that Microsoft Antispyware really DIDN'T stop some luser's desktop from getting infected with "name your brand" spyware product.
Oh, and if you REALLY want lies and bigotry, go to Microsoft's "technical" conventions. They don't teach principles, they just teach what button/link to click on to run things. Guess that's their job security.
Microsoft is notorious for making changes to their interfaces, which as is obvious, keeps their support staff employed. The same is true for partners, who more often than not, will keep passwords and logins to systems from which their contracts are cancelled. Not to say I've done it, but I've seen and heard things which I wish my NDA's didn't cover. But as things stand, I can not give out specifics without going to jail, under the fine, "customer protecting" "justice" system we have in North America (though I heard the canadian system is a wee bit tougher on corporate abuses, I've yet to see it myself).
Yeah... every time OSS and M$ go head to head in a LEGITIMATE test, M$ loses their billion dollar shirts off their backs.
It would be nice if tomorrow, all of M$ and all of Intel were found missing, no trace of them save one last shipment of shitty DRM hardware platforms running the leftover M$ Windows.
If you need to dump outlook, get Evolution plus the Evolution Exchange Connector. That will cover having to connect to Microsoft's exchange servers.
That app has done the job for me admirably on Debian, Ubuntu and Fedora Core 1, 3 and 4. Email, contacts and calendar. (I use webcals so those got shared to my other project contributors, took a minor bit of tweaking. (didn't cost me 1500-3000 like Microsoft Small Business Server software would've.)
Also, Evolution has Open Office 1 and 2 plugins, and if you don't like evolution, give php groupware a shot. I haven't spent much time on it, so I would welcome reviews:)
Scrap Java too if need be, Perl, PHP, Python, plenty of other scripting and programming languages out there... all opensource, most of them either somewhat or MUCH cleaner than Active X.
Did I also mention that they aren't forcing users to use only ONE browser, by ONE greedy and recklessly dangerous company that is well known mostly for the ammount of security holes they fail to disclose or admit? And nobody ever holds them accountable...
Scrap Java too if need be, Perl, PHP, Python, plenty of other scripting and programming languages out there... all opensource, most of them either somewhat or MUCH cleaner than Active X.
The land of corporate rulership and bottom dollar worship. Microsoft and IE can only survive with the backing of OUR government. Anywhere else they'd have been cast out ages ago. As can be seen by various places switching away from Windows (overseas of course, M$ owns the 3 major north american governments).
Those few outsiders to the browser wars will be treated as inconsequential, much as opera was back in the 5.0 days. Despite the fact that it did a better job of rendering standard HTML than IE ever would. All corporate pages came up broken in Opera, not IE. Strange?
The first step to being web compliant, and casting out M$ is to use Java or JS instead of ActiveX and.net
You might not recall, but M$ has a constant tendency to lure people in with lies and trivial bait (ooh, look, we're misinterpreting open source, so we're open, come use ours) and then after people lock themselves into their crap, they suddenly require new terms, or force you to play by new rules...
When you argue otherwise... they pull that old Darth Vader vs Lando Calrissian on Cloud City line...
coder "That wasn't part of the deal!!" micro$oft "I am altering the deal, pray I don't alter it any further!! Or... (pause) do you think you are being treated unfairly?" coder (visibly gulps in fear) "No, not at all."
But hey folks, it happened when they were partnered with Novell, and then stabbed those folks in the back, they did it to IBM, they slowed the adoption of Java to the point where the much nastier activeX took over (but Sun keeps kissing their ass)...
Pretty much every company that ties themselves in with Microsoft gets raped out of everything they have tied into that project (Symantec, Network Associates and pretty much every antivirus and antispyware vendor now has their neck on the block, and M$ will swing the axe once they can do so... since antitrust lawsuits, even by the US gov't really don't mean squat (as we have all seen, even LOSING those lawsuits doesn't concern microsoft anymore))
Setup a router, keep its firmware updated (so it doesn't get bypassed the way Cisco PIX and Dlink 604's with original firmware do) and you are good to go. The bypasses are only a concern if your network is a point of attack for determined and resourceful hacker/cracker types. If those types are not a constant in your equation... then a router with firewall capability is perfect. So long as you're not providing a tunnel to port 1025 on your XP machine:) that would... suck.
Filtering various forms of traffic is quite important. One can bypass a simple port blocker given time, patience, and the right tools (or the skills to create the right tools).
Nmap is only one such tool I have had the pleasure of working with since before insecure.org was more than a little blackhat site known as Fyodor's Exploit World (heh... that was back in the early Windows 95 days for those of you stuck on that platform).
A Windows XP computer, joined to a Windows 2003 domain with password auditing enabled will not allow you to share its terminal services ports 3389 or 3391 without having a password.
When you try to share it out, it "should" request that you set a pwd. Of course, knowing Windows, nothing Microsoft ever does is either stable, or of any relevant quality.
In the end, they and their greedy colleagues in the IT industry and business community just bully everyone else into accepting their way and selling their shit to the rest of the world.
when I still USED windows, I ran a few Nmap scans from my linux boxen. After 3 hours of comparing logs, I walked away disgusted. Even ZoneAlarm cannot come close to the way my linux rigs (and the bsd file server) kept Nmap's various scans at bay.
I didn't bother to fuck with the open RPC available during install phase... it was easy to understand... any system with a net connection and drivers that install during windows install... its all over folks. And ZoneAlarm, Windows Firewall, and most other "free windows firewall" "products" didn't stop the nmap scan from detecting the open RPC.... one can only imagine how easy that system would've been to hack if I hadn't wiped it and reinstalled it.
It now comfortably houses a linux distro and nmap replies mostly with "all ports on this machine are in the following state: filtered" (I won't give you the verbose logs as that would be telling).
I went to PalmOne.com (Palm Pilot site!! you know... the portable device?) and guess what? IE got whacked by a doubleclick add on their site. An hour or two later, I ran an adaware SE scan, and wouldn't you know it... spyware, and not just cookies either.
This was roughly 2 months ago, while searching for PDA driver updates. Friend's XP Home PC, she had issues with her Palm III and lost her CD.
That's why I carry a Knoppix cd in the car now. (right next to a few other distros I toy around with, Inside Linux comes to mind).
Spyware is given by browsing sites or trojan / downloading virus type programs.
However, worms are what gets reinfected within 4 to5 minutes on an empty connection (or a SP2 firewalled one, since SP2 firewall is even worse than Black Ice Defender).
WORMS however, are gotten via the net. Unfortunately for most users, not everyone has a home router with a firewall (or even without). Most people plug their computer into their cablemodem.
As of late last year, Dell no longer includes MS cds. They include a recovery partition. If the virus or whatnot deletes files from there... you are sure proper fucked.
I recall people being charged anywhere from 100 to 300 bucks for the bench time. Sometimes more when any of our techs (or a whole team) had to go remove a virus or the like from an entire network. Oh the joys of overcharging people because they couldn't be bothered to learn to use Linux or BSD.
All they wanted to do was download files, read websites, read email, watch dvds, perhaps listen to MP3's or a CD or play solitaire at the office, etc... stuff we as geeks, take as trivial.
They needed to compose documents or spreadsheets or use trivial financial software without paying hundreds for quickbooks, peachtree or microsoft's "great pains accounting". (which isn't even Microsoft's own "innovation" as I recall).
I can do all of these things on the measly 450 mhz PII sitting in the corner. And it never gets spyware. But it runs Linux, and my semi computer illiterate father uses it more than I ever will. (its faster than their WinXP Home Emachines with double the ram and 4 times the HD space and processing cycles.) And it never gets spyware or cries that they need to buy a new version of this or that to keep the system clean. Oh... and it cost me... well... nothing. It was built from leftovers from my 1990's college 'puter.
True yes, but that doesn't mean that other services cannot be exploited in such a manner. I recall walking into a server room where the admin pwd was indeed blank. I was authorized to be there, but it didn't really make much difference, the door was NEVER locked (against company policy for those people). Yep, it was a public facility without even any physical security other than 2 renta cops and 4 cameras (main entrances, this being an educational facility) Oh wait... did I mention that this facility's network had access to the entire Novell and Windows network of the local city government?? Yeah I forgot to mention that part.
Imagine how easy it would've been to install some backdoor or rootkit, as the admin. It would've been THAT poor chap's fault. Simple steps that can prevent a system being rooted are rarely taken. I ended up nearly getting sacked for bringing it up, since "it was not my job to be looking in places where my job description didn't tell me to go". At least the place is a little less hackable now.
This has to do with Linux getting to the mainstream... people are using lame passwords and leaving unnecessary services with weak passwords open to the public. (Hey, if you'd know how many people **I** alone know that use "password" or "god" or "mom" as their root (*nix/bsd) or admin (windows) passwords. (Or, funnier still, the ones who leave it blank for ease of use.)
Do people on slashdot NOT know what a brute force / dictionary / wordlist attack is??? It is an attempt to connect to a service, using a random or scripted password and username generator or a list of commonly used ones (root and administrator on various systems obviously comes to mind.)
Most people use SSH without redirecting it through a trusted tunnelling protocol or connection. There are many ways to secure even the most trivial home network.
A word to the wise... instead of clicking okay and next mindlessly when installing your OS, start making a practice of READING the warnings and learning something... it should keep the brown fat cells from drowning out your otherwise idle brain as you get older. (IANAMS - I am not a med student, but so I've heard)
Most unix based OS's have, years ago, patched the "new" flaws that M$ heroically pats itself on the back for patching or trying to patch today within their oh so popular piece of crap... (jpg and png library holes come to recent memory... redhat (which is traditionally LATE with their patches had those patched 3.5 and 2 years ago, respectively) but hey... why not bash Linux when your favorite $299.99 off the shelf piece of crap OS gets rooted (or is that just plain pwned?)
Its actually gamer geeks fault for getting our parents hooked on windows so we could get them to pay for a 386 with 8 megs in 1991 to play Doom on... and that comes from personal memory of my childhood... my parents didn't give a rats ass about which OS they used since they would ask me of my friends (at the time) about what to do next.
Too bad, since we could've been making more productive use of our time with a linux kernel, hacking away at that code, instead of trying to do workarounds of the buggy and expensive windows OS to try to build our network security tools and the like. Otherwise we wait years for M$ to patch things... Anyone remember the good ole Winnuke? Port 139? M$ issued a "security" patch... namely a port blocker, which was promptly circumvented the same day by roughly every hacker that ever wrote a network penetration tool.
Check out the fine usage of RPC in Windows 2000 and XP now... Microsoft makes a practice of making things insecure by default.
Remote desktop is used by a LOT of IT companies that base their entire business models around selling people Windows and then charging them to constantly "repair" damage done by those "ev1l h@x0rs" or what not (and they NEVER blame Microsoft's own lousy code and business practices for all their bad name and rep).
Those same IT people use Remote Desktop for windows to loginto various Server 2003 installs and then only charge for the time spent working (or peeing with the remote desktop logged onto) thus "saving" the time to drive to a site. Most lusers are usually too low on IQ to be able to comprehend most "type this" or "click that" instructions, so telephone support is always a living hell for those who engage in it. (Or perhaps they simply choose not to care about their computers, the same way they forget to change the oil in their cars and their engines shoot up in smoke.)
But anyways, it's always those haxors... yep. Never put the blame on shitty expensive business models designed to enrich only the support and vendor companies. (The users just get shafted into buying MORE shit that STILL sucks to patch the shit that doesn't "just work".)
For the record, I avoid using VNC, but I do like remote login features of KDM and GDM (or XDM). Link them up with SSH or Webmin/SSL/TLS and life is simple over a LAN or the internet.
In fact, this particular reply is written from a GDM (Gnome) remote login to my app server on the LAN. It is by no means slower than Windows 2003 Terminal Services was when I used it, and this machine is significantly cheaper (single CPU, AMD Athlon 1400mhz as opposed to the dual 2.4 ghz xeons at my last IT job.)) Hint, the app server also doubles as a private email server, ftpd, httpd, IRC and occasionally as a print server. Did I also mention that it runs Postgre AND Mysql without a hitch? on less than 1 GB of ram? Try THAT with microsoft's SeQueL (SQueaL?)... but as I recall, using less than 1.0 GB expressly for a M$ SQL server, ends up being a frustrating exercise in inadequacy for the foolish IT guy doing it.
~ DaedalusHKX
PS - I personally have made a practice of shelling out cash, hardware or code to OSS projects, Debian, Gentoo, OpenBSD, etc... at least this way I help people, organizations and movements that help me.
Quite amusing when someone runs cables poorly or yanks on well terminated cables until the wires pull loose (long hundred foot runs).
Well, unless they are my runs... then I'm usually quite visibly embarassed, as I have occasionally done late night work, and screwed one or two up. Its fun to laugh about years later, but as a teenager first learning... boy did it hurt.
I settled a debt with my brother by giving him a Radeon 9800 Pro. He placed this card within his Gentoo Linux 5.0 machine (dual AMD processors with more than enough juice to make the videocard the bottleneck).
He wanted it to run World of Warcraft (windows version). After recompiling his kernel by adding AGP GART support and typing MAKE and hitting enter on his keyboard... he copied the kernel to his/boot and added his new kernel to his GRUB conf. Since then, he runs WoW at nearly 10 frames per second MORE than he did in windows, under Gnome in Gentoo linux through Cedega (the project formerly known was WineX). Cedega costs roughly $5.00/month and is a well worthy cost to pay to keep windows off our gaming desktops (also since linux and unix are fire and forget systems, its difficult to keep modifying settings without keeping a gaming system on hand... we get complacent otherwise)... his resolution, by the way, was 1280x1024 in 32 bit color. The linux drivers significantly outperformed the windows drivers in every resolution and color depth we tried.
Cedega supports pretty much EVERY popular game, and if there is tweaking to be done, I recall my bro and I have both gladly submitted our fixes back to the community. (I must confess that I have far less patience than he does when it comes to tweaking gaming drivers, though this is probably due to my having become jaded by doing windows support for quite sometime).
---SOFTWARE INSTALLS---
Linux OS's are capable of extremely good performance and data throughput when compared to that kludge we call Windows. OS X has already proven what a unix type OS can do, Linux is merely a mixture of many voluntary and paid efforts all leading to the fine american passtime (filling your shopping basket).
Only a twit would claim that the Linux distros don't come with software to install. Short of choosing a distro because of the packaging system... non server distros offer plenty of software and the installs are relatively easy to do. Its all about knowing how NOT to screw up your system, which users, in general, take for granted. Drivers do too, and they pay dearly by dying or going to jail for DUI... In computing, this is simply not the case (though it would make life easier if it were, harsh but true).
---OFFICE STUFF---
Fedora with Gnome or KDE and Evolution/Koffice or Evolution/Openoffice2 is simply more than enough for most people's office needs.
Even when presented with Access (for which Open Office 2 has an alternative database program), most of my past users still used a spreadsheet, whether that is Excel or Quatro or Gnumeric or OOffice, it doesn't really matter... most people just need a spreadsheet... and mailmerge often has as many shortcomings as those it claims to cure (I even ran into a user that a company I was with moved from Word Perfect to Office XP, and since then he complained non stop that he couldn't do the same things he needed to with mailmerge in word xp) However the company I was with told him to basically piss off... needless to say, I was the one who heard HIS side of the story, each time he called... and pissed off he was.
---"great" Windows IT Support---
Speaking of support... and Windows being "better"... I've worked in IT, and I QUIT that job because I was tired of dealing with the same lies day in and out. "Windows is higher performance and more secure, IE is better, more secure, AND faster than Firefox and Opera... etc"
It was ME that had to explain to users why their antivirus was a day late on the latest worm or virus that ripped through their Service Pack 2 firewall, or why they never surfed any porn and yet still got spyware from PalmOne.com (yep, palm site had spyware on it)...
I saw the same contempt towards users from windows support folks as I did from Linuxites. Support people become jaded to stupidity... but stupidity is the only thing that keeps the
No, I have the same issue, and I've worked for a microsoft partner recently. They do way too much PR and lie entirely too much. I hate M$ and their lies with a passion, even if, beforehand, I had thought people were unjustly hateful of microsoft. Now I know why, firsthand.
And no, you did not misread my statement. I "hate" them. Passionately. And I feel entirely justified. If you dealt with some of the internal mail I've dealt with, any of you with a conscience would never get another hour of sleep. I am fortunate my conscience was on hold for a few months before I woke up and made up my mind to leave that place. What disgusts me more than anything is the way they tell people that IE, or exchange or server 2003 is such a pearl. Heh. Oh yes... it *really* cuts down on the costs. Right. I've sent some hefty bills out in recent months. I cannot read those "lower TCO" "facts" any longer without feeling my stomach tighten painfully. I've seen that "lower TCO". Unless someone does work outside of billable hours, Windows and Microsoft cannot stand on their own. If one reads the content of their filings in the antitrust case they've somehow been acquitted of, one can see that they never could. (I am too lazy to seek out the links, but I've read through it all once before to "disprove" to a customer that MS had lied in court.)
Slashdot Mirror
Been there, done that, worked with M$ partners before.
The MAJORITY are bottom feeders with a few shining gems in the whole pile of steaming dogshit.
When I left my last company, I was one of their MCSE's (mostly by requirement than by initiative, I'm a *nix guy all day long), and the guys brought in to replace me, well... they weren't entirely convincing to me. I tried teaching them, and to some extent I did, but I used far too many OSS tools to clean those disgusting XP desktops.
As a result I've changed vocations, this way I won't have to argue with an MCSE that Microsoft Antispyware really DIDN'T stop some luser's desktop from getting infected with "name your brand" spyware product.
Oh, and if you REALLY want lies and bigotry, go to Microsoft's "technical" conventions. They don't teach principles, they just teach what button/link to click on to run things. Guess that's their job security.
Microsoft is notorious for making changes to their interfaces, which as is obvious, keeps their support staff employed. The same is true for partners, who more often than not, will keep passwords and logins to systems from which their contracts are cancelled. Not to say I've done it, but I've seen and heard things which I wish my NDA's didn't cover. But as things stand, I can not give out specifics without going to jail, under the fine, "customer protecting" "justice" system we have in North America (though I heard the canadian system is a wee bit tougher on corporate abuses, I've yet to see it myself).
Yeah... every time OSS and M$ go head to head in a LEGITIMATE test, M$ loses their billion dollar shirts off their backs.
It would be nice if tomorrow, all of M$ and all of Intel were found missing, no trace of them save one last shipment of shitty DRM hardware platforms running the leftover M$ Windows.
You are right, I can attest to having had very little trouble with Debian.
:)
On top of my regular work, it actually plays Doom 3, playstation emulation, SNES emulation and Neverwinter Nights, Diablo 2 as well as Warcraft III.
(another debian box, running the Stable branch, is running mail, web and other services on my LAN) All for the cost of old hardware
If you need to dump outlook, get Evolution plus the Evolution Exchange Connector. That will cover having to connect to Microsoft's exchange servers.
:)
That app has done the job for me admirably on Debian, Ubuntu and Fedora Core 1, 3 and 4. Email, contacts and calendar. (I use webcals so those got shared to my other project contributors, took a minor bit of tweaking. (didn't cost me 1500-3000 like Microsoft Small Business Server software would've.)
Also, Evolution has Open Office 1 and 2 plugins, and if you don't like evolution, give php groupware a shot. I haven't spent much time on it, so I would welcome reviews
They're using "fglrx" drivers from ATI instead of the default 2d "ati" drivers :)
But what do I know, it only quadrupled my framerate in OpenGL apps. So all it comes down to, is probably much newer or more complete video drivers.
and nice FP
Scrap Java too if need be, Perl, PHP, Python, plenty of other scripting and programming languages out there... all opensource, most of them either somewhat or MUCH cleaner than Active X.
Did I also mention that they aren't forcing users to use only ONE browser, by ONE greedy and recklessly dangerous company that is well known mostly for the ammount of security holes they fail to disclose or admit? And nobody ever holds them accountable...
Scrap Java too if need be, Perl, PHP, Python, plenty of other scripting and programming languages out there... all opensource, most of them either somewhat or MUCH cleaner than Active X.
The land of corporate rulership and bottom dollar worship. Microsoft and IE can only survive with the backing of OUR government. Anywhere else they'd have been cast out ages ago. As can be seen by various places switching away from Windows (overseas of course, M$ owns the 3 major north american governments).
.net
Those few outsiders to the browser wars will be treated as inconsequential, much as opera was back in the 5.0 days. Despite the fact that it did a better job of rendering standard HTML than IE ever would. All corporate pages came up broken in Opera, not IE. Strange?
The first step to being web compliant, and casting out M$ is to use Java or JS instead of ActiveX and
You might not recall, but M$ has a constant tendency to lure people in with lies and trivial bait (ooh, look, we're misinterpreting open source, so we're open, come use ours) and then after people lock themselves into their crap, they suddenly require new terms, or force you to play by new rules...
When you argue otherwise... they pull that old Darth Vader vs Lando Calrissian on Cloud City line...
coder "That wasn't part of the deal!!"
micro$oft "I am altering the deal, pray I don't alter it any further!! Or... (pause) do you think you are being treated unfairly?"
coder (visibly gulps in fear) "No, not at all."
But hey folks, it happened when they were partnered with Novell, and then stabbed those folks in the back, they did it to IBM, they slowed the adoption of Java to the point where the much nastier activeX took over (but Sun keeps kissing their ass)...
Pretty much every company that ties themselves in with Microsoft gets raped out of everything they have tied into that project (Symantec, Network Associates and pretty much every antivirus and antispyware vendor now has their neck on the block, and M$ will swing the axe once they can do so... since antitrust lawsuits, even by the US gov't really don't mean squat (as we have all seen, even LOSING those lawsuits doesn't concern microsoft anymore))
Setup a router, keep its firmware updated (so it doesn't get bypassed the way Cisco PIX and Dlink 604's with original firmware do) and you are good to go. The bypasses are only a concern if your network is a point of attack for determined and resourceful hacker/cracker types. If those types are not a constant in your equation... then a router with firewall capability is perfect. So long as you're not providing a tunnel to port 1025 on your XP machine :) that would... suck.
Filtering various forms of traffic is quite important. One can bypass a simple port blocker given time, patience, and the right tools (or the skills to create the right tools).
Nmap is only one such tool I have had the pleasure of working with since before insecure.org was more than a little blackhat site known as Fyodor's Exploit World (heh... that was back in the early Windows 95 days for those of you stuck on that platform).
but the palm comment was still lewd and quite appropriate }:-)
A Windows XP computer, joined to a Windows 2003 domain with password auditing enabled will not allow you to share its terminal services ports 3389 or 3391 without having a password.
When you try to share it out, it "should" request that you set a pwd. Of course, knowing Windows, nothing Microsoft ever does is either stable, or of any relevant quality.
In the end, they and their greedy colleagues in the IT industry and business community just bully everyone else into accepting their way and selling their shit to the rest of the world.
when I still USED windows, I ran a few Nmap scans from my linux boxen. After 3 hours of comparing logs, I walked away disgusted. Even ZoneAlarm cannot come close to the way my linux rigs (and the bsd file server) kept Nmap's various scans at bay.
I didn't bother to fuck with the open RPC available during install phase... it was easy to understand... any system with a net connection and drivers that install during windows install... its all over folks. And ZoneAlarm, Windows Firewall, and most other "free windows firewall" "products" didn't stop the nmap scan from detecting the open RPC.... one can only imagine how easy that system would've been to hack if I hadn't wiped it and reinstalled it.
It now comfortably houses a linux distro and nmap replies mostly with "all ports on this machine are in the following state: filtered" (I won't give you the verbose logs as that would be telling).
I went to PalmOne.com (Palm Pilot site!! you know... the portable device?) and guess what? IE got whacked by a doubleclick add on their site. An hour or two later, I ran an adaware SE scan, and wouldn't you know it... spyware, and not just cookies either.
This was roughly 2 months ago, while searching for PDA driver updates. Friend's XP Home PC, she had issues with her Palm III and lost her CD.
That's why I carry a Knoppix cd in the car now. (right next to a few other distros I toy around with, Inside Linux comes to mind).
~DaedalusHKX
Spyware is given by browsing sites or trojan / downloading virus type programs.
However, worms are what gets reinfected within 4 to5 minutes on an empty connection (or a SP2 firewalled one, since SP2 firewall is even worse than Black Ice Defender).
WORMS however, are gotten via the net. Unfortunately for most users, not everyone has a home router with a firewall (or even without). Most people plug their computer into their cablemodem.
Instant worm infection follows shortly.
As of late last year, Dell no longer includes MS cds. They include a recovery partition. If the virus or whatnot deletes files from there... you are sure proper fucked.
Just to let you know.
I recall people being charged anywhere from 100 to 300 bucks for the bench time. Sometimes more when any of our techs (or a whole team) had to go remove a virus or the like from an entire network. Oh the joys of overcharging people because they couldn't be bothered to learn to use Linux or BSD.
All they wanted to do was download files, read websites, read email, watch dvds, perhaps listen to MP3's or a CD or play solitaire at the office, etc... stuff we as geeks, take as trivial.
They needed to compose documents or spreadsheets or use trivial financial software without paying hundreds for quickbooks, peachtree or microsoft's "great pains accounting". (which isn't even Microsoft's own "innovation" as I recall).
I can do all of these things on the measly 450 mhz PII sitting in the corner. And it never gets spyware. But it runs Linux, and my semi computer illiterate father uses it more than I ever will. (its faster than their WinXP Home Emachines with double the ram and 4 times the HD space and processing cycles.) And it never gets spyware or cries that they need to buy a new version of this or that to keep the system clean. Oh... and it cost me... well... nothing. It was built from leftovers from my 1990's college 'puter.
True yes, but that doesn't mean that other services cannot be exploited in such a manner. I recall walking into a server room where the admin pwd was indeed blank. I was authorized to be there, but it didn't really make much difference, the door was NEVER locked (against company policy for those people). Yep, it was a public facility without even any physical security other than 2 renta cops and 4 cameras (main entrances, this being an educational facility) Oh wait... did I mention that this facility's network had access to the entire Novell and Windows network of the local city government?? Yeah I forgot to mention that part.
Imagine how easy it would've been to install some backdoor or rootkit, as the admin. It would've been THAT poor chap's fault. Simple steps that can prevent a system being rooted are rarely taken. I ended up nearly getting sacked for bringing it up, since "it was not my job to be looking in places where my job description didn't tell me to go". At least the place is a little less hackable now.
This has to do with Linux getting to the mainstream... people are using lame passwords and leaving unnecessary services with weak passwords open to the public. (Hey, if you'd know how many people **I** alone know that use "password" or "god" or "mom" as their root (*nix/bsd) or admin (windows) passwords. (Or, funnier still, the ones who leave it blank for ease of use.)
Do people on slashdot NOT know what a brute force / dictionary / wordlist attack is??? It is an attempt to connect to a service, using a random or scripted password and username generator or a list of commonly used ones (root and administrator on various systems obviously comes to mind.)
Most people use SSH without redirecting it through a trusted tunnelling protocol or connection. There are many ways to secure even the most trivial home network.
A word to the wise... instead of clicking okay and next mindlessly when installing your OS, start making a practice of READING the warnings and learning something... it should keep the brown fat cells from drowning out your otherwise idle brain as you get older. (IANAMS - I am not a med student, but so I've heard)
-DaedalusHKX
Most unix based OS's have, years ago, patched the "new" flaws that M$ heroically pats itself on the back for patching or trying to patch today within their oh so popular piece of crap... (jpg and png library holes come to recent memory... redhat (which is traditionally LATE with their patches had those patched 3.5 and 2 years ago, respectively) but hey... why not bash Linux when your favorite $299.99 off the shelf piece of crap OS gets rooted (or is that just plain pwned?)
Its actually gamer geeks fault for getting our parents hooked on windows so we could get them to pay for a 386 with 8 megs in 1991 to play Doom on... and that comes from personal memory of my childhood... my parents didn't give a rats ass about which OS they used since they would ask me of my friends (at the time) about what to do next.
Too bad, since we could've been making more productive use of our time with a linux kernel, hacking away at that code, instead of trying to do workarounds of the buggy and expensive windows OS to try to build our network security tools and the like. Otherwise we wait years for M$ to patch things... Anyone remember the good ole Winnuke? Port 139? M$ issued a "security" patch... namely a port blocker, which was promptly circumvented the same day by roughly every hacker that ever wrote a network penetration tool.
Check out the fine usage of RPC in Windows 2000 and XP now... Microsoft makes a practice of making things insecure by default.
Remote desktop is used by a LOT of IT companies that base their entire business models around selling people Windows and then charging them to constantly "repair" damage done by those "ev1l h@x0rs" or what not (and they NEVER blame Microsoft's own lousy code and business practices for all their bad name and rep).
Those same IT people use Remote Desktop for windows to loginto various Server 2003 installs and then only charge for the time spent working (or peeing with the remote desktop logged onto) thus "saving" the time to drive to a site. Most lusers are usually too low on IQ to be able to comprehend most "type this" or "click that" instructions, so telephone support is always a living hell for those who engage in it. (Or perhaps they simply choose not to care about their computers, the same way they forget to change the oil in their cars and their engines shoot up in smoke.)
But anyways, it's always those haxors... yep. Never put the blame on shitty expensive business models designed to enrich only the support and vendor companies. (The users just get shafted into buying MORE shit that STILL sucks to patch the shit that doesn't "just work".)
For the record, I avoid using VNC, but I do like remote login features of KDM and GDM (or XDM). Link them up with SSH or Webmin/SSL/TLS and life is simple over a LAN or the internet.
In fact, this particular reply is written from a GDM (Gnome) remote login to my app server on the LAN. It is by no means slower than Windows 2003 Terminal Services was when I used it, and this machine is significantly cheaper (single CPU, AMD Athlon 1400mhz as opposed to the dual 2.4 ghz xeons at my last IT job.)) Hint, the app server also doubles as a private email server, ftpd, httpd, IRC and occasionally as a print server. Did I also mention that it runs Postgre AND Mysql without a hitch? on less than 1 GB of ram? Try THAT with microsoft's SeQueL (SQueaL?)... but as I recall, using less than 1.0 GB expressly for a M$ SQL server, ends up being a frustrating exercise in inadequacy for the foolish IT guy doing it.
~ DaedalusHKX
PS - I personally have made a practice of shelling out cash, hardware or code to OSS projects, Debian, Gentoo, OpenBSD, etc... at least this way I help people, organizations and movements that help me.
Quite amusing when someone runs cables poorly or yanks on well terminated cables until the wires pull loose (long hundred foot runs).
Well, unless they are my runs... then I'm usually quite visibly embarassed, as I have occasionally done late night work, and screwed one or two up. Its fun to laugh about years later, but as a teenager first learning... boy did it hurt.
---GAMING---
/boot and added his new kernel to his GRUB conf. Since then, he runs WoW at nearly 10 frames per second MORE than he did in windows, under Gnome in Gentoo linux through Cedega (the project formerly known was WineX). Cedega costs roughly $5.00/month and is a well worthy cost to pay to keep windows off our gaming desktops (also since linux and unix are fire and forget systems, its difficult to keep modifying settings without keeping a gaming system on hand... we get complacent otherwise)... his resolution, by the way, was 1280x1024 in 32 bit color. The linux drivers significantly outperformed the windows drivers in every resolution and color depth we tried.
Trust me, its not the driver support...
I settled a debt with my brother by giving him a Radeon 9800 Pro. He placed this card within his Gentoo Linux 5.0 machine (dual AMD processors with more than enough juice to make the videocard the bottleneck).
He wanted it to run World of Warcraft (windows version). After recompiling his kernel by adding AGP GART support and typing MAKE and hitting enter on his keyboard... he copied the kernel to his
Cedega supports pretty much EVERY popular game, and if there is tweaking to be done, I recall my bro and I have both gladly submitted our fixes back to the community. (I must confess that I have far less patience than he does when it comes to tweaking gaming drivers, though this is probably due to my having become jaded by doing windows support for quite sometime).
---SOFTWARE INSTALLS---
Linux OS's are capable of extremely good performance and data throughput when compared to that kludge we call Windows. OS X has already proven what a unix type OS can do, Linux is merely a mixture of many voluntary and paid efforts all leading to the fine american passtime (filling your shopping basket).
Only a twit would claim that the Linux distros don't come with software to install. Short of choosing a distro because of the packaging system... non server distros offer plenty of software and the installs are relatively easy to do. Its all about knowing how NOT to screw up your system, which users, in general, take for granted. Drivers do too, and they pay dearly by dying or going to jail for DUI...
In computing, this is simply not the case (though it would make life easier if it were, harsh but true).
---OFFICE STUFF---
Fedora with Gnome or KDE and Evolution/Koffice or Evolution/Openoffice2 is simply more than enough for most people's office needs.
Even when presented with Access (for which Open Office 2 has an alternative database program), most of my past users still used a spreadsheet, whether that is Excel or Quatro or Gnumeric or OOffice, it doesn't really matter... most people just need a spreadsheet... and mailmerge often has as many shortcomings as those it claims to cure (I even ran into a user that a company I was with moved from Word Perfect to Office XP, and since then he complained non stop that he couldn't do the same things he needed to with mailmerge in word xp) However the company I was with told him to basically piss off... needless to say, I was the one who heard HIS side of the story, each time he called... and pissed off he was.
---"great" Windows IT Support---
Speaking of support... and Windows being "better"... I've worked in IT, and I QUIT that job because I was tired of dealing with the same lies day in and out. "Windows is higher performance and more secure, IE is better, more secure, AND faster than Firefox and Opera... etc"
It was ME that had to explain to users why their antivirus was a day late on the latest worm or virus that ripped through their Service Pack 2 firewall, or why they never surfed any porn and yet still got spyware from PalmOne.com (yep, palm site had spyware on it)...
I saw the same contempt towards users from windows support folks as I did from Linuxites. Support people become jaded to stupidity... but stupidity is the only thing that keeps the
No, I have the same issue, and I've worked for a microsoft partner recently. They do way too much PR and lie entirely too much. I hate M$ and their lies with a passion, even if, beforehand, I had thought people were unjustly hateful of microsoft. Now I know why, firsthand.
And no, you did not misread my statement. I "hate" them. Passionately. And I feel entirely justified. If you dealt with some of the internal mail I've dealt with, any of you with a conscience would never get another hour of sleep. I am fortunate my conscience was on hold for a few months before I woke up and made up my mind to leave that place. What disgusts me more than anything is the way they tell people that IE, or exchange or server 2003 is such a pearl. Heh. Oh yes... it *really* cuts down on the costs. Right. I've sent some hefty bills out in recent months. I cannot read those "lower TCO" "facts" any longer without feeling my stomach tighten painfully. I've seen that "lower TCO". Unless someone does work outside of billable hours, Windows and Microsoft cannot stand on their own. If one reads the content of their filings in the antitrust case they've somehow been acquitted of, one can see that they never could. (I am too lazy to seek out the links, but I've read through it all once before to "disprove" to a customer that MS had lied in court.)