Get patches here & burn them to cd. May seem a bit obvious, but lots of folks don't know where to get patches for Windows except from microsoft.com, which (unless it's changed recently) you can't make backups of.
Maybe Mac and Linux folks are laughing like crazed loons after reading this "heroic" article.
Yes, we are. Seriously though, phishing is growing into a problem for *nix-users these days, and so far as I know, the only state in the US in which phishing is illegal is California (I might be wrong there, though). You'd think "well, they should be smarter" but the phishers can be very clever, such as sending you an email that looks for all the world like it's from your ISP. (Yes, I was smart enough to check with my ISP before clicking that link, but I'm not gonna blame the people who didn't think of that. After all, if looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.....) So no matter what OS you're using, you should be paranoid.
How to solve the spyware problem on Windows? Well, Peer Guardian can help block tons of it. Besides anti-p2p, it has a spyware list and uses little memory to run in the background. It also updates itself automatically unless that is disabled. And you can keep only the spyware list checked to block, nothing else, if you want.
Another thing that can help is a router. I worked on a guy's computer that was loaded with spyware and had a few viruses to boot. He had a software firewall, Kerio I think, plus Avast antivrus and ran Ad-Aware twice a week. So why was he still getting all this crap? His ISP. They had no filters whatsoever. Their servers were set to allow anything to come through. Combined with an older computer with 128 mb RAM plus a fast DSL connection and it literally just couldn't keep up with all the malware pouring through from his ISP's servers. So he got a router and poof! After a fresh reinstall of Windows along with Avast, Ad-Aware, Spybot and PG his computer ran fine. But still.... from a *nix-users point of view, it seems ridiculous to have to spend so much money and effort just for basic protection that a more secure OS automatically provides.
But spyware is always going to be a problem on Windows because of MS's bad security model. If they fixed it so remote users can't install, run or modify anything on your computer without your express permission, it would go a long way towards fighting spyware and a lot of viruses - I know from experience that you don't need to download or click anything to get spyware or a virus, many download themselves straight to your computer. And Windows just lets them do anything it wants. This ability for a remote user to modify your system without needing permission is called a FEATURE by Microsoft, as demonstrated by Active X and the recently-patched.wmf vulnerability. People say "well if these *nix OSes were as widespread in use as Windows they'd have all the same problems", but if that were true, where are all the Unix viruses? If MS changed Windows so that it requires an admin to password to modify the registry, install anything, or for a remote user to run anything on your comptuer you'd see a marked improvement right away.
Dude - it is sad. What's sadder is people like you who say it isn't sad, it's all about what's "good for the orporation" and actual human beings don't matter. Oh, by the way, chances are good a loved one of yours may die of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. But it's not sad, it's just a fact of life. Get over it and find new loved ones.
One thing that could be done is to reduce the ridicuoulsy large salaries the upper executives receive. Not only could they afford to keep more workers but they'd show more profit for the stockholders as well. But that never happens, of course. It's a mortal sin if an executive can't afford a new boat and fancy car whenever the whim hits him.
Interesting that someone should bring up the Beatles. When they first started out they sang the innocuous songs their record labal wanted them to, e.g., "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". When they got so popular they used their new-found power to sing the songs they wanted to, e.g,. "Taxman". None of the modern pop stars are doing that today though - as long as they get rich, they don't care. Music is just a product to sell. But the Beatles were already rich when they started writing the songs and making the music that meant something.
That's why modern music is crap. I wish these people would follow their hearts and become used car salesmen or telemarketers instead of pretending to be musicians. They needn't worry about me pirating their music; if it's just a product to sell, they can keep it.
"Men seem to do more dangerous things because they are more likely to survive the 'dangerous' activity. "
Uh-huh. Where is the study that shows that women who do take up dangerous activity die or are injured more often pursuing said activity than men? I've been a woman for almost 35 years and this is the first time I've heard that it would be more dangerous for me to go skydiving than a man.
"I think it would be really genius to be able to have an OS that runs on anything."
Try suggesting that to Jobs at the Mac get-together. This is Apple we're talking about. Vendor lock-in is part of the game; you have to buy the OS and the hardware from them, including even peripherals like scanners and printers, unless the manufacturer specifically made them Mac-friendly, and most don't. They didn't make it that way for no reason.
Kidding aside, that's exactly what happened to the dodo bird. The hunters considered them stupid for being unafraid, hence calling a stupid person a "dodo".
Public domain works are being DRMed by online ebook vendors. A copy of Poe's works, downloaded from an online ebook store bore the following notice as well: "NOTICE: This ebook is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution to any person via email, floppy disk, network, print out, or any other means is a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines and/or imprisonment. This notice overrides the Adobe Reader permissions which are erroneous. This book cannot be legally lent or given to others. " So apparenlty, you can not only DRM ebooks that should be public domain, but you can also claim a copyright on them too.
Whether or not he got out of the army with a "gay" lie, I don't know, I wasn't born yet. It really was a different time, when the US was drafting kids left and right, who had no right to vote, to send them to kill or die. Note the difference between then and now: the draft is gone (it could possibly come back, don't forget that), and Nixon signed the law that made it legal for 18-year-olds to vote. People who scorn draft-dodgers from that time tend to forget these two facts. Some considered it a form of slavery, to be forced to fight in a war you didn't agree with, as ordered by a president you didn't have the right to vote for or against.
All that aside, Hendrix was well-known as a total hound for the groupies when he was a star. On a lighter note, he did, at one concert, deliberately say "this guy" as a joke. That much I do know for certain, as I have a recorded copy (legally obtained years ago, I might add) of him saying it and laughing.
Why the hell are people debating on things like his sexual orientation and army record thirty-five years after his death?! Again, I don't know, but I have the music he left behind, and that tells me all I need to know about him. And yes, I'm a total Hendrix-obssessed, pathetic wannabe guitaritst. So isn't it bad that I'm saying none of that matters?
And, this may be redundant, but why is the RIAA or whoever trying to get rid of lyrics sites? Are they stupid? Oh wait, yes they are. Stupid of me to ask that, since knowing the lyrics often increases interest in the song rahter than decreases it. That should be frigging obvious. Dumb dumb dumb. If there are any intelligent musicians left out there - might be hard to find any, after the recording industry's brain-washing - they'd want someone, anyone, else to promote them rather than any of the idiotic music labels involved with this crap.
I was born in the US, am 25 years old and have never been outside the borders of the US. And I agree with you. Sad, isn't it? I watched the SK vs. MS development as an interested bystander; I never presumed I had the right to tell the South Koreans now to run their nation. Nor do I think my government does.
You say that as if it were a bad thing.... People doing good for others for altruistic purposes rather than profit?! How horible! I dunno, maybe those who seek to reap the benefits of such patents might have to work for a living like everyone else if that were to happen. That would be a terrible, terrible thing.
I definitely applaud this move. Patenting something that's been a known remedy for years - if not centuries, even - in India is like me patenting chamomile tea for soothing upset stomachs. Ridiculous, but is is happening, and I can see why they'd want to prevent any more of it from happening.
For folks who don't want to or can't afford a new a Mac, nor want to install a new OS on their PCs, they can run Knoppix (no link, google it yourself). Using a browser and IMing is pretty easy to figure out, about the same as on any OS. If you have Windows, keep it off the internet, use it just for those Windows-needy apps. So that's my advice if you've got friends & relatives who are troublesome that way and you can't afford a Mac.
All deriding newbies aside, I remember when I first got a comp. Everything about the itnernet was the easiest part to figure out, which is why we've got so many computer-illiterate uers online. Educating them helps, but they need to want to learn, and all too mnay that I know personally don't care enough to. But there are those who do want to learn, so it's not helping by treating them all as "lusers".
Man, what year are you living in? That's what what's they've been doing for years! Welcome to 2005 (soon to be 2006).
On a more serious note, I remember the original Playstations doing the same thing and Sony got away with it. As far they were concerned, none of the original Playstations had any problems whatsoever. Sony never did "address" the problem but fixed it with future versions - which means if you'd bought one of the versions that did overheat and the store told you to just contact Sony, you were screwed. How has MS been doing about fixing these defective xboxes? Umm..... yeah. Same shit, different day.
Most spyware downloads itself into your OS through the internet and installs itself without you even knowing it. Dude, if you think you have to click an "OK" to get spyware then your comp must be loaded with the crap.
People should learn something about Windows if they're going to use it - you'd be shocked at how changes can be made to the operating system without the user's consent or knowledge. Every version since 3.1 has been designed like that on purpose. Yes, on purpose.
Anybody using Widnows is fair game on the net and the people who code this shit know that there are many, many people like you who think they're safe as long as they don't click things or go to certtain sites. The people who make this stuff love you guys, btw. It doesn't work that way, buddy - when you're connected to the net you're connected to millions of other machines, and anybody whose sending out packets of data can send them to thousands or millions of other computers without directly connecting to them or sending them a pop-up message that reads "click here to speed up your computer!". And, yes, Windows just lets them install this on your computer by default; it doesn't matter what site you're on or what, if they're sending, you're receiving it. A decent firewall prevents a lot of that, but doesn't prevent spyware. Why not? Firewalls are only designed to block certain types port connections and type sof data packets, which dont' involve psyware. And firewall-makers will tell you that it's the user's responsibility to prevent spyware by using a decent anti-spyware program.
A good way to prevent spyware? Run peerguardian and make sure you've got the spyware list checked, even if you don't want or need to block anti-p2p or goverment ip ranges. I was very careful for over three years, but I still got an spyware. I now have ad-aware and spybot and use them weekly, but I rarely every find anything since I've been running peerguardian everyday, whereas before I found two or three pieces of spyare every time I scanned, no matter how careful I was.
Ignorance about this stuf fisn't bliss; it's part of the problem.
No, no, no, these critters were laying eggs even before they evolved to be bird-like. The egg came first. Don't listen to what chickens tell you, they try to take credit for everything.
I think that's exactly why they withdrew. If it was struck down they wouldn't be allowed to do a more sublte version of the same thing in the future. They decided it wasn't worth the risk - until the Supreme Court makes a decisive ruling on this matter, which doens't seem likely in the near future, corps like Sony can keep DRMing their stuff as much as they want, no matter how much it violates fair use.
The "somebody else did it" defense is common. But, what proof has been presented to support it?
Ok, let's talk proof. They have logs they made on a p2p network. I can alter the logs from my own firewall EASILY and make it look like the RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft and the US government tried to hack into my computer at the same time. Yes, I know how to do that. Logs can be faked. Many of the folks working for the RIAA know how to do this, wouldn't you think? Not a big leap from knowing how to record the logs in the first place, just as it's not a big leap from knowing how to check my firewall logs to easily figuring out how to fake logged attacks (which I never have). So if they're not making their quota for the day they can see an ip address on a P2P network (most clients will let you do that if you know how to use them) and log it as downloading their crap. I can't say I'm particularly stunned when that's their proof.
You're saying she needs to prove she didn't do it. Where's their proof that she did? Why assume that it's true just because they say so? The only thing that's been proven here is how desperate they are to make an example of somebody by destroying that person's life. That does not make them trustowrthy. Why do you think they're being honest? I sure as hell don't. If a person who works for the RIAA were to walk past me and I knew what they do, I'd check my purse.
They only want their customers to be happier with their products than with the competition (which is often another of their products or an earlier version of the same one).
Yes and no. Basically this is true, but MS's history doesn't speak very well about them being interested in making their customers happy. They're interested in the money, nothing more. If they were interested in doing even just enough to make their customers happy, then why would they need to constantly try to enforce their monopoly status to drive out any and all compettition? If their customers were happy with their products this wouldn't be necesary, but the vast majority of their customers are unhappy with their products to some degree. Even those ignorant of the alternatives, even alternative software that works on Windows like Firefox, make jokes all the time about how unstable and bad computers are, not realizing that the problem lies with Windows, not the computer itself.
There are others who rise up in MS's defense of course who are in the same category as the above. But when you examine their praises of Widnows, of everything Windows allows them to do and how having it changed hteir lives for the better, what they're talking about applies on every OS, such as internet, photo manipulation, music-editing, etc.
I think ignorance of of the alternatives (not to mention pure laziness on many users' parts) is the real problem. Sure, there are some apps that won't run on anything but Windows. But there are more that will run with, say, Crossover or Cedega. And MS exploits this ignorance for all they can, because they know that more widespread knowledge of the alternatives will damage their income badly. This is their main tactic; just doing enough to keep their custoemrs happy is apparently much lower on the list, because they don't even do that.
It should be, but it isn't. Almost all of the drivers for PC hardware for any other operating system were coded by others, not those working for the manufacturers themselves (although I've heard that a few these guys coded such drivers outside of company time, but this is a rare thing). Hardware compatibility is still a major hurdle for all other PC OSes; not just because of that, but because the companies themselves will not give out enough info on the specs of the hardware. So much of the time, someone coding a driver has to figure it's specs by observing it and making gueses.
It's late, I'm tired, so this might be redundant, I dunno....
As I've posted before, there are far more free "little" games for Linux than WIndows. And I'm not talking crap games, I mean good games; arcade, puzzlers, shooters, etc. Games that would be $15-$20+ shareware on Windows are free on Linux. But - there aren't a lot of big games for Linux. So for those you will need cedega, but cedega works fine with a LOT of Windows games. In the end, there might be a few games you like that you can't play on Linux, but there will be many more that work great. Plus if you and/or a family member are more into the little games, they'll appreciate having all those kinds of games they can download for free.
Now, some distros don't come with a lot of games built in (though they still beat the hell out of the 4 piddling games Windows comes with), you can find quite a few more with a search engine. No, the install isn't as simple as one-click and up comes the Wizard, but they're rarely difficult to install. I was still a total newbie and I easily installed several games by just following the instructions. If you have problems, do another search for message boards about Linux in general and your distro in particular. That's part of what they're there for.
Slashdot Mirror
Get patches here & burn them to cd. May seem a bit obvious, but lots of folks don't know where to get patches for Windows except from microsoft.com, which (unless it's changed recently) you can't make backups of.
Maybe Mac and Linux folks are laughing like crazed loons after reading this "heroic" article.
Yes, we are. Seriously though, phishing is growing into a problem for *nix-users these days, and so far as I know, the only state in the US in which phishing is illegal is California (I might be wrong there, though). You'd think "well, they should be smarter" but the phishers can be very clever, such as sending you an email that looks for all the world like it's from your ISP. (Yes, I was smart enough to check with my ISP before clicking that link, but I'm not gonna blame the people who didn't think of that. After all, if looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.....) So no matter what OS you're using, you should be paranoid.
How to solve the spyware problem on Windows? Well, Peer Guardian can help block tons of it. Besides anti-p2p, it has a spyware list and uses little memory to run in the background. It also updates itself automatically unless that is disabled. And you can keep only the spyware list checked to block, nothing else, if you want.
Another thing that can help is a router. I worked on a guy's computer that was loaded with spyware and had a few viruses to boot. He had a software firewall, Kerio I think, plus Avast antivrus and ran Ad-Aware twice a week. So why was he still getting all this crap? His ISP. They had no filters whatsoever. Their servers were set to allow anything to come through. Combined with an older computer with 128 mb RAM plus a fast DSL connection and it literally just couldn't keep up with all the malware pouring through from his ISP's servers. So he got a router and poof! After a fresh reinstall of Windows along with Avast, Ad-Aware, Spybot and PG his computer ran fine. But still.... from a *nix-users point of view, it seems ridiculous to have to spend so much money and effort just for basic protection that a more secure OS automatically provides.
But spyware is always going to be a problem on Windows because of MS's bad security model. If they fixed it so remote users can't install, run or modify anything on your computer without your express permission, it would go a long way towards fighting spyware and a lot of viruses - I know from experience that you don't need to download or click anything to get spyware or a virus, many download themselves straight to your computer. And Windows just lets them do anything it wants. This ability for a remote user to modify your system without needing permission is called a FEATURE by Microsoft, as demonstrated by Active X and the recently-patched .wmf vulnerability. People say "well if these *nix OSes were as widespread in use as Windows they'd have all the same problems", but if that were true, where are all the Unix viruses? If MS changed Windows so that it requires an admin to password to modify the registry, install anything, or for a remote user to run anything on your comptuer you'd see a marked improvement right away.
How will that help? No matter what size your penis is, they'll just send you (more) penis-enlargement spam.
Dude - it is sad. What's sadder is people like you who say it isn't sad, it's all about what's "good for the orporation" and actual human beings don't matter. Oh, by the way, chances are good a loved one of yours may die of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. But it's not sad, it's just a fact of life. Get over it and find new loved ones.
One thing that could be done is to reduce the ridicuoulsy large salaries the upper executives receive. Not only could they afford to keep more workers but they'd show more profit for the stockholders as well. But that never happens, of course. It's a mortal sin if an executive can't afford a new boat and fancy car whenever the whim hits him.
BANG!
(I think so too.)
Interesting that someone should bring up the Beatles. When they first started out they sang the innocuous songs their record labal wanted them to, e.g., "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". When they got so popular they used their new-found power to sing the songs they wanted to, e.g,. "Taxman". None of the modern pop stars are doing that today though - as long as they get rich, they don't care. Music is just a product to sell. But the Beatles were already rich when they started writing the songs and making the music that meant something.
That's why modern music is crap. I wish these people would follow their hearts and become used car salesmen or telemarketers instead of pretending to be musicians. They needn't worry about me pirating their music; if it's just a product to sell, they can keep it.
"Men seem to do more dangerous things because they are more likely to survive the 'dangerous' activity. "
Uh-huh. Where is the study that shows that women who do take up dangerous activity die or are injured more often pursuing said activity than men? I've been a woman for almost 35 years and this is the first time I've heard that it would be more dangerous for me to go skydiving than a man.
"I think it would be really genius to be able to have an OS that runs on anything." Try suggesting that to Jobs at the Mac get-together. This is Apple we're talking about. Vendor lock-in is part of the game; you have to buy the OS and the hardware from them, including even peripherals like scanners and printers, unless the manufacturer specifically made them Mac-friendly, and most don't. They didn't make it that way for no reason.
A white bear? That reference went completely over my head. Someone please explain for the ignorant like myself.
Kidding aside, that's exactly what happened to the dodo bird. The hunters considered them stupid for being unafraid, hence calling a stupid person a "dodo".
Public domain works are being DRMed by online ebook vendors. A copy of Poe's works, downloaded from an online ebook store bore the following notice as well: "NOTICE: This ebook is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution to any person via email, floppy disk, network, print out, or any other means is a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines and/or imprisonment. This notice overrides the Adobe Reader permissions which are erroneous. This book cannot be legally lent or given to others. " So apparenlty, you can not only DRM ebooks that should be public domain, but you can also claim a copyright on them too.
Whether or not he got out of the army with a "gay" lie, I don't know, I wasn't born yet. It really was a different time, when the US was drafting kids left and right, who had no right to vote, to send them to kill or die. Note the difference between then and now: the draft is gone (it could possibly come back, don't forget that), and Nixon signed the law that made it legal for 18-year-olds to vote. People who scorn draft-dodgers from that time tend to forget these two facts. Some considered it a form of slavery, to be forced to fight in a war you didn't agree with, as ordered by a president you didn't have the right to vote for or against.
All that aside, Hendrix was well-known as a total hound for the groupies when he was a star. On a lighter note, he did, at one concert, deliberately say "this guy" as a joke. That much I do know for certain, as I have a recorded copy (legally obtained years ago, I might add) of him saying it and laughing.
Why the hell are people debating on things like his sexual orientation and army record thirty-five years after his death?! Again, I don't know, but I have the music he left behind, and that tells me all I need to know about him. And yes, I'm a total Hendrix-obssessed, pathetic wannabe guitaritst. So isn't it bad that I'm saying none of that matters?
And, this may be redundant, but why is the RIAA or whoever trying to get rid of lyrics sites? Are they stupid? Oh wait, yes they are. Stupid of me to ask that, since knowing the lyrics often increases interest in the song rahter than decreases it. That should be frigging obvious. Dumb dumb dumb. If there are any intelligent musicians left out there - might be hard to find any, after the recording industry's brain-washing - they'd want someone, anyone, else to promote them rather than any of the idiotic music labels involved with this crap.
I was born in the US, am 25 years old and have never been outside the borders of the US. And I agree with you. Sad, isn't it? I watched the SK vs. MS development as an interested bystander; I never presumed I had the right to tell the South Koreans now to run their nation. Nor do I think my government does.
I know I'm going to hell for this.
Give Bill Gates a kiss for all of us /.ers when you meet him down there.
J/K... sorta. But it is (sigh) true that they did do that first.
You say that as if it were a bad thing.... People doing good for others for altruistic purposes rather than profit?! How horible! I dunno, maybe those who seek to reap the benefits of such patents might have to work for a living like everyone else if that were to happen. That would be a terrible, terrible thing.
I definitely applaud this move. Patenting something that's been a known remedy for years - if not centuries, even - in India is like me patenting chamomile tea for soothing upset stomachs. Ridiculous, but is is happening, and I can see why they'd want to prevent any more of it from happening.
For folks who don't want to or can't afford a new a Mac, nor want to install a new OS on their PCs, they can run Knoppix (no link, google it yourself). Using a browser and IMing is pretty easy to figure out, about the same as on any OS. If you have Windows, keep it off the internet, use it just for those Windows-needy apps. So that's my advice if you've got friends & relatives who are troublesome that way and you can't afford a Mac.
All deriding newbies aside, I remember when I first got a comp. Everything about the itnernet was the easiest part to figure out, which is why we've got so many computer-illiterate uers online. Educating them helps, but they need to want to learn, and all too mnay that I know personally don't care enough to. But there are those who do want to learn, so it's not helping by treating them all as "lusers".
Man, what year are you living in? That's what what's they've been doing for years! Welcome to 2005 (soon to be 2006).
On a more serious note, I remember the original Playstations doing the same thing and Sony got away with it. As far they were concerned, none of the original Playstations had any problems whatsoever. Sony never did "address" the problem but fixed it with future versions - which means if you'd bought one of the versions that did overheat and the store told you to just contact Sony, you were screwed. How has MS been doing about fixing these defective xboxes? Umm..... yeah. Same shit, different day.
Most spyware downloads itself into your OS through the internet and installs itself without you even knowing it. Dude, if you think you have to click an "OK" to get spyware then your comp must be loaded with the crap.
People should learn something about Windows if they're going to use it - you'd be shocked at how changes can be made to the operating system without the user's consent or knowledge. Every version since 3.1 has been designed like that on purpose. Yes, on purpose.
Anybody using Widnows is fair game on the net and the people who code this shit know that there are many, many people like you who think they're safe as long as they don't click things or go to certtain sites. The people who make this stuff love you guys, btw. It doesn't work that way, buddy - when you're connected to the net you're connected to millions of other machines, and anybody whose sending out packets of data can send them to thousands or millions of other computers without directly connecting to them or sending them a pop-up message that reads "click here to speed up your computer!". And, yes, Windows just lets them install this on your computer by default; it doesn't matter what site you're on or what, if they're sending, you're receiving it. A decent firewall prevents a lot of that, but doesn't prevent spyware. Why not? Firewalls are only designed to block certain types port connections and type sof data packets, which dont' involve psyware. And firewall-makers will tell you that it's the user's responsibility to prevent spyware by using a decent anti-spyware program.
A good way to prevent spyware? Run peerguardian and make sure you've got the spyware list checked, even if you don't want or need to block anti-p2p or goverment ip ranges. I was very careful for over three years, but I still got an spyware. I now have ad-aware and spybot and use them weekly, but I rarely every find anything since I've been running peerguardian everyday, whereas before I found two or three pieces of spyare every time I scanned, no matter how careful I was.
Ignorance about this stuf fisn't bliss; it's part of the problem.
No, no, no, these critters were laying eggs even before they evolved to be bird-like. The egg came first. Don't listen to what chickens tell you, they try to take credit for everything.
I think that's exactly why they withdrew. If it was struck down they wouldn't be allowed to do a more sublte version of the same thing in the future. They decided it wasn't worth the risk - until the Supreme Court makes a decisive ruling on this matter, which doens't seem likely in the near future, corps like Sony can keep DRMing their stuff as much as they want, no matter how much it violates fair use.
The "somebody else did it" defense is common. But, what proof has been presented to support it?
Ok, let's talk proof. They have logs they made on a p2p network. I can alter the logs from my own firewall EASILY and make it look like the RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft and the US government tried to hack into my computer at the same time. Yes, I know how to do that. Logs can be faked. Many of the folks working for the RIAA know how to do this, wouldn't you think? Not a big leap from knowing how to record the logs in the first place, just as it's not a big leap from knowing how to check my firewall logs to easily figuring out how to fake logged attacks (which I never have). So if they're not making their quota for the day they can see an ip address on a P2P network (most clients will let you do that if you know how to use them) and log it as downloading their crap. I can't say I'm particularly stunned when that's their proof.
You're saying she needs to prove she didn't do it. Where's their proof that she did? Why assume that it's true just because they say so? The only thing that's been proven here is how desperate they are to make an example of somebody by destroying that person's life. That does not make them trustowrthy. Why do you think they're being honest? I sure as hell don't. If a person who works for the RIAA were to walk past me and I knew what they do, I'd check my purse.
They only want their customers to be happier with their products than with the competition (which is often another of their products or an earlier version of the same one).
Yes and no. Basically this is true, but MS's history doesn't speak very well about them being interested in making their customers happy. They're interested in the money, nothing more. If they were interested in doing even just enough to make their customers happy, then why would they need to constantly try to enforce their monopoly status to drive out any and all compettition? If their customers were happy with their products this wouldn't be necesary, but the vast majority of their customers are unhappy with their products to some degree. Even those ignorant of the alternatives, even alternative software that works on Windows like Firefox, make jokes all the time about how unstable and bad computers are, not realizing that the problem lies with Windows, not the computer itself.
There are others who rise up in MS's defense of course who are in the same category as the above. But when you examine their praises of Widnows, of everything Windows allows them to do and how having it changed hteir lives for the better, what they're talking about applies on every OS, such as internet, photo manipulation, music-editing, etc.
I think ignorance of of the alternatives (not to mention pure laziness on many users' parts) is the real problem. Sure, there are some apps that won't run on anything but Windows. But there are more that will run with, say, Crossover or Cedega. And MS exploits this ignorance for all they can, because they know that more widespread knowledge of the alternatives will damage their income badly. This is their main tactic; just doing enough to keep their custoemrs happy is apparently much lower on the list, because they don't even do that.
It should be, but it isn't. Almost all of the drivers for PC hardware for any other operating system were coded by others, not those working for the manufacturers themselves (although I've heard that a few these guys coded such drivers outside of company time, but this is a rare thing). Hardware compatibility is still a major hurdle for all other PC OSes; not just because of that, but because the companies themselves will not give out enough info on the specs of the hardware. So much of the time, someone coding a driver has to figure it's specs by observing it and making gueses.
It's late, I'm tired, so this might be redundant, I dunno....
As I've posted before, there are far more free "little" games for Linux than WIndows. And I'm not talking crap games, I mean good games; arcade, puzzlers, shooters, etc. Games that would be $15-$20+ shareware on Windows are free on Linux. But - there aren't a lot of big games for Linux. So for those you will need cedega, but cedega works fine with a LOT of Windows games. In the end, there might be a few games you like that you can't play on Linux, but there will be many more that work great. Plus if you and/or a family member are more into the little games, they'll appreciate having all those kinds of games they can download for free.
Now, some distros don't come with a lot of games built in (though they still beat the hell out of the 4 piddling games Windows comes with), you can find quite a few more with a search engine. No, the install isn't as simple as one-click and up comes the Wizard, but they're rarely difficult to install. I was still a total newbie and I easily installed several games by just following the instructions. If you have problems, do another search for message boards about Linux in general and your distro in particular. That's part of what they're there for.