Unfortunately, ignorance is quickly developing into something much worse.
Willful ignorance.
I encounter people every day who actively refuse to learn anything that takes more than 3 seconds to comprehend.
I won't judge you for the things you never had the chance to learn, but that changes the minute you choose not to think about something.
As for the original discussion, I sincerely hope that society will never reach the point where "it doesn't matter".
That said, hope and belief are two different things.
Grammar is being largely ignored by the masses.
I don't see this changing anytime soon. Like so many things, there is a self-reinforcing feedback loop.
People don't use grammar, so more and more people can "function" without having to learn it.
Conversational Logic and formal debate are also completely ignored by the masses.
That doesn't make them important and useful tools.
Current cars can easily maintain 90mph+ on almost the entire length of interstate 10, yet many areas have the speed limit set to 55.
There are several perfectly straight, 4 lane state highways where I live with 45mph average speed limits, and some towns force traffic down to 15mph.
None of this is necessary, it's done simply to increase revenue from speeding tickets.
With automated cars, the arguments they use to justify these ridiculously low limits won't apply, and if my car automatically slowed down anyway, I wouldn't have to worry about getting pegged by speed traps. (thus destroying that revenue stream completely, and removing the motivation for the low limits.)
Now that you're done ranting about the first paragraph, go read the rest of my post.
The discussion is about whether or not 1 pirate == 1 lost sale.
The only connection piracy has to lost sales is that the media wants there to be.
You're a perfect example. You won't pay money to watch it, and will wait until it's available via free channels.
Either way the MPAA is losing profits.
They probably count you as a sale "lost to piracy" even if you never download anything.
Thanks to the internet, most people usually decide right after opening night (or sooner, thanks to pre-showings) whether the movie is worth paying to go see.
I came to the rough conclusion that if the movie was that bad, a significant percentage of veiwers will probably just give it a pass or wait till it's available from netflix/$1 rental/borrowing from a friend.
Group B more than most, as rabid fans who are willing to watch a low quality bootleg just to see the movie early are more likely to refuse to pay to see it on principle.
From the wikipedia page:
Discotek Media announced on March 12, 2012 that they had licensed the home video rights to the series and plans on releasing both the American series, as well as the Japanese series with English subtitles on separate releases
Send me a message(check my profile), I know a Chinese distributor who took the US release audio and mixed it with the official japanese video.
He won't sell it, but he will include it with orders for the official Japanese disks.
I'm going to use the anime market in the US as an example here.
After the original japanese release, most anime franchises are not distributed in the US until there is already a large fan base.
How do you have fans for a show that isn't even available? Piracy.
How many of these pirates would have bought the dvd if there were no pirated copies being handed out? ZERO, because they would never have known the product exists.
How many millions of dollars do you think companies like adv, cartoon network, etc made because of the pirate anime market?
At the same time, around 100,000 people have watched a crappy download of the avengers instead of paying to see it in the theater.
Have you ever watched a theater rip? It's painful.
People don't watch camera rips because they would rather save the cost of admission. They watch them because
a) they CAN"T afford the cost of admission,
b) they want to see it before opening night,
c) they downloaded it because they were bored and wanted something to distract them for an hour.
Group A is not a lost sale.(they have no money)
Group B is not a lost sale. (they also saw the movie in the theater)
Group C is not a lost sale. (they would have just turned on the TV instead)
Now, dvd quality rips are another story. There are people who just download the movie instead of buying it.
However, there are also a lot of other groups of people who are labeled "pirates"..
a) People already own the movie but don't feel like ripping and transcoding it by hand ( like my blue ray collection )
b) People who have the dvd but just got a new 1080p mega-tv and think the higher quality is neat.
c) People who live in places where you can't buy the movie.
d) People who contribute screenshots to sites like imdb and tvtropes
e) People who don't have access to TV, but have family with internet and a cheap hard drive. (rural areas, mountain regions)
f) People who work odd hours and can't afford a dvr+digital cable for delayed viewing.
All of these groups are downloads that would not have equated to a sale.
a) already bought it
b) don't think the extra 300 pixels is worth an extra $20
c) don't have an option to buy
d) can't afford to spend $20 on every movie they edit
e) can't buy a show that isn't on disk. (samurai pizza cats)
f) Can't afford the hardware, can't afford to change schedule, can't buy the disks until it's out.
Taking or forcing access to something without permission is trespassing, not theft. ( hence the computer trespass laws )
Stealing is the removal of property without permission.
Making a copy of something is not stealing it, as no property is removed.
Pirating may be wrong or illegal, but it's not stealing.
And no, pirates are not "stealing the profit from the lost sales".
Just because the pirate felt that a movie was worth clicking a mouse button, doesn't mean that it would have been worth $20 if the mouse clicking was not an option.
I think you are missing the forest for the trees, so lets take this down a level.
I agree that words are not in and of themselves offensive.
This is a fact, just like a firearm is a tool, words are tools to convey meaning.
However, just like with any other tool, the context is what will define how people will react.
With a gun, context can be "the belt of a police officer", or the hand of some random guy on the street.
However, taken out of context a firearm will make most people nervous. (Why is there a gun on the coffee table?)
The same thing is true with words.
The issue is that an average American/UK citizen who sees or hears the word "Gimp" out of context is NOT going to think about an image editor.
Additionally, as I said elsewhere in this thread, even if the word is used in context it can cause issues with legal liability.
( Whether this is a stupid fact is irrelevant, in both the US and the UK "sexual harassment" is a very flexible definition, and the word GIMP has a sexual meaning available for misinterpretation. )
So PLEASE, stop trying to argue that the default context of the word is not offensive.
Just like Nigger, bitch, or midget, if you yelled it in a crowded area people would assume that you meant the meaning they are familiar with.
If you don't believe me, go perform this test.
1) Go to the local mall on a busy sunday.
2) Stand outside the pet store, facing the window.
3) Exclaim loudly "Wow, that's a nice looking bitch!"
4) Time how long it takes for security to show up, and ask them how many complaints they received.
Unfortunately, "Nigger" is still used in a very derogatory way in the southern portions of the United States to describe uneducated black people.
Additionally, the word is also used by those same uneducated black people to describe each other.
However, if I were to say "Yo Nigger, throw me a drink!" at a party one night, I can guarantee you I would be defending myself from a major beating within minutes.
Since a fairly large chuck of the gimp development team are russian, why don't we produce a fork (with only a name change) and name it to something derogatory in Russian?
No lawyer team in the Usa or UK would bat an eye at a name like "Shalava image editor", but I can guarantee that anyone from eastern Europe would at least comment on it.
Hell, I might just go look into that right now......
the only reason they think the word might be offensive is because of the way idiotic, childish adults react to it.
This may be true, but it can still cause issues for people.
At a company I worked at the legal team vetoed using this software (despite all of the design team offering to use it to save the company money).
Why did legal say no? The name could "be construed as a sign of a negative work environment for those who may be physically disable or handicapped".
In plain english, the name could be used as lawsuit bait.
So the gimp team can either change the name, or accept that the entire business world will never be willing to pay for support for this software.
Which is really sad, because they could easily be making a hefty profit from training and support for businesses. If the name wasn't a legal liability.
These videos reflect the noise levels of the turbine installations I've seen. (texas mostly)
Lots of low frequency noise at average wind speeds above 5mph.
I hear a lot of people swearing these things are silent, but personal experience+lots of videos and recordings online show that there can be a measurable amount of noise, even at longer distances.
Perhaps there are a set of specific conditions that have to be met (humidity, air pressure, etc.) but you can't possibly claim that all of these examples are just statistical outliers.
Yup.
screen is already available on everything I use (and has been for a decade), from the crappy residential grade router at my mothers to the servers at client shops.
Tmux, not so much.
(sigh)
Fine, you're awesome, incredible, and one of the most accomplished programmers the world has ever seen.
I don't care, and it doesn't negate anything that I said.
You act like a dick with low self esteem who likes to blow his own horn on other peoples web sites.
No one cares what you have done when we can look at and test the actual information you are presenting, so quit with the self promotion.
I wasn't being condescending, nor was I trying to be insulting.
Instead I was simply pointing out that while you've got a few good ideas, your presentation of it is crap.
You have the exact same information that you've been presenting for over a decade splattered all over the internet in anonymous posts and articles referenced by people who saw the potential in what you're trying to push.
However, you've been resting on your laurels instead of actually becoming an important reference for the industry.
Knowledgeable professionals already know how to lock down UAC.
Most of them do it using GPO's instead of registry edits, and about 90% of what you've been shouting about is referenced in at least 3 of the books I have on the shelf for my techs to reference.
You aren't trying to bring this to the attention of people like me.
You need to reach the MCSE/A+ certified "technicians" out there doing 95% of the day to day maintenance.
Instead you waste your days being a jackass on slashdot.
So, feel free to ignore my advice and continue attacking people who try to tell you things.
I'm not going to waste time of breath shouting at someone who has decided that the entire rest of the world must be wrong.
As for your personal attacks on my experience, have fun.
I don't need random strangers to pat me on the back and puff up my ego.
I get more than enough of that from the customers and other IT professionals who call me when they have a problem they can't solve.
I'm going to leave my uid on this so you can't just dismiss it as another troll.
DEAR APK,
I've already had to scroll past this same post twice IN THIS THREAD ALONE.
You have copy/pasted the exact same set of directions to just about every security related article for the past several months.
We've all already seen it, and it's just wasting space.
If you want to inform new people, fine.
Put together your own web site, post all of these directions in a single place where you can keep them up to date, and post a link WHEN IT"S RELEVANT, AS PART OF A POST THAT HAS DIRECT BEARING ON THE DISCUSSION AT HAND.
No one cares who else thinks your idea is nifty, and trying to pat yourself on the back/inflate your ego here on slashdot just irritates those of us with mod points.
You want to get the word out? Great! Here's what you need to do.
1) Write up a step by step paper with these directions, include.REG files with the settings ready to be merged, and possibly even simple scripts to implement the changes.
2) Get a native english speaker to act as editor for your paper, to avoid the hard to parse portions of your manner of communicating, and then hammer out the exact meaning you want to convey.
3) THEN, send your paper to people who are willing to test this out. Get people in the industry to help you iron out the problems, and then update your web page again.
After you have something more useful than 2 pages of random registry keys people will start talking about your idea. They will find problems (broken programs, headaches, etc.) and then you can fix them.
But again, POSTING THE SAME CRAP TO SLASHDOT 10 TIMES A DAY IS ONLY GOING TO GET YOU IGNORED AS ANOTHER CRACKPOT TRYING TO SELL SOMETHING.
Also, go register an actual slashdot account. Posting AC doesn't help your image.
Good luck.
Feel free to send me a rough draft of your paper if you ever get around to writing it. (consider this your first newsletter subscription)
OK, screw my mod points. I have to comment on this.
There is a big difference between a virus or trojan that takes advantage of a flaw in the operating system and one that relies on brute forcing the password to a privileged user account or tricking a user into handing over the password directly.
I support networks for a living, and we also deal with lots of small businesses and residential systems.
The single biggest infection vector on any operating system is third party browser plugins such as flash or java.
However, when one of our linux users has a java virus, it only gets access to their user directory. A simple reboot stops the virus, because all of the Home directories have the execute bit disabled.
A quick follow up scan once a week with avg for linux or clamav, and they are no longer infected.
Yes, There are a few nasty rootkits that use privilege escalation, but on linux those are few and far between.
To quote the link YOU posted,
few if any are in the wild, and most have been rendered obsolete by Linux updates
On windows, we have to deal with executable files dropped into 20 different locations, a few hundred ways for a virus to execute at startup, and ways for the virus to easily hid itself behind processes that are supposed to be there.
(hello svchost.exe, how many viruses did you execute today?
I really wish you people would stop trying to compare apples to elephants, and start looking at things in a more reasonable method.
Here, I'll start by making a nice little table.
Problem:............... Mac/Windows..... Linux (desktop).... Linux (server)
Stupid users............... YES.......... YES.................... YES
Java Viruses............... YES.......... YES.................... NO
Flash Viruses.............. YES.......... YES................... NO
Brute Force Password........YES.......... YES.................... YES
Users install Random crap...YES.......... NO..................... NO
Use admin pass frequently.. YES.......... Maybe.................. NO
Feel free to add more to this table, but just this much makes my point.
EVERYTHING IS VULNERABLE TO STUPID AND BADLY TRAINED USERS/ADMINS.
In my experience, Linux distros respond faster to discovered threats and mitigate actual compromises better than WIndows or MacOSX.
Linux distros also usually don't train users to do things that are known to be dangerous, such as downloading and executing unknown/untrusted binaries.
NOR does linux require a huge financial investment in order to have code vetted, signed off and added to the repositories.
Slashdot Mirror
Ignorance != stupidity.
Unfortunately, ignorance is quickly developing into something much worse.
Willful ignorance.
I encounter people every day who actively refuse to learn anything that takes more than 3 seconds to comprehend.
I won't judge you for the things you never had the chance to learn, but that changes the minute you choose not to think about something.
As for the original discussion, I sincerely hope that society will never reach the point where "it doesn't matter".
That said, hope and belief are two different things.
Grammar is being largely ignored by the masses.
I don't see this changing anytime soon. Like so many things, there is a self-reinforcing feedback loop.
People don't use grammar, so more and more people can "function" without having to learn it.
Conversational Logic and formal debate are also completely ignored by the masses.
That doesn't make them important and useful tools.
ALL people are poor multitaskers
FTFY
Current cars can easily maintain 90mph+ on almost the entire length of interstate 10, yet many areas have the speed limit set to 55.
There are several perfectly straight, 4 lane state highways where I live with 45mph average speed limits, and some towns force traffic down to 15mph.
None of this is necessary, it's done simply to increase revenue from speeding tickets.
With automated cars, the arguments they use to justify these ridiculously low limits won't apply, and if my car automatically slowed down anyway, I wouldn't have to worry about getting pegged by speed traps. (thus destroying that revenue stream completely, and removing the motivation for the low limits.)
Now that you're done ranting about the first paragraph, go read the rest of my post.
The discussion is about whether or not 1 pirate == 1 lost sale.
The only connection piracy has to lost sales is that the media wants there to be.
You're a perfect example. You won't pay money to watch it, and will wait until it's available via free channels.
Either way the MPAA is losing profits.
They probably count you as a sale "lost to piracy" even if you never download anything.
I considered that actually.
Thanks to the internet, most people usually decide right after opening night (or sooner, thanks to pre-showings) whether the movie is worth paying to go see.
I came to the rough conclusion that if the movie was that bad, a significant percentage of veiwers will probably just give it a pass or wait till it's available from netflix/$1 rental/borrowing from a friend.
Group B more than most, as rabid fans who are willing to watch a low quality bootleg just to see the movie early are more likely to refuse to pay to see it on principle.
OR THEY COULD OFFICIALLY RELEASE IT ON DVD!!
From the wikipedia page:
Discotek Media announced on March 12, 2012 that they had licensed the home video rights to the series and plans on releasing both the American series, as well as the Japanese series with English subtitles on separate releases
Send me a message(check my profile), I know a Chinese distributor who took the US release audio and mixed it with the official japanese video. He won't sell it, but he will include it with orders for the official Japanese disks.
some number of that is definitely lost sales
Do you really believe this?
I'm going to use the anime market in the US as an example here.
After the original japanese release, most anime franchises are not distributed in the US until there is already a large fan base.
How do you have fans for a show that isn't even available? Piracy.
How many of these pirates would have bought the dvd if there were no pirated copies being handed out? ZERO, because they would never have known the product exists.
How many millions of dollars do you think companies like adv, cartoon network, etc made because of the pirate anime market?
At the same time, around 100,000 people have watched a crappy download of the avengers instead of paying to see it in the theater.
Have you ever watched a theater rip? It's painful.
People don't watch camera rips because they would rather save the cost of admission. They watch them because
a) they CAN"T afford the cost of admission,
b) they want to see it before opening night,
c) they downloaded it because they were bored and wanted something to distract them for an hour.
Group A is not a lost sale.(they have no money)
Group B is not a lost sale. (they also saw the movie in the theater)
Group C is not a lost sale. (they would have just turned on the TV instead)
Now, dvd quality rips are another story. There are people who just download the movie instead of buying it.
However, there are also a lot of other groups of people who are labeled "pirates"..
a) People already own the movie but don't feel like ripping and transcoding it by hand ( like my blue ray collection )
b) People who have the dvd but just got a new 1080p mega-tv and think the higher quality is neat.
c) People who live in places where you can't buy the movie.
d) People who contribute screenshots to sites like imdb and tvtropes
e) People who don't have access to TV, but have family with internet and a cheap hard drive. (rural areas, mountain regions)
f) People who work odd hours and can't afford a dvr+digital cable for delayed viewing.
All of these groups are downloads that would not have equated to a sale.
a) already bought it
b) don't think the extra 300 pixels is worth an extra $20
c) don't have an option to buy
d) can't afford to spend $20 on every movie they edit
e) can't buy a show that isn't on disk. (samurai pizza cats)
f) Can't afford the hardware, can't afford to change schedule, can't buy the disks until it's out.
Stealing access that you don't have
You are misusing the word stealing.
Taking or forcing access to something without permission is trespassing, not theft. ( hence the computer trespass laws )
Stealing is the removal of property without permission.
Making a copy of something is not stealing it, as no property is removed.
Pirating may be wrong or illegal, but it's not stealing.
And no, pirates are not "stealing the profit from the lost sales".
Just because the pirate felt that a movie was worth clicking a mouse button, doesn't mean that it would have been worth $20 if the mouse clicking was not an option.
You missed the gp's point. At what point do you need to see the passwords in a debugging log?
Can you imagine trying to justify "$1200 for custom GIMP Plugin" or "$1200 for Gimp programmer" to the company accountant?
Hold on.
I think you are missing the forest for the trees, so lets take this down a level.
I agree that words are not in and of themselves offensive.
This is a fact, just like a firearm is a tool, words are tools to convey meaning.
However, just like with any other tool, the context is what will define how people will react.
With a gun, context can be "the belt of a police officer", or the hand of some random guy on the street.
However, taken out of context a firearm will make most people nervous. (Why is there a gun on the coffee table?)
The same thing is true with words.
The issue is that an average American/UK citizen who sees or hears the word "Gimp" out of context is NOT going to think about an image editor.
Additionally, as I said elsewhere in this thread, even if the word is used in context it can cause issues with legal liability.
( Whether this is a stupid fact is irrelevant, in both the US and the UK "sexual harassment" is a very flexible definition, and the word GIMP has a sexual meaning available for misinterpretation. )
So PLEASE, stop trying to argue that the default context of the word is not offensive.
Just like Nigger, bitch, or midget, if you yelled it in a crowded area people would assume that you meant the meaning they are familiar with.
If you don't believe me, go perform this test.
1) Go to the local mall on a busy sunday.
2) Stand outside the pet store, facing the window.
3) Exclaim loudly "Wow, that's a nice looking bitch!"
4) Time how long it takes for security to show up, and ask them how many complaints they received.
( Note: if you do this, please post a video. )
Unfortunately, "Nigger" is still used in a very derogatory way in the southern portions of the United States to describe uneducated black people.
Additionally, the word is also used by those same uneducated black people to describe each other.
However, if I were to say "Yo Nigger, throw me a drink!" at a party one night, I can guarantee you I would be defending myself from a major beating within minutes.
What if we just forked the blasted thing and renamed it?
"Shalava image editor" sound good to me, and it would make the russian gimp developers blush.
Here's a funny suggestion.
Since a fairly large chuck of the gimp development team are russian, why don't we produce a fork (with only a name change) and name it to something derogatory in Russian?
No lawyer team in the Usa or UK would bat an eye at a name like "Shalava image editor", but I can guarantee that anyone from eastern Europe would at least comment on it.
Hell, I might just go look into that right now......
the only reason they think the word might be offensive is because of the way idiotic, childish adults react to it.
This may be true, but it can still cause issues for people.
At a company I worked at the legal team vetoed using this software (despite all of the design team offering to use it to save the company money).
Why did legal say no? The name could "be construed as a sign of a negative work environment for those who may be physically disable or handicapped".
In plain english, the name could be used as lawsuit bait.
So the gimp team can either change the name, or accept that the entire business world will never be willing to pay for support for this software.
Which is really sad, because they could easily be making a hefty profit from training and support for businesses. If the name wasn't a legal liability.
Hey douche bag, from the article:
That would be a $30 fee for each jurisdiction, not one $30 fee for every agency worldwide.
So, $30 from every local law enforcement branch.
There are 14,614 county and city agencies in the US, not including federal.
source: FBI.GOV
Total potential income $438,420 PER MONTH from just the USA
I'd say his argument stands.
Informative my ass.
In general though, the noise problems are only in people's imagination.
Then do you mind commenting on these videos for me?
LINK
LINK
LINK
These videos reflect the noise levels of the turbine installations I've seen. (texas mostly)
Lots of low frequency noise at average wind speeds above 5mph.
I hear a lot of people swearing these things are silent, but personal experience+lots of videos and recordings online show that there can be a measurable amount of noise, even at longer distances.
Perhaps there are a set of specific conditions that have to be met (humidity, air pressure, etc.) but you can't possibly claim that all of these examples are just statistical outliers.
That is a different camera showing the exact same failure.
Not true.
That turbine was located in a 5 turbine installation in hornslet denmark.
The main gear assembly failed, and the brake was destroyed.
here is a translation of the actual engineering report for the failure.
The report also includes information about a second failure within 2 days, both caused by the same +130km/hr winds.
Yup. screen is already available on everything I use (and has been for a decade), from the crappy residential grade router at my mothers to the servers at client shops. Tmux, not so much.
Bad example.
Taking a shit can be a method of non-violent protest.
It just depends on where you're shitting.
(sigh)
Fine, you're awesome, incredible, and one of the most accomplished programmers the world has ever seen.
I don't care, and it doesn't negate anything that I said.
You act like a dick with low self esteem who likes to blow his own horn on other peoples web sites.
No one cares what you have done when we can look at and test the actual information you are presenting, so quit with the self promotion.
I wasn't being condescending, nor was I trying to be insulting.
Instead I was simply pointing out that while you've got a few good ideas, your presentation of it is crap.
You have the exact same information that you've been presenting for over a decade splattered all over the internet in anonymous posts and articles referenced by people who saw the potential in what you're trying to push.
However, you've been resting on your laurels instead of actually becoming an important reference for the industry.
Knowledgeable professionals already know how to lock down UAC.
Most of them do it using GPO's instead of registry edits, and about 90% of what you've been shouting about is referenced in at least 3 of the books I have on the shelf for my techs to reference.
You aren't trying to bring this to the attention of people like me.
You need to reach the MCSE/A+ certified "technicians" out there doing 95% of the day to day maintenance.
Instead you waste your days being a jackass on slashdot.
So, feel free to ignore my advice and continue attacking people who try to tell you things.
I'm not going to waste time of breath shouting at someone who has decided that the entire rest of the world must be wrong.
As for your personal attacks on my experience, have fun.
I don't need random strangers to pat me on the back and puff up my ego.
I get more than enough of that from the customers and other IT professionals who call me when they have a problem they can't solve.
Eldorel
I'm going to leave my uid on this so you can't just dismiss it as another troll.
.REG files with the settings ready to be merged, and possibly even simple scripts to implement the changes.
DEAR APK,
I've already had to scroll past this same post twice IN THIS THREAD ALONE.
You have copy/pasted the exact same set of directions to just about every security related article for the past several months.
We've all already seen it, and it's just wasting space.
If you want to inform new people, fine.
Put together your own web site, post all of these directions in a single place where you can keep them up to date, and post a link WHEN IT"S RELEVANT, AS PART OF A POST THAT HAS DIRECT BEARING ON THE DISCUSSION AT HAND.
No one cares who else thinks your idea is nifty, and trying to pat yourself on the back/inflate your ego here on slashdot just irritates those of us with mod points.
You want to get the word out? Great! Here's what you need to do.
1) Write up a step by step paper with these directions, include
2) Get a native english speaker to act as editor for your paper, to avoid the hard to parse portions of your manner of communicating, and then hammer out the exact meaning you want to convey.
3) THEN, send your paper to people who are willing to test this out. Get people in the industry to help you iron out the problems, and then update your web page again.
After you have something more useful than 2 pages of random registry keys people will start talking about your idea. They will find problems (broken programs, headaches, etc.) and then you can fix them.
But again, POSTING THE SAME CRAP TO SLASHDOT 10 TIMES A DAY IS ONLY GOING TO GET YOU IGNORED AS ANOTHER CRACKPOT TRYING TO SELL SOMETHING.
Also, go register an actual slashdot account. Posting AC doesn't help your image.
Good luck.
Feel free to send me a rough draft of your paper if you ever get around to writing it. (consider this your first newsletter subscription)
Eldorel
There is a big difference between a virus or trojan that takes advantage of a flaw in the operating system and one that relies on brute forcing the password to a privileged user account or tricking a user into handing over the password directly.
I support networks for a living, and we also deal with lots of small businesses and residential systems.
The single biggest infection vector on any operating system is third party browser plugins such as flash or java.
However, when one of our linux users has a java virus, it only gets access to their user directory. A simple reboot stops the virus, because all of the Home directories have the execute bit disabled.
A quick follow up scan once a week with avg for linux or clamav, and they are no longer infected.
Yes, There are a few nasty rootkits that use privilege escalation, but on linux those are few and far between.
To quote the link YOU posted,
few if any are in the wild, and most have been rendered obsolete by Linux updates
On windows, we have to deal with executable files dropped into 20 different locations, a few hundred ways for a virus to execute at startup, and ways for the virus to easily hid itself behind processes that are supposed to be there.
............... Mac/Windows ..... Linux (desktop) .... Linux (server) ............... YES .......... YES.................... YES ............... YES .......... YES.................... NO .............. YES .......... YES ................... NO ........YES .......... YES.................... YES ...YES .......... NO..................... NO .. YES .......... Maybe.................. NO
(hello svchost.exe, how many viruses did you execute today?
I really wish you people would stop trying to compare apples to elephants, and start looking at things in a more reasonable method.
Here, I'll start by making a nice little table.
Problem:
Stupid users
Java Viruses
Flash Viruses
Brute Force Password
Users install Random crap
Use admin pass frequently
Feel free to add more to this table, but just this much makes my point.
EVERYTHING IS VULNERABLE TO STUPID AND BADLY TRAINED USERS/ADMINS.
In my experience, Linux distros respond faster to discovered threats and mitigate actual compromises better than WIndows or MacOSX.
Linux distros also usually don't train users to do things that are known to be dangerous, such as downloading and executing unknown/untrusted binaries.
NOR does linux require a huge financial investment in order to have code vetted, signed off and added to the repositories.