Tag: MICROSOFT

  • Park Your Virus Impervious Smugness Mac (and Linux) Users

    Screenshot of ClamTk 3.08 running on Ubuntu 8....
    Image via Wikipedia

    I use linux. I prefer it over Windows for many reasons. It’s more resistant to viruses, less of a target, but that doesn’t mean that malware or other viruses are impossible. If someone were to trick me into running something and even worse, trick me into using my administrator password to install something system wide, it could be the same end result as a windows malware infection. To be fair Microsoft has improved their security over the years. They are still the most likely platform though to get a drive by virus just by visiting a site (with no user interaction.) That much said, Mac users and Linux users should avoid being smug. Why? They aren’t completely safe. No one is. Social engineering is the most common (and most effective) path to getting malware on a computer.

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  • Vista torrent pulled

    Several days ago I mentioned vistatorrent.com that had copied the Windows Vista download into a bittorrent tracker and allowed bittorrent downloads of the DVD iso. Well, they’ve received a cease and desist order as thanks for their efforts. Some are saying the fact that the download servers are slammed to the point MS is recommending that people order the DVD for a shipping charge is proof that Windows Vista is eagerly anticipated and that the response trumps any open source release. Well, ok – I’ve got to say I was interested to see it for all the press it’s been getting (and I’m sure WILL get), and in 12 months I’ll likely be trying to support it, so I wanted to dip the toes in now. I don’t plan on running it on a desktop myself. In fact the last 24 hours I’ve been on a quest to install it in a virtual machine and I’ll pass along details of that in another post.

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