On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 3:46 PM, Thomas Hruska <[email protected]> wrote: > Paul Herring wrote: >> On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 1:30 AM, Thomas Hruska <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> [...] >>> Plus, using VerifyMyPC, I've had the joy of watching my product catch >>> both Microsoft AND Google with their pants down updating my computer >>> WITHOUT my explicit permission. >> I'm sure there are clauses in their EULA's whereby you have given such >> permission. > EULA, pff. It is called _trust_. To gain (and keep) my trust, apps. > need to tell me _exactly_ what is happening to my computer at all times > and offer me an option to NOT do something when it affects files and > registry entries on my system. Thus, I haven't trusted a company since > the DOS days.
I am very surprised you are not using an open source OS. The main reason I switched my desktops to Linux a few years ago was exactly this: I felt that under Windows I really had no control over what's happening. There are just so many possibilities for malware it's astounding. Read this interview, it's very interesting: http://philosecurity.org/2009/01/12/interview-with-an-adware-author In OSS at least you have all the source code, you can inspect it and control everything up to the kernel level (I know it would be stupid to do so, but the knowledge that it's all transparent is relaxing). I will never go back to Windows as my primary OS, because I always feel I might be a node in a botnet and never know about it. -- Tamas Marki
