== Quote from Andrei Alexandrescu (seewebsiteforem...@erdani.org)'s article > Jarrett Billingsley wrote: > > On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 3:31 PM, dsimcha <dsim...@yahoo.com> wrote: > >> Yeah, I've always wondered why some people put so much emphasis on the 10% > >> of > >> computer security that's highly technical in nature when 90% of the > >> problem of > >> computer security is between the keyboard and the chair. > >> > > > > ComputerIlliterateFriend: Hey Jarrett, can you come over and fix my > > computer? > > Jarrett: What's it doing? > > CIF: It's popping up all sorts of dialog boxes telling me I need to > > get Spyware Aweseom Remover and stuff, and it's running really slow, > > and my files keep disappearing. > > Jarrett: And where have you been on the internet? > > CIF: Oh you know, normal sites. > > Jarrett: Like? > > CIF: Porn, more porn, horse porn, warez. I also used Limewire to > > download *every song and program ever made*, and I make it a habit to > > click on interesting-looking [read: violently-flashing] ads. > > Jarrett: ... > > CIF: What? Did I do something wrong? > > > > Seriously. It's like sleeping with every prostitute on the East Coast > > and acting surprised when you have seventeen STDs. > I think this is a large exaggeration. People of all walks of life are > exposed to dangers when using a Windows machine.
I followed a link in Firefox on Windows not too long ago, and the simple act of doing so installed a trojan on my computer. I was unable to get rid of it manually so I downloaded a trial copy of Norton AntiVirus and in the process of trying to get rid of the trojan, NAV killed my PC... completely. I was still able to boot it, but login was impossible, as was every attempt to rebuild from the recovery console. Fortunately, I had network shares for most of my important data and I siphoned it all onto a Mac. My Windows machine is now used exclusively for playing games. I have no intention of ever using Windows for anything else again. Games are the only thing the other OSes lack compared to Windows anyway. > Whenever the endless debate of windows vs. linux vs. mac comes up, I > repeat my comment: if you are a programmer, you better acquire some > experience in each. For Windows/Mac it's not as easy because they may > cost money, but now with virtual machines, good distributions etc. I > think there is no excuse for a programmer to not seriously looking into > Unix. I desperately wish my computer-illiterate family members would move off of Windows as well, since it would eliminate basically every tech- support call I field from them. Perhaps I've simply had good luck with other OSes, but Windows is the only one I've had regular problems with. As for programming specifically... I made a deliberate shift away from Windows years ago because it's a nightmare to develop for (aside from Visual Studio, which is a great debugging environment). Best move I ever made.
