On Sun, 2003-08-31 at 13:30, Sander Pool wrote: > As for suggesting that everyone should use Linux, well, that's just plain > rude and not helpful. People computer illiterate enough to allow themselves > to get infected with sobig wouldn't know how to install or use Linux. A > decent virus scanner (that was a good suggestion although McAffee is rather > poor) is a simple way to prevent infection on a windows system. Linux is > wonderful but not for everyone. I won't go into the virtues of Windows over > Linux or vise versa. Let me summarize by saying that right now Win2K can do > things for -me- that Linux can't and probably never will. Once there's a > good reason to add a Linux system to my setup I'll gladly do that.
Yeah, Win2K does lots of stuff for me that Linux can't. It gets infected with viruses. It gets 0wned. I've had a linux box 0wned as well, but that was because I forgot it existed and didn't update it. A Windows box can get 0wned even if it's up to date. For example, there were 18 *unpatched* vulnerabilities in IE the last time I checked, a couple of which would affect you even if you didn't use IE as your browser. But rather than start/continue an OS flame war, let me say that I think the point is just that by failing to make any attempt to secure your machine, you are inflicting your choice of OS on the rest of the world and being a bad netizen. On the other hand, I don't really care about that. It is my opinion that I'm really responsible for keeping my mailbox clean, because I'm running an insecure service (SMTP) that basically lets anyone and their dog send me whatever they want. If I don't like the extra traffic, I can firewall the offending hosts. I already block a large amount of dialup space from talking to my SMTP server. I *was* refusing sobig at SMTP time. Now my spam filter just deals with it. The attachments are dropped by my virus scanner. (Yes, I run a virus scanner on my Linux mail server; I do have Windows users who get their mail through my server, and it's inconvenient to me and my wife if they get infected.) Dave, you run your own mail server too. Just firewall the offending hosts and be done with it. I know it's a little extra work on your part, but I say we do nothing to prevent the spread of SoBig :)
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