I'm scared stiff that Steve Balmer will show up at my front door with a goon squad for criticizing Windows. He doesn't look like the type of guy that I would want to meet late at night in a dark place.
On 7/6/10, Chris Knadle <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tuesday 06 July 2010 10:33:02 Mark Wallace wrote: >> This is the last time that we should discuss a Windows issue on this >> forum. This one is okay because it sharpens the distinction between >> "No charge" software and GPL software. > > The original purpose of bringing up Windows was for the purpose of figuring > out programs on Linux that had equivalent functionality. That seems like a > very appropriate purpose for bringing it up. > >> It was by doing a google search for Fast Stone. The site purported to >> be the Fast Stone site. >> >> When I installed, it would no longer let me uninstall programs or make >> changes to them, saying that I did not have permission. (I am the only >> user on that machine and I had never set up an administrator >> password.) > > I've read similar stories; apparently this can happen because Microsoft > designed in privileges /above/ administrator rights, which trojan programs > can > gain via privilege escalation and thus exploit to disallow even > administrators > from removing the trojaned software. > >> A system restore helped, but it denied me access to my backed up files >> (that Window's System Restore creates) I had to run Linux from a CD >> and copy the files to flash drives to get them out. >> >> Linux doesn't know or care about Windows permissions, which is why I >> don't dual boot. It is a question of time before you screw up your >> Windows install using Linux to reach into the Windows partition. It's >> also twice as much work maintaining two systems on one machine. > > I've had great luck using ntfs-3g to mount, read, and write data to NTFS > partitions. Recent versions of ntfs-3g and mount allow using 'mount -t > ntfs-3g' to mount NTFS partitions directly, which I believe means NTFS > partitions could be mounted with ntfs-3g via /etc/fstab if desired. From > what > I've experienced as well as read, user experiences show that it seems stable > at this point. > >> Then I single booted Linux. That is the way that it will stay. It is >> too time consuming to download all of the service packs needed to >> bring XP up to date, and it is more vulnerable to viruses than Pista >> or Pista Salvaged, (also known as Windows 7). > > After reading the EULA, I personally call it "Fista". ;-) On a side note, > I'm utterly confused at Microsoft's attempt at allowing upgrade installation > without rebooting -- and now instead of that... some upgrades install > immediately, others install /during/ the shutdown procedure, and some > install > during the following bootup. ? "Fixed!?!?" > >> I am about quadruple backed up. I put Linux back in because Nautilus >> does a better job of identifying duplicate files that Windows Explorer >> and most of those files are duplicates. Konqueror is also better at >> this than Windows Explorer. >> >> I had only had Windows back in for about a month. My five year old >> would benefit from some games written for Windows 95 that my daughter >> outgrew. But he didn't pick up on them because their way of keeping >> you from copying the CD is that the program won't run without the >> original CD in the drive. It is a stretch to ask a five year old to >> insert the correct CD and wait for it to boot. >> >> They run too slowly in Wine to be of any use. Wine is mostly for low >> graphics applications like configuring a wireless modem. It can't run >> serious graphics fast enough. > > I sometimes play Deus Ex (a "serious graphics" 3D "first person shooter" > game) > within Wine, and it runs perfectly even on an old box. Wine can do a lot, > but > it doesn't run everything and even when it does run it doesn't /always/ run > well. In many cases Wine is the only way to get some of the old games from > the 1990's (or earlier) to even run anymore. [VirtualBox may be an option, > but installing and having to run Win9x are both awful.] > >> My kid also got used to the faster booting Ubuntu and kept trying to >> open Firefox whle Xtra P was still making an internet connection. The >> XP wireless network finder isn't as good as the Linux one and, once >> you get it gummed up, it is hard to untangle. Trying to surf before >> you are online drives it nuts. >> >> I was also freaked out at the chaotic way that you download or update >> Windows programs but have no way of knowing how safe the site that you >> are using is. The Linux distros are checked out with a fine tooth >> comb before they are released to the mirrors, so they are much more >> secure. > > There's a big difference between getting software directly from a > distribution > using cryptographically signed packages and downloading third-party > applications from a download site that doesn't offer checkums or > cryptographically signed downloads for programs uploaded by an unknown > source. > > These are vastly different circumstances. > > Oh and by the way the EULA for Windows now precludes publishing performance > comparisons with other OS's. > >> I have downloaded at least three or four viruses from >> "download.com." There are some Linux viruses and Trojan Horses, but >> the distros filter them out. Be careful about downloading a Linux >> program from an unknown site. >> >> Many "no charge" programs are only free so that somebody you don't >> know about can "data mine". Installing the program can give your >> firewall a permission that you didn't intend. Sometimes when you >> uninstall a "free" Windows program, it doesn't uninstall the part that >> is sending information back to the program's source. Do an internet >> search for the "Wild Tangent Web Driver." It comes installed on every >> new Windows PC as part of the game ware. >> >> When I used Windows, I would zero fill the hard drive every six >> months and reinstall from the CD's > > When I did as well I had to do the same, generally because I believe the > Windows registry would eventually grow too large or become corrupt. In my > case the reasoning for having to reload every six months was for poor > performance reasons rather than because of virus infection. > >> I think that part of the reason why I don't get spam is because I am >> Linux only. Gmail probably also has the best spam filters in the >> business. Yahoo's and AOL's are terrible. >> >> Sorry to run on, but going Linux was less time consuming than running >> my system in "seige mentality." Ant-virus programs only find old >> viruses. You find a new one when your system gets screwed up. > > Detection of viruses via signatures is a loosing battle; you really need > some > way of doing a system integrity check. If you run Ubuntu or Debian for > instance, install and have a look at the 'debsums' program. There are > similar > utilities for other distros as well. I've yet to find a similar program for > Windows to verify the integrity of installed programs and the rest of the > system -- but in all honesty I also haven't looked very hard for such a > thing, > either. > > -- Chris > > -- > > Chris Knadle > [email protected] > _______________________________________________ > Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org > http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > > Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium > Jul 7 - Patent Absurdity - The Movie > Aug 4 - Samba > Sep 1 - BOINC > _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Jul 7 - Patent Absurdity - The Movie Aug 4 - Samba Sep 1 - BOINC
