Graham Todd wrote: > On Friday 15 March 2002 10:47 pm, jukola wrote: > > [snipped] > > >>A printer is *not* a software, nor is a CPU. > > > Whilst that is undoubtedly true, in Windows many printers connect to > the internet because their drivers are set up to use rpcss.exe in the > Windows OS. My Epson printer would not print unless it was connected > to the internet... I am not saying this is true of all printers, but > using it as an example; I'm sure there's a lot of spyware in printer > drivers but because it operates at the OS level it isn't immediately > obvious. This doesn't happen in Linux because the drivers are in the > kernel and don't require an internet connection to function.
There may be printer drivers trying to connect to the internet. A careful installation, and a good firewall, will, however, take care of any dubious connections. So far I have never been forced to be connected to the internet whilst printing locally. > > By the same token, software running on a PC (in the shape of drivers) > can affect other programs, so it is a legitimate question to ask. > Most of the users use M$ as an OS, even Mozilla users. Have you ever seen an error notice that a M$ driver has caused you any problems :-)? > There is nothing underhand going on here: you are free to use Mozilla > without the Quality Feedback Agent (Talkback) if you prefer. Thanks. If you do > opt-in for testing, the guys at Mozilla say they will take info about > your system should you have a crash. You are agreeing to give them > such information as they require when you agree to use a Talkback > build. That's how I understood it when I downloaded Mozilla several > builds ago, and the wording on their notice doesn't seem to have > changed since then. That's the point. Why should I give Mozilla the right to gather information about my computer not needed to evaluate a crash of only Mozilla? Mozilla is still a software. Information about what happened to Mozilla is enough. My computer name has nothing to do with it. -- jukola
