Andy Sy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > OT because this is more about Windows than Linux, but > I think some people might be interested in the environment > comparison. >
I'm *very* interested ;) > Holden Hao wrote: > >> What applications do you have on WinXP? I recall that I had Win98 >> boxes before that were "stable enough" but the applications installed >> were minimal. I guess normal users who do not practice prudence in >> the type of software they install in their systems would not have >> the same experience as you have. > > You can stuff your Windoze PC with as many apps and drivers as > you like, 2K and especially XP, will do a good job of protecting > the system even if you are Administrator (which is essentially what > you want to be running as unless you're a bloody masochist). > True, especially on WinXP Home (what, the M$ guys really thought about home? Gee, how nice!) I have to say, though, that given a properly-installed system with no driver cruft, WinXP will hold quite nicely. > I just don't like their automagical way of doing it, since when > things do go wrong (as they almost inevitably will except it just > takes a long time and the impact is usually a lot less crippling > than it used to be on Windows 9x), you are at a loss as to how to > fix it. > Indeed. You don't have the fine-grained control you have in slackware, nor the automatic dependencies tracking in deb. However, come to think of it, it would be rather easy to build such and installation system usng .NET. Maybe we'll see this in Longhorn... > You trade off the loss of low-level awareness and control (which > you would have with a proper Linux distro like Slackware, Debian > or Gentoo) with the convenience of an vastly more application-rich > environment and a somewhat prettier, friendlier, more consistent > desktop. > > Oh yeah, two more cons of Windoze are you gotta part with a lot of > hard-earned moolah and MS' activation process is a biatch such that > even if you have a legit key, you will often feel that a raped > version is still more convenient to use. > The activation chutzpah is also one of the Big Things that really turned me down. Back when I bought my PC in 2002, I was hoping WinXP was as easy to maintain and setup as a Mac. I was wrong. Linux is *definitely* not easy to set up, but at least there's a lot of shared knowledge, on the Web and in the Unix books, so I wasn't really painful. I think the activation process was one of the main things why XP didn't catch up on most home users here: most of the people I've spoken of said they'd rather have ME, 98 or 2k than the Experience... > For your 'Doze system to stay stable requires some safe practices > and alterations to the default way of doing things (something I > believe users of 'Window-fied' distros like RedHat and Mandrake > also have to go through to some extent) like: > > #1. DON'T use Outlook Express and Internet Exploder. I use > Mozilla and Firefox for all my mail, news, browsing needs. They > are already far ahead of the Microsoft alternatives in terms > of features. > How *VERY* true. Opera is also a good choice, though its !free. Too bad the Internet Cafes have yet to switch, I reckon most don't even read the news... > #2. DON'T ever install ActiveX controls unless abso-f*king-lutely > necessary (like if your bank's lame online site requires you to > install an ActiveX plugin). And even then keep in mind what > you allowed to install, so you can track culprits if problems > later arise. > Heh, aside from the potential privacy issues, there's also the more practical concern of just walkin' (or driving) to the bank instead of doing it the Techie Way. Money is such a sensitive thing its best to have a 'hands-off' approach as possible. The moral: live (or work) near a bank. > #3. Use a real firewall, not the built-in one - Sygate seems pretty > ok... or even better, use a hardware firewall. > ICF/ICS markets iteslf as a 'stateful' firewall but I've yet to see its statefulness. Don't get me wrong: Before linux, I have to bear surfing thru WinXP, and it had ICF enabled. But looking into the packet logs, it was still getting through, and my box wasn't cloaked. Having port 5000 closed solved part of the problem, but I'm not really comfortable with the whole thing... > #4. Be conscientious about security patches. With a firewall, you > can get away with not updating for months, but when a virulent > threat comes along that attacks an unpatched exploit on your > machine, you better make sure you don't accidentally turn off > your firewall for even a few seconds. > PC-Cillin's built-in firwall's pretty good. After using ICF this was the next thing for a firewall in XP, and it worked great. BlackIce too is good, though I hear borks in XP (but works great in NT4). > I have observed it took all of 45 seconds for an unpatched > PC to get attacked with Blaster once it got on the net. Firewall > was up, but I didn't recognize the firewall message for what it was > and accidentally typed yes to an RPC and a TFTP connection request. > I got Blaster infected in an instant, but luckily I recognized it for > what it was and cleanly removed all traces of it within a few > minutes... > Buti ka alam mo, but for an ordinary home user who just has to contend with typing and chatting would have been clueless. I can't really vouch for the Blaster thing 'coz when that sprang up, wala akong load! :D > #5. I actually believe that an antivirus program is kind of redundant > nowadays. Virtually all virus attacks are from email attachments, > so as long as you're not clueless enough to click on 'em, your > antivirus program will not really be of use. > The good anti-virii suites (PC-Cillin and Norton) tend to have firewalls too, so I just disable the AV bits and turn on the wall. And yeah, it really boils down to user vigilance nowadays: your AV is as good as a copper shield in a nuclear blast. Cheers, Zakame -- |=-------------ZAK B. ELEP (Registered Linux User #327585)-------------=| || Web: http://zakame.spunge.org GPG ID: 0xFA53851D || || http://zakame.homelinux.org ICQ UIN: 33236644 || || Location: Daet, Camarines Norte Running Linux 2.6 || |=----------1486 7957 454D E529 E4F1 F75E 5787 B1FD FA53 851D----------=| Debian - When you've got better things to do than to fix a borken system -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
