Is Linux more secure than Windows? The quick and easy answer is yes. Most viruses and malicious software today are written to target Windows systems and will not affect Linux or Mac computers. If you’re going to work – and play – in a Windows world, you better get protection.
FOR Linux users, running a new Windows 7 PC feels a bit like getting all dressed up with nowhere to go. The operating system itself is attractive, but there aren’t that many built-in applications to get you started. A recent upgrade of our office computers gave me the opportunity to compile a checklist of things to do to get a new Windows 7 PC ready for prime time.
IF you’re selling security, it’s probably a bad idea to send your customers’ computer systems crashing. Yet this is exactly what anti-virus vendor McAfee Inc. did last week when it released an updated virus definition file that crashed hundreds of thousands of Windows XP computers around the world.
QUESTIONS that I get in the mail show that quite a number of Windows users are curious about what to expect when they make the jump to Linux.
While answering one such question this week, I realized that I’ve already written quite a bit about how things are done in Linux as opposed to Windows, but that these snippets were scattered over many columns over the last three years. I thought it might be useful to gather that information in one column, where it might help more Windows users to make the switch to Ubuntu Linux.
2010 is going to be a good year for Linux on the desktop. No, tens of millions of Windows users aren’t going to see the light and suddenly switch. Inertia and resistance to change make a massive migration highly unlikely. At the same time, Microsoft has managed to stem the erosion from its Vista-fueled disaster, first by extending the commercial life of Windows XP on netbooks, then by releasing Windows 7. On the other hand, there is no doubt that Linux will continue to make steady gains on the desktop next year, even though most estimates still put its market share at about only 2 percent.
SOMETIMES, less isn’t more – it’s just less. This was certainly the way I felt when I fired up an early open source demo of Google’s Chrome operating system that became available for download last week.
ONE of the selling points of Windows 7 is its ability to run on less powerful netbooks. I put this feature to the test over the weekend by installing Microsoft’s latest operating system on an HP 2133 Mini-Note PC.
A WORKER at a Best Buy outlet in Hamilton, Ohio, has posted screen shots from a Microsoft training module aimed at helping store personnel convince netbook buyers to choose Windows 7 over Linux. The screen shots posted on the Overclock.net forum, are taken from a course entitled “Comparing Windows 7 to Linux-based PCs,” prepared by Microsoft to promote the latest version of its operating system. That Microsoft would launch such a marketing effort is understandable. After the debacle of Windows Vista, the company has a lot riding on Windows 7. And whether it admits it or not, Linux is already a viable, often more attractive alternative desktop operating system.
What is a little surprising is the extent to which Microsoft’s marketing hacks are bending the truth to sell Windows 7.
MOST industry watchers picked up on a shift in Microsoft’s world view when the software giant filed its annual 10-K report with the US Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month. In its filing, Microsoft acknowledged for the first time that Ubuntu Linux is a threat to its Windows desktop operating system.
THE press loves a clash of titans. Pit the Internet search giant Google against the software behemoth Microsoft and you’ll have them chomping at the bit. So when Google announced on its blog last week that it would be developing its own operating system, most news organizations pronounced that the undisputed king of search was gunning for Microsoft where it lives.
ARE you just not cool enough to be a Mac person? Strangely enough, this question wasn’t triggered by a new snooty Apple commercial but by Microsoft’s latest marketing campaign, a series of ads that emphasize what most of us already know: you can get more hardware for your money if you don’t buy a Mac. The first of these ads features a bubbly redhead named Lauren, who wants to buy a fast notebook PC with a 17-inch screen and a large keyboard for less than $1,000.
Digital Life is a blog that features a technology column by the same name that appears every Tuesday in Manila Standard Today, a national daily from the Philippines. This blog gives readers easy access to the column, which started in November 2002. Copyright 2009 Chin Wong.
Is Linux more secure than Windows? The quick and easy answer is yes. Most viruses and malicious software today are written to target Windows systems and will not affect Linux or Mac computers. If you’re going to work – and play – in a Windows world, you better get protection.
FOR Linux users, running a new Windows 7 PC feels a bit like getting all dressed up with nowhere to go. The operating system itself is attractive, but there aren’t that many built-in applications to get you started. A recent upgrade of our office computers gave me the opportunity to compile a checklist of things to do to get a new Windows 7 PC ready for prime time.
QUESTIONS that I get in the mail show that quite a number of Windows users are curious about what to expect when they make the jump to Linux.
2010 is going to be a good year for Linux on the desktop. No, tens of millions of Windows users aren’t going to see the light and suddenly switch. Inertia and resistance to change make a massive migration highly unlikely. At the same time, Microsoft has managed to stem the erosion from its Vista-fueled disaster, first by extending the commercial life of Windows XP on netbooks, then by releasing Windows 7. On the other hand, there is no doubt that Linux will continue to make steady gains on the desktop next year, even though most estimates still put its market share at about only 2 percent.
