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.
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.
THE recent exchange of harsh words between Washington and Beijing highlights a major concern for Internet users all over the world. How this debate plays out in their own countries will determine how free individuals are to express themselves online.
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.
THE headlines seemed designed to alarm Mac users. “Virus found in pirated copies of iWork ’09” and “Mac pirates catch cold,” news sites blared last week. These were followed quickly by “Second Mac trojan attacks pirated Photoshop CS4.” From these, it was just a hop, skip and jump away to “Mac malware tide on the rise.” Coming just a few days apart, these headlines seemed to portend a tidal wave of malicious software that was about to pummel and sweep away unsuspecting Mac users. Comeuppance for years and years of smug complacency, some Windows users clucked. Now that the Mac is gaining market share, expect more such attacks, others warned.
The truth was a little less exciting than the hype.
GOOGLE took its Chrome browser out of test mode last week, just 100 days after it introduced the beta version. After giving the test version a whirl last September, however, I haven’t had much reason to return to it. In fact, I’ve found many reasons to say “no” to Google’s browser.
SAN FRANCISCO - The MacBook Air went first; a tiny Fujitsu laptop running Vista was hacked on the last day of the contest; but it was Linux, running on a Sony Vaio, that remained undefeated as conference organizers ended a three-way computer hacking challenge Friday at the CanSecWest conference. Earlier this week, contest sponsors had put three laptops up for grabs to anyone who could hack into one of the systems and run their own software. A $20,000 cash prize sweetened the deal, but the payout was halved each day as contest rules were relaxed and it became easier to penetrate the computers.
THE technology press made a big deal last week about the discovery of a malicious piece of programming—called a Trojan horse—aimed specifically at Macintosh users. The program is not a virus, because it does not replicate itself. Nor does it target any specific weakness in the Mac operating system. Rather, it tries to trick users into authorizing the installation of software that can hijack their browser, steal information and passwords and make them a target for spam.
LAST week, the entertainment editor of Standard Today lost his notebook computer—an Apple MacBook Pro—when thieves smashed in the window of his BMW, which was parked at the Greenhills Shopping Center. Some time ago, a colleague at the university where I lecture suffered a similar fate, when he left his notebook unattended at an upscale coffee shop in Quezon City just long enough to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately, incidents such as these are likely to increase as more people buy laptops.
“I’VE installed Windows Vista on my PC.” I wasn’t surprised to read the text message on my phone. It came from a long-time PC user who, for reasons that will soon become clear, will remain hidden behind the pseudonym “Roger.”
“I used the Paradox crack, which tricks Windows Vista into thinking that you’re running it from an OEM [original equipment manufacturer] computer, so you don’t need to activate it anymore,” Roger told me when we met over the weekend, as jolly as ever.
BACK when I used Windows exclusively, I was acutely aware of the dangers that viruses and worms posed. In fact, one of the first things I did on every computer I used was to install anti-virus software. Now, more than half a year after switching to Linux at home and Mac OS X at the office, I’ve yet to encounter a single virus on either platform, despite running both without any kind of software protection. The old Windows user in me wonders: Am I being reckless?
PERHAPS it’s a sign that this blog has arrived. In the last few days, I’ve been getting my fair share of comment spam. These scumbags think they can post their spam messages on my Web site as a way of driving traffic to theirs. Sometimes, they even start their spam with what looks like a legitimate comment. “Great site!” then their URL. Very funny. Listen up, creeps. Comments are moderated, okay? So there’s no chance in hell that your dumb commercial messages will ever make it into this Web site. So why don’t you morons just save all of us some time and trouble? Don’t post your spam here; it will never get through.
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.
GOOGLE took its Chrome browser out of test mode last week, just 100 days after it introduced the beta version. After giving the test version a whirl last September, however, I haven’t had much reason to return to it. In fact, I’ve found many reasons to say “no” to Google’s browser.
LAST week, the entertainment editor of Standard Today lost his notebook computer—an Apple MacBook Pro—when thieves smashed in the window of his BMW, which was parked at the Greenhills Shopping Center. Some time ago, a colleague at the university where I lecture suffered a similar fate, when he left his notebook unattended at an upscale coffee shop in Quezon City just long enough to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately, incidents such as these are likely to increase as more people buy laptops.
“I’VE installed Windows Vista on my PC.” I wasn’t surprised to read the text message on my phone. It came from a long-time PC user who, for reasons that will soon become clear, will remain hidden behind the pseudonym “Roger.”
BACK when I used Windows exclusively, I was acutely aware of the dangers that viruses and worms posed. In fact, one of the first things I did on every computer I used was to install anti-virus software. Now, more than half a year after switching to Linux at home and Mac OS X at the office, I’ve yet to encounter a single virus on either platform, despite running both without any kind of software protection. The old Windows user in me wonders: Am I being reckless?
