A new computer

[Mentat]

Finally got a new computer today since my old one broke a couple months back. Though I had to say goodbye to the beautiful garden that is apple and switch over to pcs, mostly due to economic reasons, but it's a good modern pc. Probably will install linux later, though I need to go buy some blank disks. Not quite sure what distro to go with; I'm kinda wanting to stay away from Ubuntu, but I am thinking Debian or Fedora.

Of course, that does leave the issue that it's been a long time since I really used windows, so getting up to date is something I need to handle. Windows 7 looks quite a bit different from what I remember of XP. Not quite sure what I need for Antivirus or any of that mess.

[jj]

MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) which is a free download from Microsoft isn't terribly bad, in concert with SpyBot, at least.

[Rob Lister]

AVG free is what I use. I can't bring myself to trust MSE though I have no objective reason for that.

[Bearguin]

AVG free is what I use. I can't bring myself to trust MSE though I have no objective reason for that.

I'm the other way. Found AVG got too bloated and went to MSE. Haven't had an issue with it.

[Rob Lister]

AVG free is what I use. I can't bring myself to trust MSE though I have no objective reason for that.

I'm the other way. Found AVG got too bloated and went to MSE. Haven't had an issue with it.

In another thread, I think Dr. Matt said that his company uses MSE. That was the first I'd ever heard of anything like institutional trust for. I suppose my mistrust may have been misplaced.

OTOH, if you want the truly bloated, Macafee, norton, kerperski, webroot, and trend pc suffice nicely.

[DrMatt]

My employer uses MFEP, mostly.

[Mentat]

Yeah, I decided to go with MSE.

[Cool Hand]

OTOH, if you want the truly bloated, Macafee, norton, kerperski, webroot, and trend pc suffice nicely.

McAfee and Norton deserve to rot in computer hell forever and ever.

CH

[Pyrrho]

OTOH, if you want the truly bloated, Macafee, norton, kerperski, webroot, and trend pc suffice nicely.

McAfee and Norton deserve to rot in computer hell forever and ever.

CH

Sad, too, because back in the day, they were awesome.

[asthmatic camel]

I use Zonealarm Free Antivirus and Firewall. The antivirus is based on Kaspersky but it doesn't slow my rather aged machine down too much.So far the other software I have installed as a double check, (Malwarebytes and Sophos), haven't discovered any nasties it's let through.

[Doctor X]

What is this "anti-virus" you speak of?

Spoiler:

--J.D.

[asthmatic camel]

Pah!

[Doctor X]

I Don't Know the Difference Between a Trojan and a Virus nor understand Relative Numbers!

Spoiler:

Every time a new Windows virus hits the news (and the PCs), Mac users smugly go about their business and crow about how thereis [Sic--Ed.] "hardly any" viruses for the Mac as opposed to the "thousands" of Windows-based viruses...but are often at a loss to pinpoint the exact evidence to support their claims. Supposedly, "everyone knows" that Macs have fewer viruses, but just how few has always been a bit of a mystery. In light of this, I decided to run a quick check on the exact numbers involved.

My source? Network Associates (NA), sellers of the McAfee and Virex antivirus products, and one of the leading names in computer virus/anti-virus/security software alongside Symantec and the oft-quoted Sophos PLC.

I kept my search fairly simple--this is just idle curiosity, not a paid research project, after all--but as logical as I could:

1. I went to NAis Virus Information Library

2. According to this site, "More than 71,000 virus threats exist today. The McAfee AVERT Virus Information Library has detailed information on where viruses come from, how they infect your system, and how to remove them."

OK, fair enough. Iim [Sic--Ed.] not going to look up all 71,000, but thatis [Sic--Ed.] pretty specific...Iill [Sic--Ed.] take their word for it.

3. Next, I ran an advanced search using simply "Macintosh" as my criteria.

This kicked back a total of 612 virus listings.

4. Next, I subtracted out a couple dozen "Hoaxes"...hoaxes are not viruses, these are exactly what the name implies--phantom "chain-mail" style myths which perpetually circle the globe like the Flying Dutchman or the Wandering Jew, never settling down due to shmoes who keep forwarding them to their family & friends (with the best of intentions and the most annoying of results). Hoaxes are basically unintentional spam mail--annoying but not really dangerous, and thereis so much actual spam out there nowadays that theyive pretty much been buried by it. This brings the total down to 580.

5. I also deleted one which got listed only because the description stated that the virus does NOT affect Macintosh systems...the Boolean search threw it into the mix. Total: 579.

Before we go any further, note that weire already down to less than 1% of the total...even though Macs make up about 5% of the total INSTALLED BASE of computers worldwide (this is how many are IN USE, NOT how many are being sold each quarter/year, which is what "market share" means), depending on your source.

6. This is where things start to get very interesting. You see, out of those 579 total viruses which affect some versions of the Mac operating system, youill [Sic--Ed.] notice that the vast majority of their names start with a WM/ or XM/. I checked these out, and sure enough, this means that theyire [Sic--Ed.] a Macro virus which runs exclusively on some versions of--you guessed it--Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel (there are a few Word/Excel Macro viruses which donit [Sic--Ed.] have WM/ or XM/ in their names as well). In fact, over 95% of these so-called "Mac" viruses are actually directly made possible by Microsoft software. If you take these out of the equation, which seems reasonable to me since there are solid alternatives on the Mac to Word and Excel, just as there are alternatives to Windows itself, youire [Sic--Ed.] left with the following number of viruses that affect the Mac and canit [Sic--Ed.] be blamed on Microsoft in any way, shape or form: 26.

Yes, that’s right: 26 out of a total of over 71,000.

However, Iive [Sic--Ed.] left out one of the most important factors here: All 26 of these, along with the other 553 Word/Excel Macro viruses, were designed for the OLDER versions of the Mac OS (and the older versions of Word/Excel, to be fair). None of this has anything to do with Mac OS X, which is the relevant system to look at.

If you remove the viruses which donit [Sic--Ed.] affect OS X, you know what youire [Sic--Ed.] left with--at least, as of this writing, and to the best of my knowledge?

Zero. None. Zip. Zilch.

Sorry to Make You Cry

--J.D.

[Abdul Alhazred]

no viruses here.jpg

[Pyrrho]

no viruses here.jpg

Charley's 'ad 'er. Both of 'er.

[Abdul Alhazred]

I think that guy on the right is Forrest Gump.

[WildCat]

OTOH, if you want the truly bloated, Macafee, norton, kerperski, webroot, and trend pc suffice nicely.

I use webroot and don't find it bloated at all. It uses very little resources, and a full scan takes just 2 mintes or so.

[Llacheu]

Virus? Trojan? Not with a Commodore 64! (With thanks and credit to Abdul Alhazred)

[jj]

OTOH, if you want the truly bloated, Macafee, norton, kerperski, webroot, and trend pc suffice nicely.

I use webroot and don't find it bloated at all. It uses very little resources, and a full scan takes just 2 mintes or so.

So you never used your computer?

[Doctor X]

Virus? Trojan? Not with a Commodore 64!

They are susceptible to prions. . . .

--J.D.

[asthmatic camel]

Full of Thetans, those things.

[Doctor X]

--J.D.

[Pyrrho]

I think that guy on the right is Forrest Gump.

More importantly, it was 11:19.34.

Just think about that for a second.