Attaboy

Last week, I started a comment here discussing (for the millionth time) an article about a woman who shut down her computer for good because of the viruses, spam, popups and spyware. Naturally, I was going to go on one of my anti-Windows, pro-Linux/Firefox/Open Source rants, but I put the piece aside for something else. Besides, what’s the big deal about one person’s issues with their computer?

That woman’s problems aren’t isolated, as any of you who use a Windows PC regularly already know. Paul over at Wizbang posted a very similar tale about a group of people in California who are giving up using their machines rather than fight this crap anymore. Paul’s solution to their problems was to replace the PC with a Macintosh, specifically the new Mac mini, which “starts at $499,” and, as Paul pointed out, allows you to edit and created HDTV DVDs out of the box. Unfortunately, one commenter pointed out that the $499 price leaves off a few essentials, like a keyboard, mouse and monitor. And I don’t recall any of the victims in the Times story decrying their inability to do HDTV editing because of spyware and popups. Sounds to me like they just want to read their frickin’ e-mail and maybe do a little shopping.

Another commenter points out that the Mac isn’t the target of the spam/spyware/virus/popup quartet because the Mac platform has too small a market share to make it an inviting target. One could make the same argument for the Linux platform that I’m always prosthelyzing here, and there’s no doubt that if either platform held the market share of Windows, they’d be potential targets as well. However, speaking only of Linux at this point, I do know that Linux systems make up a large share of servers, many running Apache web server and other enterprise applications. Considering the share of web connections on these machines (it’s a lot, trust me), why hasn’t there been any major attack or compromise against those systems? There have been minor security issues found in some open source software in recent years, but they’ve been corrected or patched rapidly and usually pose no real danger to their host systems, client machines or the Internet in general.

I have heard of viruses developed for the Linux platform, mainly just to see if it could be done, but they are extremely rare. In fact, I have never heard of a virus bringing a Linux-based system to its knees in the fashion of Windows viruses and spyware. But don’t believe me. Rick Moen maintains a terrific information page explaining why Linux is far less vulnerable to these problems.

So, as much as I respect Paul and his opinion of the Mac platform, I’m going to sing this song again. In fact, I’m going to continue repeating it until people begin doing it: you can stop all the Windows security problems for the cost of a few blank CDs, a little time, and some Internet downloads. In fact, you don’t even have to download Linux images to install it. There are dozens of places that will sell you a full Linux distribution for a few bucks. In fact, you’ll find ads on this website offering twelve different Linux distributions on CD for about $30.

Yes, you’ll have to do a little work to get it running. There’s no need to go out and buy a new system, since Linux will happily load up on nearly any Intel/AMD-based personal computer built since 1992. In fact, you can load it up on some old Pentium I MMX banger with not much RAM or disk space, and it will still run great. I know, since I’ve done it for other people. When you do this, you can then go back to using that computer on the Internet securely. You can be happy again.

Now, everyone get in the lotus position. Take a deep breath, hold it, then exhale slowly. Feel the tension leave your body. Now, let us slowly find our center and begin our mantra…Linux, Firefox, OpenOffice, KDE, Gnome. Repeat. That’s it…feeling better now, aren’t we?