Tasting Better With Linux
Recently, my traveling laptop’s 512 MB of RAM proved inadequate for my use, so I purchased a replacement. The replacement came with Windows Vista and a load of garbage software–shame on you, HP–that made it almost unusable. In an effort to salvage my investment, I installed Mepis Linux 64-bit on part of the hard drive. [...]
Recently, my traveling laptop’s 512 MB of RAM proved inadequate for my use, so I purchased a replacement. The replacement came with Windows Vista and a load of garbage software–shame on you, HP–that made it almost unusable. In an effort to salvage my investment, I installed Mepis Linux 64-bit on part of the hard drive. However, neither the 64-bit version, nor the 32-bit version was able to pick up the built-in Atheros WiFi card, nor utilize the USB-plugged D-Link WUA-1340 I purchased in an attempt to make it work.
Enter Ubuntu. Using the 32-bit LiveCD, it immediately picked up the external adapter, and was able to connect to the hotel’s WiFi. I flattened Mepis and installed Ubuntu. I will give myself some time using the new system first, but I will probably flatten Vista and rid myself of that headache.
I realize that Microsoft is running taste-test ads in which XP users try Vista and are pleasantly surprised. I also realize that SP1 does fix many of the most pernicious problems with Vista, including many of the built-in drivers that could not be used, because they lacked required security information. As a traveler who spends up to two-thirds of my time using hotel networks, Vista’s continuing wireless weaknesses make it entirely too unreliable for my uses. I cannot recommend Vista to anyone who connects to multiple networks. It is just not good enough.
I think that those taste-testers would have been even more certain that Vista is a flop had they used it for an extended period, for their regular day-to-day uses, on standard hardware. I intentionally bought a computer with extra RAM and found that it really did help speed the system up, but it did little to make it usable.
Grade: D-
Avoid it if you can, resign and find a new employer if you cannot.
Technorati Tags: vista, linux, ubuntu, mepis
Antivirus XP 2008 Malware Wave Continues
The Panda US Security Blog reports that the crooks behind Antivirus XP 2008 are using faked CNN News Alert e-mails to send people to malware infector sites, where people are told to download a new codec to view the alert. This codec turns out to be Antivirus XP 2008. It also shows up as a [...]
The Panda US Security Blog reports that the crooks behind Antivirus XP 2008 are using faked CNN News Alert e-mails to send people to malware infector sites, where people are told to download a new codec to view the alert. This codec turns out to be Antivirus XP 2008. It also shows up as a fake update to IE 7.
In my dealings with the product, I find that some users are getting it from e-mailed spam messages, while others are picking it up from sites they found during Web searches. I’ve been wondering if a plain-text e-mail system would help, but it certainly could not hurt.
Bill Mullins notes that the next version, Antivirus XP 2009, is already out. I cannot vouch for his recommended products or sites, since I have not heard of any of them. Use them at your own risk. However, his general synopsis of the malicious fake security software is accurate.
Surprisingly, having ultra-tight settings in IE7 did not seem to prevent installation. I’d be interested in learning whether Firefox-using networks and Opera-using networks are also having problems with this software popping up. In the meantime, use common sense: avoid going to questionable sites, don’t open e-mail or IM messages from people you do not know, don’t open unexpected attachments, and call your local support staff immediately if you get a strange browser pop-up message about antivirus or antispyware or other security software. If your local support is your neighbor’s 13 year-old, turn the computer off and then call him after school.
More Joel On Software
The book is out. I am nowhere near finished, but it reads like his blog does. Good stuff. Most of it is from his blog, but it is still worth having, if only for the ease of finding a random post to read. Available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Also Borders and other quality bookstores. [...]
The book is out. I am nowhere near finished, but it reads like his blog does. Good stuff. Most of it is from his blog, but it is still worth having, if only for the ease of finding a random post to read.
Available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Also Borders and other quality bookstores.
Has It Peaked?
This Summer was a challenging one, as Antivirus XP 2008 started popping up everywhere. I have users all over the state, so this could have been a lot worse than it was. Still, I was dealing with it often enough that I made sure I could find the “fix”. The authors were using various means to [...]
This Summer was a challenging one, as Antivirus XP 2008 started popping up everywhere. I have users all over the state, so this could have been a lot worse than it was. Still, I was dealing with it often enough that I made sure I could find the “fix”.
The authors were using various means to spread their malware, and it really was spreading everywhere. Now, however, I haven’t seen an infected system in two or three weeks. Not that my experience is necessarily the same as everyone else’s.
If this has peaked, we know the guys behind it are preparing an even worse version for release, or perhaps using infected systems to collect personal financial information (PFI). We should not let our guard down, because AVXP2K8/AVXP2K9 or its successor will be back.
We have given our users the impression that all we need is another firewall, another antivirus, another automated security layer and we’ll be alright. The truth is, they need to be aware. They need to be watching for anything questionable. They need to be the ones who are careful about what they click. We are not doing them a service when we encourage them to disconnect their brains and passively rely on automated security. (By the way, IT staff members are users too. All of this applies to us, just like it does to everyone else.)
Posted in Uncategorized������
Quick Fix For “Antivirus XP 2008″ Malware
Follow these instructions. This is how I got rid of Antivirus XP 2008. It is different than the XP Antivirus 2008 most sites refer to. This is here more as a reminder for me than anything else. That post was not at the top of my search results, and I can change that by only searching here. [...]
Follow these instructions.
This is how I got rid of Antivirus XP 2008. It is different than the XP Antivirus 2008 most sites refer to.
This is here more as a reminder for me than anything else. That post was not at the top of my search results, and I can change that by only searching here. If you are trying to clean up AvXP2k8, you should go to that forum post and follow those instructions. There are other posts in the thread, but this was the one that worked for me. As always, your mileage may vary, so I am not liable for anything you do to your computer.
At least the user had the good sense to immediately report it, rather than try to self-fix the situation. Also, thanks to co-worker Matt Bussey for his assistance in researching the situation.
California
I’m coming near to the end of this assignment. I’m hoping to head back to California for a while. I’m hoping to get a little time to enjoy friends and family. So far, I’ve been home nine 16 weeks (I worked 48 miles from home last November) in the past year, so I’m looking forward [...]
I’m coming near to the end of this assignment. I’m hoping to head back to California for a while. I’m hoping to get a little time to enjoy friends and family. So far, I’ve been home nine 16 weeks (I worked 48 miles from home last November) in the past year, so I’m looking forward to getting back.
ABOVE: Debby Boone’s “California”.
Update: 2008-09-15: It looks like that trip home will be short-lived, if it happens at all. It looks like the near future is full of Nebraska cornfields and possibly Texas oilfields.
RMS: It’s not the Gates, it’s the bars
BBC NEWS | Technology | It’s not the Gates, it’s the bars To pay so much attention to Bill Gates’ retirement is missing the point. What really matters is not Gates, nor Microsoft, but the unethical system of restrictions that Microsoft, like many other software companies, imposes on its customers. There are those who disagree with this [...]
BBC NEWS | Technology | It’s not the Gates, it’s the bars
To pay so much attention to Bill Gates’ retirement is missing the point. What really matters is not Gates, nor Microsoft, but the unethical system of restrictions that Microsoft, like many other software companies, imposes on its customers.
There are those who disagree with this statement, but having read the whole article, I find it difficult to disagree. Is it not true that many proprietary software companies are following in the footsteps of the RIAA and MPAA, trying to force people to re-buy the same content multiple times so they can play it on multiple devices? You do not have to be a free software fanatic to agree with him. Go read the article and then come back. I’ll wait right here.
I even bought a computer with Vista pre-installed (since resized to make room for an installation of MEPIS Linux 6.5.02 64-bit, and probably to be replaced once I get the Atheros WiFi card working under Linux). Why did I buy it? Because I have work to do and could not sit and wait for someone to ship a computer to my home and then have the family ship it to me in whatever state I would be in by the time it arrived. In other words, while Vista is not at all ready for use in either a home or a business environment, the fact is, if you have work to do, you use whatever is conveniently available to work with. We even have a word for this: we call it pragmatism.
Pragmatists like me use “free,” open source, liberty-respecting software when that is an option, but recognize that there are some situations where it is not an option or not an immediate option. We recognize that there may be times when we do have the option of not using anything, and (in my own case) I am usually willing to make that sacrifice.
Contrast this with “Genuine Advantage” snoopware, which runs in the background, reporting back to Redmond, and without which Windows will not even start. We have no idea what kind of information is being sent back. Does Redmond know that I installed Safari, Opera, and Firefox? That I made Firefox my default browser? That I have Thunderbird and Claws-Mail, my e-mail client? That I replaced the trial of MS Office 2007 with OpenOffice? That I made 7-zip my default for all compressed file types it can handle? Do they know about me adding ClamWin as a backup to the proprietary anti-virus program? They very well could. They very well could know the network topography of the hotel where I am staying right now, as well as the hotel I was in before I came here. And … for the right price, so could anyone else. By using proprietary software, you are supporting someone whose interests are contrary to yours, just as much as any used car dealer’s interests are contrary to yours when you come in to buy a car.
Now, that may be acceptable, but each person should know what they are choosing, and have the choice at the time of purchase. What RMS is “bleating” about is the way that many large proprietary software companies want to deny us that choice. As usual, he’s right.
Many users hate the “Microsoft tax”, the retail contracts that make you pay for Windows on your computer even if you won’t use it.
Indeed. I would gladly have purchased the computer without an operating system and installed what I want from the beginning. It certainly couldn’t have taken any longer than removing all the garbage that HP put on it. Bundling the OS and a ton of crapware is a way to restrict choice and preempt competition. Like RMS, I look forward to the day when there are high quality liberty-respecting alternatives for every software product. And guess what? I do not mind paying or contributing in order to have that.
Source: Jim Robertson.
Getting Free From Vista
A third of new PCs being downgraded to XP, says metrics researcher According to Devil Mountain Software Inc., which operates a community-based testing network, nearly 35% of the 3,000-plus PCs it examined had been downgraded from Vista to XP. Given my own recent experience with Windows Vista, I can see why such a large chunk of [...]
A third of new PCs being downgraded to XP, says metrics researcher
According to Devil Mountain Software Inc., which operates a community-based testing network, nearly 35% of the 3,000-plus PCs it examined had been downgraded from Vista to XP.
Given my own recent experience with Windows Vista, I can see why such a large chunk of buyers quickly UPgrade from Vista to XP. Personally, I finally completely wiped out Vista this weekend, replacing it with Ubuntu 8.04 AMD-64 desktop edition.
Actually, it happened this way: I was going to add Fedora 9 to the list of operating systems installed on the computer, so I burned Vista restore DVDs, deleted the restore partition, then proceeded to resize the existing Windows and Ubuntu partitions to make room for Fedora–from inside Windows. Bad move, because I wound up with an unbootable system. I could have let the Fedora installer try to sort things out, but I realized I wasn’t going to use the Vista installation again anyway, so I wiped it out. And if I decide to pass this laptop on to someone else, they can stick the Vista restore DVDs in and have the same miserable experience I did.
After the installation of Fedora, I went to do updates, but was unable to reach the Fedora update servers from Friday evening to Sunday, when I decided to blow away F9 during the Ubuntu (re-)installation. So, in a multi-step process, my HP Vista laptop became the HP Ubuntu laptop that I should have been able to get from the retail location where I bought the computer.
Last year, Devil Mountain benchmarked Vista and XP performance using other performance-testing tools and concluded that XP was much faster. [Devil Mountain Software CTO Craig] Barth said things haven’t changed since then. “Everything I’ve seen clearly shows me that Vista is an OS that should never have left the barn,” he noted.
Auditioning a supplier for pre-installed Linux computers? Let us know how it turns out for you. Do you know a site which keeps a reasonably up-to-date and reasonably complete list? I’m not talking about buying a Windows computer and installing Linux over it–I mean offering computers powered by GNU + Linux and completely free of the Windows tax.
0 Responses to " ":
Post a Comment