At 5/4/2013 09:24 AM, you wrote:
>>
>>What David said :-) That, and you can always run Windows in a virtual (XP
>>happens to perform *better* in a virtual than it did as the installed OS on
>>a couple of machines on which I have installed it) in order to run any
>>must-have applications. All the benefits of Linux and Windows that way, and
>>no re-booting required. Snapshot the virtual once you've got it running as
>>desired, with all the patches and your applications installed, and you can
>>recover from any Windows madness in mere moments.
>>
>
> My experiences with Win7 have been much different. Most of my
> engineering software will not work under it properly, even with the WinXP
> emulator. And you can forget using Corel PhotoPaint entirely. If you try to
> open a file, Win7 shuts it down. That's not acceptable.
>
> And then there's the Mexican Jumping Cursor problem.
>
> As soon as I get WinXP back on the primary hard drive, I'm going to clone
> it onto this backup hard drive and be done with Win7 forever.
>
>
>Chris
I use Win 7 or Arch linux or Debian mostly. Haiku maybe someday.
XP only if I have to. Apple anything, never, except I'll keep the stock.
Anti-virus is worse than useless, just uninstall Java and watch your back.
Make sure your firewall is secure.
... the rest of this email can be skipped... or check out the links at the
end...
Every now and then I need to fire up XP just to run an older program, but most
of the time I find a way around it, or give up. I still have several unused XP
licenses that my former company never used. I have converted over all machines
to 7, except one for legacy stuff, which is rarely needed. 8 will probably be
like Vista, lots of initial bugs, UEFI failures, etc. As long as I can get
Eudora to run, I'll be happy.
Google did a test of multiple virus scanners and on average they gave 25%
coverage. Combined they only achieved 40% coverage. Virus scanners are mostly
ineffective at the new drive by malware. Many websites can get hacked, like
facebook or evilBay or reddit or ... Google is trying to enhance Chrome with
whitelist blacklist and then profile check. uS is attempting similar with
explorer.
The Best security option I have found is to uninstall Java, which is a real
pain if something needs it. I had a work machine get compromised due to Java
and a vendors web page. I was running uS security essentials, not a peep from
it. And my wife's XP machine compromised due to facebook page link, again
Java, it was running ESET nod32, which reported something suspicious once, but
then never again, virus bypassed that. I even pulled the disk out and scanned
it on another computer, never found the virus, but every time I turn on that
machine, my linux shorewall firewall starts reporting attempts to access a
router web page, which my shorewall does not have. Verizon FIOS this past year
sent out new routers with default passwords keyed to the serial number.
I have rarely seen an anti-virus programs stop a well written virus. Most virus
writers these days test their code to see if it gets detected, then refine it
until it passes. So I find anti-virus more troublesome than anything, sometimes
bringing the system to a crawl when copying files between machines.
Windows 8 now requires UEFI secure boot (some call it restricted boot). As soon
as the MBR is hacked, there is practically no way to fix a system, if the root
kit starts before the OS. So I have been struggling with UEFI linux boot on
various machines. UEFI boot is definitely more complicated, and can break
easily, but hopefully more secure? Some people have bricked their laptops due
to secure boot. Some of the initial UEFI mb's (2011 vintage) are very buggy. I
wonder how much longer MBR legacy boot will be supported on newer MBs?
Cyber world is a jungle, but I find it entertaining. In my spare time I work on
my linux shorewall firewall and import various blacklists from spamhaus,
spyeytracker, and others. Not sure how effective it all is though, me with half
an old brain relative to full time hacker staffs and botnets that can come from
anywhere.
Perhaps the only solution will be some sort of real-time firewall detection,
such as what google chrome is doing, or a cooperative networked community like
dshield.org.
XP machines, IMO, are pretty vulnerable, but so is everything that is highly
used.
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/
www.dshield.org
http://thehackernews.com/
http://www.backtrack-linux.org/
http://www.metasploit.com/
http://www.spamhaus.org/
http://www.insidepro.com/
....
Wayne S
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