Wanna virus? goodluck.

[wbeck85]

Heres an entertaining article I found. Enjoy

http://os.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/01/25/1430222&from=rss

[hard_i]

lol .. good article indeed :-D

[lao_V]

Very very interesting!

[jwb]

I feel left out too. No viruses. Nothing to worry about. What a worry, not having any worries.

Sometimes I simulate viruses. I randomly delete my files, and send personal information all over the net.

With Linux, I'm not likely to get a virus. But I can simulate one and not feel left out!

Sometimes, when I'm feeling really randy and naughty, I run Windows and get the REAL thing. What a RUSH!

Woooooo!

;-)

[carlc]

I know what you mean. All of my friends use xp and get to play around with viruses and all of the bells and whistles that go along with them such as anti-virus programs and get to have that wonderfull experience of having files from your pc randomly emailed to people in your address books. :-P

[dusu]

Really entertaining article thanks !
It's quite funny, yesterday I was remembering of a book about viruses I had bought when I was a teenager.
There it was said that computer viruses were like real life.
So I thought it was a shame that Linux was kind of a dead OS since it has no viruses :-D
Man, I love this dead OS :mrgreen:

[poofyhairguy]

Heres an entertaining article I found. Enjoy

http://os.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/01/25/1430222&from=rss

Hmm....

I don't even use a firewall anymore. I hope some gets into my machine, only to find Ubuntu ISOs and the entire 3 seasons of the cartoon series "The Tick" (which is backedup on DVDs...)

If they screw somthing up, I'll finally put on that clean Hoary install I promised myself this year....

[BWF89]

The FSF should start working on a program that would let Linux users run Windows viruses through an emulator.

[occy8]

good article, now here is another thought, don't know if it can work but assuming you get a virus that scans through your machine for whatever.windows file to cause some damage, wouldn't it find it on a dual boot machine with a mounted fat32 partition?
If that is possible it cause real problems over there cause the virus scanner is not running.

[TravisNewman]

If it's a windows virus, it will only run with wine, in which case, it will only see the fake_windows drive (and any other locations you have set up in wine) as the filesystem. So as long as you don't have your wine config set up for this, it probably won't work. I would think that virus writers would make it search specific locations anyway. I think the Z: drive is where your / filesystem goes (in Xover anyway) so the virus would probably only be looking in c:\windows, c:\windows\sytem, or some other place it actually expects to find it.

[lao_V]

Really entertaining article thanks !
It's quite funny, yesterday I was remembering of a book about viruses I had bought when I was a teenager.
There it was said that computer viruses were like real life.
So I thought it was a shame that Linux was kind of a dead OS since it has no viruses :-D
Man, I love this dead OS :mrgreen:
If computer viruses are like real life and human's are like computers then the following analagy is interesting:

Windows people: smoke, drink, eat junk food and other stuff -> more likely to catch viruses/illness.
Linux people: don't smoke, drink, eat healthy -> less likely to catch virus/illness

[Jad]

Well its not just about viruses
in the past when I was windows idiot, I couldn't keep my windows install for more than one month
even if I'm not connected to the internet, for some reason it become slow after one month of installation and format is a must, and there is no tweak
now with linux this is a history
heh
long live linux!
Die windows die

[BWF89]

I used to hate viruses and virus writers. Now I love them. If they stopped writing viruses for Window$ people wouldn't want to switch to Linux, BSD, or OS:X as much. Unless ofcourse they start writing viruses for Un*x in which case I hope they all burn in hell.

[totalshredder]

Gee, I must say, I severely miss running AdAware and SpyBot every day. I miss norton scanning all my emails. :-({|=

Thank GOD for linux!!!

[TravisNewman]

I used to hate viruses and virus writers. Now I love them. If they stopped writing viruses for Window$ people wouldn't want to switch to Linux, BSD, or OS:X as much. Unless ofcourse they start writing viruses for Un*x in which case I hope they all burn in hell.
I must say that's kinda selfish.
I care about the computing world at large, because it affects everything we do daily. So I wish people who wrote viruses for ANY platform would be arrested and punished to the full extent of the law.
And again, I say, who cares if people switch to Linux? The only reason I'd like it is if companies started supporting it because more people were using it, but I don't care if Linux "beats" Windows-- in fact, I don't htink that's what anyone has set out to do. I won't go into that again, I've done it quite a few times on the forum already.

Anyway, wanting people to get viruses so they'll switch? That's a little sadistic.

[defkewl]

Yeach kewl article. Thanks for sharing it with us. ;)

[TjaBBe]

Well there ARE linux virusses. But they are very few, and chances of catching them are unfortunately quite small.

Thing I miss most is my addware. I can't even see where to buy my ****** anymore :(.

[Black Zero]

That article is very reassuring to a newbie to Linux like myself. That's why I switched to Linux -- because I was depressed with the massive numbers of viruses and spyware programs in existence to attack the Windows platform. Before I installed Ubuntu, my computer was running programs like a madman. I was extremely concerned about the security of my Windows computer. But on Linux I have found that this problem rarely even exists! I'm glad I've installed Linux; now I can save 50% of the energy I would have normally spent on AV programs.

[totalshredder]

That article is very reassuring to a newbie to Linux like myself. That's why I switched to Linux -- because I was depressed with the massive numbers of viruses and spyware programs in existence to attack the Windows platform. Before I installed Ubuntu, my computer was running programs like a madman. I was extremely concerned about the security of my Windows computer. But on Linux I have found that this problem rarely even exists! I'm glad I've installed Linux; now I can save 50% of the energy I would have normally spent on AV programs.

Hey Nathan! (I got this kid on ubuntu)

It's quite true, I used to spend a lot of time deleting all that crap (and I know, for you personally it was a pasttime). On the subject of wasting time; a lot of people say that you need to learn a ton just to be able to do simple tasks. It's so not true! If you want to do things the old unefficient window's ways, sure, go ahead; we have file browsers. But if you wanna save MORE time; get on a terminal buddy!

Luke

[digby]

I'll be honest. In all my time using Windows (every version from 3.0 to XP Pro excepting ME), I've had one virus. One. And the most malicious thing it did was force me to save Word documents as templates. Grrrr. And I had internet access in some form or another since Win 3.1. (And of course the old BBS days before that...)

For a lot of this time, I didn't know a whole lot about security. I did know enough to not download and execute everything I saw, but I couldn't have told you anything about firewalls or open ports. I will grant that my knowledge base seemed to increase slightly ahead of the virus onslaught, but I still don't think that it's too difficult to properly secure a Windows box as long as you use some common sense.

So I've never really had to deal with the spyware or virii on my machine. Now, don't think me naive: I've cleaned out more crap from computers belonging to friends, roommates, family members, and anyone else who heard that I could do that kind of thing, so I fully understand the epidemic that is out there.

I think I've come far afield from where I intended to be... it must be late.

Anyway, all this to say that I think switching to Linux to be free of virii and spyware, while valid, is not the best reason. We need to convince people of the benefits of the open source model. We need to improve our software to the point that the question of better usability is moot. We absolutely do not need to wish doom and gloom upon people in the form of the latest malicious worm as a method of platform evangelization.

I think this turned into a rant. I apologize... 8-[

[primeirocrime]

I'll be honest. In all my time using Windows (every version from 3.0 to XP Pro excepting ME), I've had one virus. One. And the most malicious thing it did was force me to save Word documents as templates. Grrrr. And I had internet access in some form or another since Win 3.1. (And of course the old BBS days before that...)

For a lot of this time, I didn't know a whole lot about security. I did know enough to not download and execute everything I saw, but I couldn't have told you anything about firewalls or open ports. I will grant that my knowledge base seemed to increase slightly ahead of the virus onslaught, but I still don't think that it's too difficult to properly secure a Windows box as long as you use some common sense.

So I've never really had to deal with the spyware or virii on my machine. Now, don't think me naive: I've cleaned out more crap from computers belonging to friends, roommates, family members, and anyone else who heard that I could do that kind of thing, so I fully understand the epidemic that is out there.

I think I've come far afield from where I intended to be... it must be late.

Anyway, all this to say that I think switching to Linux to be free of virii and spyware, while valid, is not the best reason. We need to convince people of the benefits of the open source model. We need to improve our software to the point that the question of better usability is moot. We absolutely do not need to wish doom and gloom upon people in the form of the latest malicious worm as a method of platform evangelization.

I think this turned into a rant. I apologize... 8-[
true...but viruses [that is the correct plural] are in every other pc. I ran windows since I was 15 going through the same family. And I did get my share of viruses, even in DOS, and this with no internet just with the then ubiquitous 3 1/4 floppy. Well but back then they were a form of slow network weren't they?

And we must bare in mind that linux is not safe from viruses. It may not catch the influenza but it propagates anyway. Most web servers are in own way or another linked to gnu/linux. And the flux of viruses goes through those gates.

Any way I didn't switch because of the safety issues or the virusphobia or the spyware paranoia. I switched because windows and microsoft are guanoware. I fe lt mistreated and paternalised by some kindergarten OS that tells ME what to do? 12 years of bowing down to them. NO more. I defenestrated the windows. It may be a quiet one and with no bloodshed, but this IS a revolution and it's going to be spreadalized.

Power to ubunters.

[digby]

true...but viruses [that is the correct plural] are in every other pc. I ran windows since I was 15 going through the same family. And I did get my share of viruses, even in DOS, and this with no internet just with the then ubiquitous 3 1/4 floppy. Well but back then they were a form of slow network weren't they?

And we must bare in mind that linux is not safe from viruses. It may not catch the influenza but it propagates anyway. Most web servers are in own way or another linked to gnu/linux. And the flux of viruses goes through those gates.

Any way I didn't switch because of the safety issues or the virusphobia or the spyware paranoia. I switched because windows and microsoft are guanoware. I fe lt mistreated and paternalised by some kindergarten OS that tells ME what to do? 12 years of bowing down to them. NO more. I defenestrated the windows. It may be a quiet one and with no bloodshed, but this IS a revolution and it's going to be spreadalized.

Power to ubunters.

I agree on everything but the plural of virus. I believe the origin is Latin (2nd declinsion masculine) making the nominative plural virii. But maybe I just took too much Latin back in undergrad...

[primeirocrime]

I agree on everything but the plural of virus. I believe the origin is Latin (2nd declinsion masculine) making the nominative plural virii. But maybe I just took too much Latin back in undergrad...

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=viruses
http://www.cknow.com/vtutor/vtplural.htm

d'accord there is a rare plural form, but it's viri and not virii. What matters here is that the word, in it's modern context, and in the english language evolved virus into viruses. I agree that viri sounds better though.

[I'll shut up now, anything P.M me for longer word discussion :)]