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Brunellus
September 11th, 2006, 03:01 PM
http://ouij.livejournal.com/176473.html

"Hey, ouij," says my dad, "I need a new antivirus program. Which one should I buy?"

"Oh just get ClamAV. It's free, and very good."

"ClamAV, huh. OK, I'll check it out."

Well, as you can see above, Dad goofed. Big time. Instead of downloading the proper ClamWin program, he clicked on a sponsored link--thanks Google overlords--and then installed not one, but TWO crapware packages masquerading as antivirus programs. The irony would be exquisite if it weren't for the consequences: his Windows install was hosed.

We moved Dad to a Linux machine for the afternoon while I busied myself with his Windows box. Thankfully we had a "recovery image," and thus didn't have to go through the special hell that is a bare OS install. Once I got everything up and running, I was able to set put Clamwin on , no problem. Dad is now chastened. I am trying to sell him on the idea of booting Linux and running his windows apps in Crossover Office...which would make life a lot easier for me as family sysad. But that's not really likely to happen. At least now Dad should be more circumspect about his downloading, and will remember Linux as--yet again!--the thing that allowed him to keep working when Windows failed him.

jdong
September 11th, 2006, 03:16 PM
Yeah, my parents do the exact same thing... and they like to visit these Chinese news sites that make the spyware on russian warez sites look lame :D


That is why I was fed up early this year, and shelled out a bit over 100 bucks on Kaspersky AV licenses. Never had a problem since, and the viruses stopped counter is well into the thousands on the two Windows machines. This is not counting the ClamAV proxy that is already guarding the network (yikes!)


I just recently discovered that AOL apparently offers a free AV solution, and it's powered by KAV.


/me grieves over his 100 bucks :(

Brunellus
September 11th, 2006, 03:22 PM
the worst thing about this is that Dad is usually pretty reliable. I was most surprised that instead of asking for help (which is what he'll do, usually) he went ahead and installed questionable software.

I feel bad about this, honestly, because it was my dad who got me into computers to begin with when he bought our first computer (a Kaypro 2000) and let me use one (a PC-XT clone!). The sad thing is that Dad's understanding of how computers work has pretty much been frozen at around MS-DOS 6.2...

argie
September 11th, 2006, 03:50 PM
Haha, that's quite funny. Can't blame your dad on that one though (unless he's seen Google Ads lots before). The link is very nicely placed.

gurgle
September 11th, 2006, 03:53 PM
thats why you send your parents the link....

Brunellus
September 11th, 2006, 04:05 PM
thats why you send your parents the link....
yeah, I know.

Dinerty
September 11th, 2006, 04:12 PM
What where the actual effects of the 2 nasty packages?, they make the system un-bootable?

Brunellus
September 11th, 2006, 04:43 PM
What where the actual effects of the 2 nasty packages?, they make the system un-bootable?
system was unusable. System would boot, but then lock immediately. Terminating their processes caused system to BSOD.

Amusingly, my brother was in the room with me when the system BSOD'ed the first time.

Me: "sh*t! we got BSOD-ed!"

Bro: "Haha. I KNEW that program was sketchy!"

Dad: Bee-sod?

Me: The Blue Screen of Death

Dad: Just because you give it a name doesn't mean I understand it.

Me: (explains about BSODs, general protection faults, and other fun things in windows."

Dad: Oh.

OffHand
September 11th, 2006, 04:54 PM
The sad thing is that Dad's understanding of how computers work has pretty much been frozen at around MS-DOS 6.2...

LOL

Dinerty
September 11th, 2006, 05:40 PM
system was unusable. System would boot, but then lock immediately. Terminating their processes caused system to BSOD.

Amusingly, my brother was in the room with me when the system BSOD'ed the first time.

Me: "sh*t! we got BSOD-ed!"

Bro: "Haha. I KNEW that program was sketchy!"

Dad: Bee-sod?

Me: The Blue Screen of Death

Dad: Just because you give it a name doesn't mean I understand it.

Me: (explains about BSODs, general protection faults, and other fun things in windows."

Dad: Oh.

lol, they not tried Ubuntu?, with you there to help them set it up, could give you more free time to help them with their linux problems :D

EdThaSlayer
September 11th, 2006, 06:01 PM
system was unusable. System would boot, but then lock immediately. Terminating their processes caused system to BSOD.

Amusingly, my brother was in the room with me when the system BSOD'ed the first time.

Me: "sh*t! we got BSOD-ed!"

Bro: "Haha. I KNEW that program was sketchy!"

Dad: Bee-sod?

Me: The Blue Screen of Death

Dad: Just because you give it a name doesn't mean I understand it.

Me: (explains about BSODs, general protection faults, and other fun things in windows."

Dad: Oh.

lol

i liked the part when your dad said "Bee-sod?"

nice story ^_^

Its good to hear that linux saved his--work?i guess...

Brunellus
September 11th, 2006, 07:04 PM
lol, they not tried Ubuntu?, with you there to help them set it up, could give you more free time to help them with their linux problems :D
my brother dual-boots Ubuntu and WinXP. He's ambivalent about the whole Linux thing. He'd like it more, but he's had pretty lousy luck with it. Things he likes though: Fluxbox (!) and psxe, the Playstation emulator. He still tends to run in Windows by default, though, only booting to Linux when "necessary" (psxe sessions these days).

Dad pretty much has to stay on Windows because of work; his line of work uses MS Office 2000 with a lot of scripts/macros. He actually likes OOo, but finds it easier to deal with Office when dealing with his employer. He is able (by means not fully understood by me) get MS Office and Lotus Notes from his employer, but only if he runs Windows. Plus, there are other networking/vpn quirks in his organziation.

Dinerty
September 11th, 2006, 07:26 PM
my brother dual-boots Ubuntu and WinXP. He's ambivalent about the whole Linux thing. He'd like it more, but he's had pretty lousy luck with it. Things he likes though: Fluxbox (!) and psxe, the Playstation emulator. He still tends to run in Windows by default, though, only booting to Linux when "necessary" (psxe sessions these days).

Dad pretty much has to stay on Windows because of work; his line of work uses MS Office 2000 with a lot of scripts/macros. He actually likes OOo, but finds it easier to deal with Office when dealing with his employer. He is able (by means not fully understood by me) get MS Office and Lotus Notes from his employer, but only if he runs Windows. Plus, there are other networking/vpn quirks in his organziation.

That is a shame, Fluxbox is nice and clear display, my friend used it. It's a shame about your dad not being able to use Ubuntu, would be great if he could make his living from Ubuntu OS.

jdong
September 11th, 2006, 07:35 PM
The other thing about fluxbox is its sheer speed... It used to be really noticeable back like a year or so ago, that I would even consider using fluxbox on my powerful systems. However, with recent focus both in the KDE and GNOME camp on performance, they've bridged the gap quite a bit.

Brunellus
September 11th, 2006, 07:38 PM
The other thing about fluxbox is its sheer speed... It used to be really noticeable back like a year or so ago, that I would even consider using fluxbox on my powerful systems. However, with recent focus both in the KDE and GNOME camp on performance, they've bridged the gap quite a bit.
that's been my brother's observation, too. "With Fluxbox, you start it up and wait for the splash screen...and then you realize there IS no splash screen. It's ready."

I'll always have a place for Fluxbox. But GNOME has been getting a lot better since 2.8