Microsoft scrambles to patch Windows' flaw

Yawn.....hackers can own your sytem...yawn...microsoft is releasing a patch...yawn.......microsoft....yawn.

As soon as I blimmin get my DSL line im killing MS on my PCS. I want to use Ubuntu but without a always on connection its not really practical cos of repositories and updates etc.
 
De-MS your PC

If your workplace insists on Windoze on your desktop, install Firefox and OpenOffice. Otherwise, just get Linux and rest easy!
 
Open Office are you crazy? thats a terrible product no matter how you look at it.
 
OpenOffice works fine for me

  • It's free - as opposed to R999 for Student/Teacher version or R3999 for Professional.
  • It's immune to Visual Basic macro virusses.
  • The file format is open and documented.
  • File sizes are managable.
  • I've manged to read every M$ formatted doc ever received.
  • The word processor doesn't mangle your carefully constructed headers and footers half an hour before a deadline.
  • The spreadsheet may not do pivot tables (or whatever) as nicely as Excel, but I stick to the basics.
What else can I say? :D
 
rooijan said:
  • It's free - as opposed to R999 for Student/Teacher version or R3999 for Professional.
  • It's immune to Visual Basic macro virusses.
  • The file format is open and documented.
  • File sizes are managable.
  • I've manged to read every M$ formatted doc ever received.
  • The word processor doesn't mangle your carefully constructed headers and footers half an hour before a deadline.
  • The spreadsheet may not do pivot tables (or whatever) as nicely as Excel, but I stick to the basics.
What else can I say? :D
Click to expand...

As a MS Office user, I must say I've found it impossible to switch to Open Office, I find it feature lacking and it has a very cumbersom UI. I also require a feature rich email platform like MS Outlook to function properly... I suppose we can't expect the world from an OSS package, but I'll have to stick with MS Office. (I get it as part of my Technet Action Pack anyway)

I am a massive fan of Firefox... it kicks everything elses but... I use it with Fasterfox and Google Accelerator and it browses quicker than I can!
 
More mass hysteria from the anti-Windows crowd.

If you don't surf dubious p0rn and crack and warez sites in Russia , not clicking like a fool on unknown email attachments from the CIA and FBI or overseas Lottery and having an up to date virus scanner means that you will have no problem.

This so called "flaw" is by design in Windows since 95 as the WMF is used also by the printing subsystem in Windows to allow Postscript printer drivers to send certain data to the printer.

Guess when you have 80% marketshare of the desktop market in the world then some people will try and hack it.
 
w1z4rd said:
Open Office are you crazy? thats a terrible product no matter how you look at it.
Click to expand...

A rather bloated slow and crashy app ... found that Abiword was a far better prospect.

It has been shown that MS Office uses less memory and is faster at doing tasks than this open source wonder.
 
New Apple PCs coming next year that can run virus-resistant unix based OSx AND Windoze!
Exciting times ...
 
Skeptik said:
New Apple PCs coming next year that can run virus-resistant unix based OSx AND Windoze!
Exciting times ...
Click to expand...

I wonder why there is a Norton Antivirus for OS X :).
 
tibby.dude said:
It has been shown that MS Office uses less memory and is faster at doing tasks than this open source wonder.
Click to expand...

To put things into perspective, go have a shufti here for Linux and here for Windows.
 
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The_Unbeliever said:
To put things into perspective, go have a shufti here for Linux and here for Windows.
Click to expand...

The real problem here I suspect is that Open Office uses that cross platform C++ framework developed by StarOffice while Office is only written for one platform namely Win32 as Mac Office has it's own code base.

Linux, Apache and Samba are good example but then one is simply a kernel to boot a box to the root prompt and the others are all daemons so obviously they would be frigging fast and Windows would be at a disadvantage.

As soon as you introduce X Windows and either KDE or Gnome to the mix for a usable desktop then things start to suck again.
 
tibby.dude said:
I wonder why there is a Norton Antivirus for OS X :).
Click to expand...
Are you implying that there are viruses for OS X? I haven't heard of any yet. (Although I think Windows probably has several hundred thousand by now.) I don't know about you, but I can think of at least a few reasons why Symantec may sell Norton Antivirus for OS X, and none of them require the existence of OS X viruses. The first reason is the most obvious - $$$ - play on peoples' fears and lack of knowledge to sell more products (e.g. my dad genuinely thought that all computers including Macs were generally equally susceptible to viruses - he would have been a prime candidate). The second reason is that e.g. infected e-mail attachments can still be received and live 'dormant' on an OS X machine 'on their way' to Windows systems (e.g. saving an infected e-mail attachment and copying it to CD or flash drive or over the network). Likewise OS X folders are frequently shared and mapped on Windows systems as network shares, as I have in my setup. Thirdly OS X can function as a server.
 
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Turtle said:
Are you implying that there are viruses for OS X? I haven't heard of any yet. (Although I think Windows probably has several hundred thousand by now.) I don't know about you, but I can think of at least a few reasons why Symantec may sell Norton Antivirus for OS X, and none of them require the existence of OS X viruses. The first reason is the most obvious - $$$ - play on peoples' fears and lack of knowledge to sell more products (e.g. my dad genuinely thought that all computers including Macs were generally equally susceptible to viruses - he would have been a prime candidate). The second reason is that e.g. infected e-mail attachments can still be received and live 'dormant' on an OS X machine 'on their way' to Windows systems (e.g. saving an infected e-mail attachment and copying it to CD or flash drive or over the network). Likewise OS X folders are frequently shared and mapped on Windows systems as network shares, as I have in my setup. Thirdly OS X can function as a server.
Click to expand...

I've had an OSX virus before... I had to get an app from mac.com to remove it.

Correction, not I, a client of mine*
 
Turtle said:
Are you implying that there are viruses for OS X? I haven't heard of any yet. (Although I think Windows probably has several hundred thousand by now.) I don't know about you, but I can think of at least a few reasons why Symantec may sell Norton Antivirus for OS X, and none of them require the existence of OS X viruses. The first reason is the most obvious - $$$ - play on peoples' fears and lack of knowledge to sell more products (e.g. my dad genuinely thought that all computers including Macs were generally equally susceptible to viruses - he would have been a prime candidate). The second reason is that e.g. infected e-mail attachments can still be received and live 'dormant' on an OS X machine 'on their way' to Windows systems (e.g. saving an infected e-mail attachment and copying it to CD or flash drive or over the network). Likewise OS X folders are frequently shared and mapped on Windows systems as network shares, as I have in my setup. Thirdly OS X can function as a server.
Click to expand...

I think mac users should become responsible and get virus protection for that very reason... they tend infect all the people the comunicate with. Usually thier attitude (not saying it's yours Turtle) is well it doesn't effect me so I don't care.
 
Carlhead said:
I think mac users should become responsible and get virus protection for that very reason... they tend infect all the people the comunicate with. Usually thier attitude (not saying it's yours Turtle) is well it doesn't effect me so I don't care.
Click to expand...
ROFL - so the mac user needs to become responsible when it was most likely an infected, inadequately protected windows user who sent on the virus in the first place and another similarly unprotected windows user who subsequently got infected?

I've been using osx from day 1 and have never seen a osx virus. I get plenty of windows virus sent to me but they as obvious as a Symantec marketing ploy so they get handled with a press of the delete key.

Sure there might be a few Windows Macro virus that could be passed on but then using open office or Pages will handle that.

Anyhow - saw on digg that Microsoft have released their patch for the wmf exploit - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...96-57ae-499e-b89b-215b7bb4d8e9&DisplayLang=en

More info - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms06-jan.mspx including downloads for versions other than XP sp2
 
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habari said:
ROFL - so the mac user needs to become responsible when it was most likely an infected, inadequately protected windows user who sent on the virus in the first place and another similarly unprotected windows user who subsequently got infected?
Click to expand...

See it's people like you! Who care's where it came from and where it's going. The fact is we ALL need to be responsible and make sure we done propogate viruses. You can get free antivirus with your Mac.com membership.

habari said:
I've been using osx from day 1 and have never seen a osx virus. I get plenty of windows virus sent to me but they as obvious as a Symantec marketing ploy so they get handled with a press of the delete key.
Click to expand...

I have only ever seen 1 mac virus, and I've been working with them since OS 8... There have been a number of exploits that have been fixed with patching... but mac users seem to forget that for some reason.
 
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