SICK of my PC!!!!

[roanjohn]

So my PC has been giving me a lot of headaches..........it can't seem to function properly.

The final straw was last night..........I acquired a virus.........some backdoor.prorat or something rather............and Norton cannot get rid of it!!!! It can't even quarantine the darn thing. And with the spyware, pop-ups.........and etc..........its TOO MUCH!!! The whole darn thing is soooo unstable!!! And when I surf, I can't even use the media player.........and certain pages won't load!!! AAARRGGGHHH!!!! I don't know what to do...........I feel like just throwing that darn thing out of the window.

Now I'm thinking of just switching to a MAC!!!!

Do you think this will erase most of my headaches???

I just can't stand PC ANYMORE!!!!

..............okay, rant end.

:cry:

Ro1

[stopbath]

That is sad... :(

You could always try Linux/Windows dual boot set up, or run straight Linux.

You could use Linux for all internet / email stuff, then, use Windows for the applications that you need but are not available on Linux.

Some great applications ARE in Linux, so perhaps you could just use Linux, but likely you are used to Windows applications...

A Linux prepacked software package is not too expensive and is a lot less then buying a new computer (your current hardware works, it's the operating system that is hindered by the virus and other goodies.)

[Belmondo]

I'm a retired real estate broker. One of the reasons I switched from Mac to PC was that PC was generally adopted as the industry standard platform. If I wanted to continue using Mac, I'd still have to have a PC for accessing multiple listings and for using downloadable forms.

Now that I'm retired, I'd love to switch back to Mac, but the dollar investment in PCs, peripherals, etc., generally has me locked in at this point. Fixed incomes tend to do that to people.

I have one PC that I use exclusively for business purposes, and I rarely go online with it. It's as isolated from the rest of the world as I can make it---most might consider it overkill (software firewall, router, etc.). My other PC (and the laptops), frequently go online, but don't have anything on them that I can't live without in the event of a catastrophic virus. Still, I exercise reasonable precautions there, too.

[roanjohn]

Linux - hmmm..........I'm not too familiar with that OS. I'll have to look into that.

As Belmondo has mentioned, I have too much invested on my PC. A switch would mean switching most of my software/etc to a MAC compatible computer..........which is a big pain in the wazoo!!!

A question-----

Are MACs vulnerable to viruses/spyware etc.......??

Ro1

[Belmondo]

As I understand it, the Mac is generally left alone because of the smaller user base. It's no less vulnerable (although I sincerely doubt that).

The simple fact is that with over 90% of the people in the world using Windows, it's reasonbale to conclude that over 90% of hackers are using it as well.

[Scottes]

This really has little to do with a PC. Though 90% of the hackers (98%?) write crap for PCs, it's all a matter of your own personal habits. I ran a BBS back in `86, was on the Internet in `92, and have been the network admin for thousands of PCs. I generally spend far too much time on the Internet on a daily basis.


In 17 years I have never gotten a virus or worm on any of PCs I personally use, work or home, nor has my wife in her 10 years of using PCs.


If you allow yourself to be vulnerable then you are vulnerable. Running a PC (or Mac or Linux) is like driving a car - if you blindly bounce around and don't pay attention then you're going to get hurt. One of the real problems is that 90% of the people bounce around and don't pay attention. How often is a car to blame for a traffic accident?

[PacAce]

Or, you can look at it from a different perspective. You can live in New York City or any other big city and always be on the alert for potential accidents just waiting to happen every time you take to the streets (on foot or in a car). Or you can move to a little town where the driving is a little more relaxed. You still have to be vigilant but you're not going to stress yourself out being so. :D

And, oy yeah, we haven't even said anything about the muggers lurking (or not lurking, as the case maybe) in the dark corners. :mrgreen:

[Jesper]

Linux..... I bought a second harddisk last week and installed Linux on it (Mandrakelinux 10.0 to be precise).

It works well, and it was easy to set up (ok I'm a software engineer so I don't know if it's just as easy for someone who's not professionally involved with computers). But....:

My Wacom tablet doesn't work, in fact it hangs the system configuration program. I have to unplug the tablet. I can't even shutdown the system, because the hanging program prevents the system from shutting down.

Also, there's no Photoshop CS. There is the GIMP, but it's not very user-friendly.

I've never had any problems with Windows XP, in fact in my opinion it's the best and most stable version of Windows so far, but if I would have to switch to something else, I would prefer a Mac above Linux, because it's more user-friendly and there is more and better software available for doing graphics work than on Linux. By the way, Mac OS X is actually also a kind of Unix.

I wouldn't recommend Linux if you're not willing to spend time getting all your devices to work and solving unexpected problems.

[Scottes]

I've been using Linux for a long time (`92), and I know it better than Windows now, but I'll never switch to it until they port several programs to it, like Photoshop. Then I might. Maybe.

I've found that porting some Linux/Unix programs to Windows is much easier. I can't live without grep or perl or Photoshop - I have all 3 on my Windows box.

[roanjohn]

In 17 years I have never gotten a virus or worm on any of PCs I personally use, work or home, nor has my wife in her 10 years of using PCs.




:shock: :shock: :shock:

WOW!!! How did you do that??

I knew I messed something up.............but its just sooooo frustrating. I try to be as careful as possible.............but these viruses, worms, etc...are sneaky little creatures.

:evil:

Ro1

[Scottes]

WOW!!! How did you do that??

Paranoia, plain and simple.

I've been involved in some aspect of security almost since the day I started with PCs. I used to beta test the earliest anti-virus software. I've been connected, BBS and/or Internet, almost since day 1, so the paranoia of the big bad world was driven home early.

As a result, I just know a lot of things *not* to do, like run Internet Explorer or Outlook. I don't visit websites which seem shady in the least (ie; no porn or warez, etc). I don't allow Java or Flash or stuff like that until I feel comfortable with the site. I don't read emails from people I don't know, and I rarely click on anything someone sends me unless it's from a few choice people who are as paranoid as I am. I don't allow myself to be on family or friend's "joke lists" since then my email address just gets all over the world.

I run my own Internet domain, and web server and mail server. Everything coming into my house goes through 2 firewalls and an anti-virus. Email also goes through another anti-virus and an anti-spam on my firewall. Since I run my own mail server I have over 50 email accounts all pointing to me. My friends have one, security friends another, work friends another. Every web site I visit has me listed as a different email address. If I get spam or a worm I can then remove that email address because it's been tainted.

My job is to test security apps - firewalls, anti-virus/worm, IDS, IPS, etc. I *know* what is done to get through holes in OSes, and I shut those holes down on the systems I use. I mean, my job is to *break* security apps, so I know a bit about keeping stuff safe.


The last two parts about running my domain and being a security geek are things that most people can't do. But everything else is really more important, and will stop 98-99% of the issues. Actually, if you stop using IE or Outlook you'll be protected from 95% of the stuff out there - yes it's that simple.

[EuropeanSwallow]

I've been using Linux since 1998, and it fully satisfies my needs. I have a home-running server, 24/7, never been hacked. The learning curve is a bit steep, but it is very rewarding. I'm a Debian Linux (http://debian.org) user.

You can even try it before you install it in your hard drive. There are several available "live CD" Linux distributions, the most widespread being Knoppix (http://knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html). You just pop the CD in and use it to boot.

I also have bought recently a Mac iBook G4 12", and am very pleased with it. Sturdy, reliable and runs my favorite Linux software.Also, prices on Macs are turning rather affordable and PC competitible, with my iBook going for about $1.1K and the new 17" iMac going for around $1.3K. It takes a while to get used to OS X, but its not so hard. And of course you would need to shell out some cash for a Mac Photoshop CS license if you go that way (alternatives bellow).

One of the problems of Windows it's the poor usage of its security model. Usually applications are badly coded and require you to run them as administrator, with the inherent dangers. Some others, even Windows components and Microsoft applications, run with administrator priviliges, even with the user logged in with restricted privileges. Priviledge separation is usualy a mirage. It is usualy hard to check what's running as administrator or not. Internet Explorer is a cancer, as most people know, some the hard way. So one of the alternatives is to replace these "dangerous" applications by safer Free Software ones, that happen to run on all three platforms (Windows, Linux and Mac OS X). Having them for free is also a nice additional feature... :D This way, you can skip between the several platforms with easy, since your most used applications will be familiar.

- Replace Internet Explorer with Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/) - Much more features, less bloated, less sucurity issues. You'll never look back.

- If you don't use webmail (hotmail, gmail, yahoo), replace Outlook with Mozilla Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/).

- If you're not a Photoshop addict, or if you are but want to try something else for free, try Gimp (http://www.gimp.org). It has lot's of features, works as mentioned on the 3 platforms, and is Free! The user interface, as someone mentioned, is not the most user friendly, but is not rocket science either.

- Replace Media Player with Media Player Classic (http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/) and/or VideoLAN (http://www.videolan.org/). They are a lot less bloated and have much more features, like playing DivX . You would only need MS Media Player if you have DRM'd wma or wmv files...

- Try OpenOffice.org (http://openoffice.org), an alternative to MS Office. Can import/export most documents from MS Ofice and has some nice features, like saving documents/spreadsheets/presentatios as PDF.

[Crazy Canuck]

Thanks for the tips, just switched over to Mozilla on my laptop with windows xp. One of my PC's is redhat and the other is w2k, all behind a hardware firewall. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

[roanjohn]

Some great advice here.............yeah.............my IE is pretty much shot. I don't know what I did it.

Must download firefox 2night ASAP!!!

Thanks for the advice Scottes, and thanks for all the wonderful links European Swallow :-)

Ro1

[JZaun]

Yep I had problem after virus and more virus's until I went to Firefox. Haven't had a burp since!! I do have Norton, Ad Aware, Spybot and Mcafee spam killer running :)

JZ

[Zeke]

http://www.zeke.com.au/temp/apple.gif

[Scottes]

A google for "mac virus" returns over 3,000,000 hits. Sorry, a Mac is not the answer. IMHO, paranoia is the *only* answer.

[Zeke]

A google for "mac virus" returns over 3,000,000 hits. Sorry, a Mac is not the answer. IMHO, paranoia is the *only* answer.

meh.

A google for 'santa claus' returns 1,120,000 hits. Doesn't mean he is real.

Next?

[Scottes]

Are you even trying to imply that there has never been a virus for the Mac?

Think again.

[Zeke]

***Argumentive text deleted. Thread locked. ***
Belmondo