Posted on 05/27/2015 4:52:27 PM PDT by sopwith
In 1983, when I started the free software movement, malware was so rare that each case was shocking and scandalous. Now it’s normal.
To be sure, I am not talking about viruses. Malware is the name for a program designed to mistreat its users. Viruses typically are malicious, but software products and software preinstalled in products can also be malicious – and often are, when not free/libre.
In 1983, the software field had become dominated by proprietary (ie nonfree) programs, and users were forbidden to change or redistribute them. I developed the GNU operating system, which is often called Linux, to escape and end that injustice. But proprietary developers in the 1980s still had some ethical standards: they sincerely tried to make programs serve their users, even while denying users control over how they would be served.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
One should pwon3 one’s hardware and private data.
Crapware. Computers and laptops come preloaded with it all the time. Is a PITA to uninstall, delete and get rid of.
Well this IS the Stallman. Take with giant grain of French sea salt.
1) go through the uninstall process and get rid of all of the junk
2) run a virus scan and remove any detected viruses (http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage)
3) run a malware scan and remove any detected (https://www.safer-networking.org/dl/)
4) run a registry cleaner (http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleaner/registry_cleaner.htm)
5) defrag the hard drive (http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/)
6) take a snapshot of the remaining image (http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/backup.htm)
the other morning I had a dream that the Whitehouse had been built with Malware installed
bkmk
unfortunately the white house has a Trojan installed
What I have noticed the most about the ‘trend’ in newer computers and their software is that they are LIMITING what you CAN DO, but giving you a multitude of WAYS to do the same thing (ergo having you believe you can DO a LOT).
I say that because I had to buy a newer computer with WIN 7 on it. They have made it harder to do certain things (user selected) but at least the device driver installs are smooth and pretty much automatic. Other than that, it’s still WIN XP but just with a bunch on flashy gadgets for inexperienced users to ‘awe’.
As far as malware, I don’t know who to believe or trust anymore when it comes to recommendations for the proper protection software.
My XP PRO system was recently destroyed by Microsoft who sent out some UPDATES that were intended to target unlicensed WINDOWS operating systems on Chinese computers, but somehow decided my was ‘unlicensed’. (I think that ‘info’ is a guess by the ‘expert’ that told me. I think Microsoft is just trying to destroy any and all existing XP systems to force you to buy a new computer with WIN 7 or 8).
I have to work on computers with AVG all the time that have been infected. It used to be a really good free anti-virus, but it’s bloated and doesn’t catch as much.
I’m an IT professional and at home, I use the free version of Avast. For the last 10+ years, I’ve used no other antivirus at home, and despite traveling all over the sketchy areas of the internet and downloading terabytes of music, not a single virus or malware.
That reminds me. On WIN XP, you could do a BACKUP of the SYSTEM at any time, and RESTORE from it later if you ran into problems.
On WIN 7, you can do a BACKUP but you can ONLY do it to a DIFFERENT HARD DRIVE or OUT TO THE INTERNET (or a server).
Since I don’t have ANOTHER hard drive in my computer nor do I think you can even add one to it (internally), I can’t do a backup. THANK YOU SO MUCH, MICROSOFT.
So, If I want to do a backup, I will have to buy and add an external drive just for backups.
If I don’t, if some ‘install’ messes up my computer I cannot ‘undo’ things. This SUCKS.
Win7 has many many advantages over WinXP that you may not know about. It’s more robust and makes linking computers in the home network much easier.
I do agree with you that software companies are taking away the real root access to files, especially in windows 8, but there’s nothing wrong with 7.
Doing a backup to the same disk is pretty much useless. You can make system restore points in 7 that will protect you in cases such as an update comes out that breaks something or you install software that doesn’t work well, you can essentially roll back to the last restore point.
but if you’re “backing up” your photos or music or whatever to the same hard drive, you’re not really backing them up at all. The reason you want to back up to a different disk is that disks are really pretty fragile machines and it’s all too often they go bad out of nowhere.
Next time turn off uodates. Get rid of flash and all other adobe products, replace IE with a more reputable browser like firefox. Don't install any 3rd party sofware. Do not install any browesr extensions or add-ons. Do not install any updates. Finally, practice safe email. Do not click on any email attachments. I install a few things like bash, Stallman's emacs and python, but those are super-safe.
freeware is for socialists.
Curious as to how much you paid for your internet browser.
I have no idea, but I know I paid for it.
The only “paid” browser I know of is arguably Internet Explorer, but it’s bundled with the operating system.
Open-source is a great movement in computing. It may never take over the Microsoft/Apple majority, but the fact that if you’re willing to learn and teach yourself how to do it, you can make amazingly robust and secure computers and networks without paying for any of it.
Also, Firefox is freeware and it’s generally regarded to be much better than IE. Foobar2000 is a free music player that will play pretty much any type of audio file and has so many options that you can change yourself. VLC is one of the best video players.
Feel free to spend as much money as you want on software, but to disdain freeware or open-source is limiting yourself severely.
There is freeware that is full of malware, to be sure. You can’t just go installing any old thing. But if you do a little research, you can find ways of doing pretty much anything on a computer that aren’t malware-ridden or that won’t bleed your wallet dry.
And the last time I checked, I paid for my OS.
Now then, you are prepared to assert that the people at Mozilla do what they do because they're charitable and live off trust funds?
Another year I went to a Java conference, where virtually every keynote speaker gushed about RFK Jr's global warming speech he gave at an unrelated event in the same city earlier in the week.
And in both cases my complaints about brining unrelated political matters into these venues were dismissed with hostility.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.