4 ms·

Bye bye Linux! Hello viruses, trojans, and ever-increasing bloat!

by lake99 14y ago

klibertp 14y ago
This is so unfair... Viruses, trojans and bloat are not a part of Windows, it is what users make of their systems. I use both FreeBSD and Windows (as desktops) and I haven't had an issue with any of them for the last two years.
- mattdeboard 14y ago
  It's not really "unfair", imo. It's obvious the GP poster is just regurgitating some garbage he heard somewhere else without doing any critical thought.
  - lake99 14y ago
    The most absurd things seem "obvious" to you. What is obvious is that you have not had to support friends who keep getting viruses, keep running out of free space on their massive disks, keep complaining about slower and slower performance.
    - klibertp 14y ago
      I had the pleasure of supporting such people - believe it or not, they used different OSes, from old Windows versions to shiny new Mac OS (which, I admit, I couldn't help with) and they all had the issues you talk about - running out of free space and worsening over time performance and more. It makes no difference which OS do you use if you have fifteen copies of the same 10Mb bmp image in different places. It also makes no difference if you never uninstall anything and keep piling shareware/freeware apps like a Pokemon Trainer. I'm sorry to break it to you but users of PCs generally should NOT own a PC, because they have no time nor intention to learn about using such a machine properly, and large percentage wouldn't be able to even if they wanted. That's why shift towards tablets is a good thing. Anyway, sufficiently non-tech-inclined user WILL kill his OS rather sooner than later, no matter which OS he happens to have. If you want to stop supporting these users just go there and disable all the features they use to make a mess of their PCs and lock them down in a sandbox, which is perfectly doable with every modern OS I'm aware of, or just persuade them to use tablet or chromebook. And stop hating decent OSes just because your friends are unable to use them properly.
      - lake99 14y ago
        When I wrote about disk space problems, I did not refer to user content. I agree that there is no easy fix for people keeping fifteen copies of bmps, etc. Instead, I was talking about disks getting filled by OS components, and by other software made by Microsoft, Apple and other large companies. This is something I have not seen on the Linux distros that I have come across. As for "sufficiently non-tech-inclined user WILL kill his OS rather sooner than later", well... some OSes and distros are more resilient to abuse than others. Ubuntu seems to be one of the best ones around. I'm an Arch-er myself, but that's because I'd rather give up some resilience to stay on the cutting edge.
    - mattdeboard 14y ago
      But that's not the fault of the OS. That's the fault of the user.
      - slasaus 14y ago
        I tend to develop more and more by the "it's never the users fault" pragma in order to build software that is perceived as "it just works".
      - deleted 14y ago
        [deleted]
- lake99 14y ago
  Users? What do you suppose will happen to machines of users who rely on just the default software for "simple things like red eye removal"? Of course, I'm not partial to Linux in this case. BSD and Mac users don't have the virus and trojan troubles that most Windows users are plagued with.
  - klibertp 14y ago
    > What do you suppose will happen to machines of users who rely on just the default software for "simple things like red eye removal"? Um, they won't get infected with viruses or trojans? But what do you count as default? Random, preinstalled crapware from HP, Dell and others or Windows components? If the former, then I saw similarly bloated and useless versions of these for Linux, too. I'm a FreeBSD user and I love it. I can't imagine my grandmother using my system for longer than five minutes. She certainly wouldn't get a virus, because she would be completely unable to install anything. But, she now has Windows XP installed and, she has no problems with viruses or trojans. It took me awhile to convince her NOT to click on anything that has the word "free" in it, but I managed. She does not want to watch porn either. This eliminates both most common ways people get 'infected'. And she's got not one virus or trojan, for four years now and counting.
    - lake99 14y ago
      I don't use *ubuntu myself, but this is what I install on friends' PCs (Ubuntu earlier, Xubuntu now). By "simple things like red eye removal", I was referring to something the original author wrote. I then teach them how to add/remove software themselves, and to click on the occasional software update notifications. Life becomes a lot easier for me after that. I have seen disk space problems on Macs though.

Bye bye Linux! Hello viruses, trojans, and ever-increasing bloat!

by lake99 14y ago

Bye bye Linux! Hello viruses, trojans, and ever-increasing bloat!

This is so unfair... Viruses, trojans and bloat are not a part of Windows, it is what users make of their systems. I use both FreeBSD and Windows (as desktops) and I haven't had an issue with any of them for the last two years.

mattdeboard 14y ago
It's not really "unfair", imo. It's obvious the GP poster is just regurgitating some garbage he heard somewhere else without doing any critical thought.
- lake99 14y ago
  The most absurd things seem "obvious" to you. What is obvious is that you have not had to support friends who keep getting viruses, keep running out of free space on their massive disks, keep complaining about slower and slower performance.
  - klibertp 14y ago
    I had the pleasure of supporting such people - believe it or not, they used different OSes, from old Windows versions to shiny new Mac OS (which, I admit, I couldn't help with) and they all had the issues you talk about - running out of free space and worsening over time performance and more. It makes no difference which OS do you use if you have fifteen copies of the same 10Mb bmp image in different places. It also makes no difference if you never uninstall anything and keep piling shareware/freeware apps like a Pokemon Trainer. I'm sorry to break it to you but users of PCs generally should NOT own a PC, because they have no time nor intention to learn about using such a machine properly, and large percentage wouldn't be able to even if they wanted. That's why shift towards tablets is a good thing. Anyway, sufficiently non-tech-inclined user WILL kill his OS rather sooner than later, no matter which OS he happens to have. If you want to stop supporting these users just go there and disable all the features they use to make a mess of their PCs and lock them down in a sandbox, which is perfectly doable with every modern OS I'm aware of, or just persuade them to use tablet or chromebook. And stop hating decent OSes just because your friends are unable to use them properly.
    - lake99 14y ago
      When I wrote about disk space problems, I did not refer to user content. I agree that there is no easy fix for people keeping fifteen copies of bmps, etc. Instead, I was talking about disks getting filled by OS components, and by other software made by Microsoft, Apple and other large companies. This is something I have not seen on the Linux distros that I have come across. As for "sufficiently non-tech-inclined user WILL kill his OS rather sooner than later", well... some OSes and distros are more resilient to abuse than others. Ubuntu seems to be one of the best ones around. I'm an Arch-er myself, but that's because I'd rather give up some resilience to stay on the cutting edge.
  - mattdeboard 14y ago
    But that's not the fault of the OS. That's the fault of the user.
    - slasaus 14y ago
      I tend to develop more and more by the "it's never the users fault" pragma in order to build software that is perceived as "it just works".
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
lake99 14y ago
Users? What do you suppose will happen to machines of users who rely on just the default software for "simple things like red eye removal"? Of course, I'm not partial to Linux in this case. BSD and Mac users don't have the virus and trojan troubles that most Windows users are plagued with.
- klibertp 14y ago
  > What do you suppose will happen to machines of users who rely on just the default software for "simple things like red eye removal"? Um, they won't get infected with viruses or trojans? But what do you count as default? Random, preinstalled crapware from HP, Dell and others or Windows components? If the former, then I saw similarly bloated and useless versions of these for Linux, too. I'm a FreeBSD user and I love it. I can't imagine my grandmother using my system for longer than five minutes. She certainly wouldn't get a virus, because she would be completely unable to install anything. But, she now has Windows XP installed and, she has no problems with viruses or trojans. It took me awhile to convince her NOT to click on anything that has the word "free" in it, but I managed. She does not want to watch porn either. This eliminates both most common ways people get 'infected'. And she's got not one virus or trojan, for four years now and counting.
  - lake99 14y ago
    I don't use *ubuntu myself, but this is what I install on friends' PCs (Ubuntu earlier, Xubuntu now). By "simple things like red eye removal", I was referring to something the original author wrote. I then teach them how to add/remove software themselves, and to click on the occasional software update notifications. Life becomes a lot easier for me after that. I have seen disk space problems on Macs though.