Well, then bad hardware and application software are a lot more prevalant under Windows than Linux. I install/deinstall games and other application software all the time under Linux. I have the usage pattern you describe for others (except the part about patching my system regularly), and I just don't have any difficulty keeping the system up for months at a time, not having to reinstall the OS until I choose to upgrade major versions, and, generally, it just keeps on ticking. Admittedly, it's even better under MacOS with Apple hardware, but, given the extent to which Linux is more reliable than Windows in the same usage pattern as you described, I find it hard to blame the hardware. Windows is a poorly designed operating system, which, although they have plugged lots of holes, is constantly discovering new ones. Worse yet, Micr0$0ft has always chosen a "functionality at any cost" approach to their software, so, if they want to implement a feature and it can't be done securely, they implement rather than scale back. Yes, their current default settings are more secure than ever before, but, they're still pretty leaky. Owen --On Sunday, August 15, 2004 7:00 PM +0200 Mikael Abrahamsson <swmike@swm.pp.se> wrote:
On Sun, 15 Aug 2004, Hank Nussbacher wrote:
Retina scan on something and some virus/worm got in and it took some registry editting and safe mode work to get it removed - and I know what I am doing.
As far as I know, there is no remotely exploitable hole in windows that doesn't have a patch for it, nothing majorly in the wild anyway. I run my fully patched XP laptop without firewall directly connected to the internet all the time and the above you mention doesn't happen to me.
A lot of the problems with windows that people complain about, isn't Microsoft caused apart from them designing a bad driver/library/registry model for how things are installed and ran. I usually run windows boxes for two-three years without reinstalling them, other people have to re-install every 3-6 months. Looking at their usage pattern and mine, they install games and other programs and de-install them all the time, whereas I usually stick to a fixed set of programs and rarely install new ones, and I always apply new patches when they're available via Windows Update. I can also run my machine for months without it crashing, which seems an unobtainable feat for a lot of other people. I see a pattern.
Bad hardware and application software cause a lot more problems than the operating system itself.
-- Mikael Abrahamsson email: swmike@swm.pp.se
-- If it wasn't crypto-signed, it probably didn't come from me.