Microsoft. It's the 99% dead on target of all viruses written today. And if that wasn't enough, the damn thing blows up on it's own periodically.
-andy-
Microsoft
Moderator: Wiz Feinberg
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Everett Cox
- Posts: 497
- Joined: 13 Jul 1999 12:01 am
- Location: Marengo, OH, USA (deceased)
Andy-- Were you to play a song(s) composed of millions of notes, written by hundreds of people with differing styles, AND tried to allow acceptance of dozens of varying instruments into the ensemble, AND you wished to present your endeavor in such a way that everyone - from tone-deaf to skilled musicologist - could appreciate it,..... You'd likely make a few errors.
It is a wonder that things work as well as they do! Folks don't remember how it was 40, 30, or even a few years ago. MS and others has made it possible for ANYONE to be the conductor of a full orchestra. But before attempting to perform a symphony, most should take time to learn a bit of musical theory.
While our computers, operating systems, programs, etc are less than perfect, FAR more problems stem from the user's lack of knowledge - and an unwilling attitude to learn. Much less expertise is required, these days, to perform much more complex operations than anyone might have imagined when IBM introduced the first production PC.
The combination of MSIE and Outlook are among the favorite targets of malicious buttheads. That's not because those programs are so poorly designed but because they are in common use. Because they provide a wide range of functionallity, there is more opportunity to exploit both the program code AND the user ignorance. Most computer virus' present symptoms that go unheeded by careless and uninformed users. Most virus' can be avoided by alert users.
Sorry, didn't mean to 'rant'. --Everett <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Everett Cox on 26 March 2003 at 12:36 PM.]</p></FONT>
It is a wonder that things work as well as they do! Folks don't remember how it was 40, 30, or even a few years ago. MS and others has made it possible for ANYONE to be the conductor of a full orchestra. But before attempting to perform a symphony, most should take time to learn a bit of musical theory.
While our computers, operating systems, programs, etc are less than perfect, FAR more problems stem from the user's lack of knowledge - and an unwilling attitude to learn. Much less expertise is required, these days, to perform much more complex operations than anyone might have imagined when IBM introduced the first production PC.
The combination of MSIE and Outlook are among the favorite targets of malicious buttheads. That's not because those programs are so poorly designed but because they are in common use. Because they provide a wide range of functionallity, there is more opportunity to exploit both the program code AND the user ignorance. Most computer virus' present symptoms that go unheeded by careless and uninformed users. Most virus' can be avoided by alert users.
Sorry, didn't mean to 'rant'. --Everett <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Everett Cox on 26 March 2003 at 12:36 PM.]</p></FONT>
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Andy Zynda
- Posts: 754
- Joined: 22 Nov 1999 1:01 am
- Location: Wisconsin
I've been in the computer business as a programmer, service tech, salesman, debugger and developer since 1983. There are many operating systems out there that outclass microsoft's by such a degree that they're not even in the same league. Microsoft's newest 2 OS's take up 1.2 GIG of space on the hard disk. This gross corpulence is due to one thing, and one thing only. Sloppy, inefficient programming. "Make it pretty, throw every bell & whistle you can think of in the bucket, have it ready tomorrow, dont bother optimizing, testing, or debugging it, we can service pack it (to death!!) later. The users will let us know what works and what doesn't."
This is not speculation, this is a fact.
It is a marketing strategy designed to ensure a guarranteed cash flow, over a very, VERY long period of time.
And the virus writes have an easy time of it, due to the enormous number of holes in the system. As I said, an easy target.
The Bill Gates economic juggernaut.
Sorry, but I battle this animal every day at work, and sometimes it gets to me more than it should. I should probably be grateful, it's job security for me.
-andy-
This is not speculation, this is a fact.
It is a marketing strategy designed to ensure a guarranteed cash flow, over a very, VERY long period of time.
And the virus writes have an easy time of it, due to the enormous number of holes in the system. As I said, an easy target.
The Bill Gates economic juggernaut.
Sorry, but I battle this animal every day at work, and sometimes it gets to me more than it should. I should probably be grateful, it's job security for me.
-andy-
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Mark Ardito
- Posts: 899
- Joined: 9 Aug 1999 12:01 am
- Location: Chicago, IL, USA
Andy,
Microsoft = Job Security.
That is the way I look at it. Yes, they have a lot of unwanted stuff in their OS, but look at the Marktet Share they have to aim the OS at...EVERYONE! This is Business users all the way to my grandma and grandpa who think WinXP is cute looking! Now take Linux OS. It is aimed at the truely computer literate person. In order to get Red Hat 8.0 running on your home machine you need to have a pretty good grasp of the computer and it inner workings. The reason Microsoft has become so popular is because it markets its products at everyone, it never tries to single out a specific genre. With that in mind, then all the software manufacturers wanted to only write their apps for Windows. I know, Bill Gates makes more money in one year than I ever will in my lifetime. But I really do like his OS.
Mark
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Sho~Bud Pro I, Fender D-8 (C6&E13) http://www.darkmagneto.com
Microsoft = Job Security.
That is the way I look at it. Yes, they have a lot of unwanted stuff in their OS, but look at the Marktet Share they have to aim the OS at...EVERYONE! This is Business users all the way to my grandma and grandpa who think WinXP is cute looking! Now take Linux OS. It is aimed at the truely computer literate person. In order to get Red Hat 8.0 running on your home machine you need to have a pretty good grasp of the computer and it inner workings. The reason Microsoft has become so popular is because it markets its products at everyone, it never tries to single out a specific genre. With that in mind, then all the software manufacturers wanted to only write their apps for Windows. I know, Bill Gates makes more money in one year than I ever will in my lifetime. But I really do like his OS.
Mark
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Sho~Bud Pro I, Fender D-8 (C6&E13) http://www.darkmagneto.com
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Andy Zynda
- Posts: 754
- Joined: 22 Nov 1999 1:01 am
- Location: Wisconsin
Macintosh. An os for users that works.
The estimate is that Windows is at least 3 years behind. Mac users laugh at windows users.
Amiga's OS in 1986 ran on hardware that was being clocked at 7 mhz. It was a true multitasking OS, and I myself, in a machine with 2 megs of ram, had 128 separate programs (complete applications) running at once. Not to mention the Video Toaster in 88 that wasn't caught up with until the late 90's in the MS-OS PC world.
Enough already, I'm depressing myself.
-andy-
The estimate is that Windows is at least 3 years behind. Mac users laugh at windows users.
Amiga's OS in 1986 ran on hardware that was being clocked at 7 mhz. It was a true multitasking OS, and I myself, in a machine with 2 megs of ram, had 128 separate programs (complete applications) running at once. Not to mention the Video Toaster in 88 that wasn't caught up with until the late 90's in the MS-OS PC world.
Enough already, I'm depressing myself.
-andy-
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Ron Page
- Posts: 5725
- Joined: 4 Aug 1998 11:00 pm
- Location: Penn Yan, NY USA
Andy,
I sensed you were an Apple guy...
My first home computer was a Mac LC -- their first color system for home users. I have always like Macs but they completely lost the marketing battle by failing to open the architecture as IBM did on the PC.
I even considered buying a Mac this time around, but the mass market is tough for Apple to compete with. They'll get the nitch players, but not us guys that have PC's at work.
I have no complaints about my Dell/Intel/Windows "commodity box". Highly functional and cost-effective. They keep getting better, faster and cheaper.
Ron
I sensed you were an Apple guy...
My first home computer was a Mac LC -- their first color system for home users. I have always like Macs but they completely lost the marketing battle by failing to open the architecture as IBM did on the PC.
I even considered buying a Mac this time around, but the mass market is tough for Apple to compete with. They'll get the nitch players, but not us guys that have PC's at work.
I have no complaints about my Dell/Intel/Windows "commodity box". Highly functional and cost-effective. They keep getting better, faster and cheaper.
Ron