[OU] AV programs & Opera

[Ledgem]

On Sun, 03 May 2009 02:50:53 -0400, Rodger A Headifen <rhead_pc at paradise.net.nz> wrote:

> A University person was known to say on his door, "In a world without
> fences who needs gates!"
>
> I believe this person is using Linux, very interesting software.
>
> I'm testing version 9.04 Ubuntu (updated from 7.04) on an old PIII 550mg
> Dual boot with Wins 2000Pro, its good fun, without the problems of Micro.
>

I guess this is slightly off-topic for the Opera mailing list, but I still find Linux frustrating. I have a fair bit of operating system experience (enough to know that each one has their own way of doing things, and that until you learn those nuances you may have some trouble) but for all my years of Windows and Mac OS (including pre-X) experience, Linux really eludes me. About every other year I give Ubuntu a go, and while it's gotten a lot better it still has a very long way to go. My first usability test is to try and install Opera. It'll usually take me anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, depending on how many terminal commands I need to reference. Installing anything through the package management systems is a breeze, but if you try to install anything else you'll need to do it in a less conventional way...

Or maybe I just haven't learned the nuances of the OS yet. Regardless, it's not particularly clear to me. In addition, many of the system preferences are scattered about, and many of the "more advanced" settings will still require the use of the terminal and/or editing configuration files. I like to think of myself as a techie and very computer savvy, but these days I just don't care to spend the time to learn all of those things and spend hours troubleshooting issues that arise. Especially because now Mac OS X and Windows are near flawless in terms of just letting you do what you want to do and not getting in the way (compared to how things used to be, at least). I had absolutely no apprehensions about recommending my mother (low computer aptitude) and fiancee (average aptitude) to switch over to Apple systems, but I have to admit that I'd be losing sleep at night if they were on Linux because I'd be worrying that I'd receive a call and have to spend hours to fix something.


That aside, no single antivirus software will catch everything and cover you 100%. I use Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition on my Windows systems (I wouldn't touch their consumer-grade product). It's relatively resource-light (especially compared to the consumer version) and just does what it's supposed to do. I use antivirus software as my "canary in the mine" more than anything else - when you're infected, many of the modern viruses will heavily alter your antivirus software. If the antivirus software starts acting strangely, you may not know what you're infected with, but you're very likely infected. Today's viruses are also so sophisticated that even if the software detects an infection, unless it's in a file that I haven't yet opened, then I'll opt to reinstall the OS rather than attempt a cleaning process. Antivirus software isn't very good at removing infections, and there's too much at stake to risk running a compromised computer. So use what you like, making sure th!
 at it isn't too far behind on its successful detection rate relative to the others, and go for something that isn't too invasive or resource-heavy.

These days I use Mac OS X as my primary operating system, so I don't muck around with constantly-running antivirus software. It's nice, but I wish that there were more security solutions available for Mac OS X (particularly a firewall). As of now there's no real security threat, but there's no guarantee that it'll remain that way in the future. When that day comes, I'd rather be ready and guarded.

Cheers,
David