Linux_Yes: the beauty of Linux is that you don't need antivirus/antispyware/adware.

have never run any of that crap in 5 years and still clean as the driven snow. i've never even heard of any Linux users being infected with anything, and 50% of the web servers around the world run Linux, and they havent' been infected with anything, other than passing along infections to windows machines.


Infections are a windows thing because windows was never designed right in the first place.

Actually, I still keep the Linux version of AVG around. If you dual boot, it can really be a life saver to scan your Windows partition from the safety your Linux platform - especially if you get a nasty rootkit installed somehow, and your Win platform won't boot.
Also, even if you never use Windows yourself, if you share files on P2P networks, it's considerate to scan them before you share them with potential Windows users. So Linux AV software does have it's practical uses. I at least like to have it available.

Anyone who says Linux servers are immune to any kind of infection is a liar and should not be trusted, nor should any advice they hock be heeded.

I submit two pieces of evidence found within 10 seconds of a google search:

servers infected with a DoS program (new window)

servers infected via rootkit (new window)

Antivirus programs, both free and not free, are available for computers running any type of OS. Better to take advantage of them, than to take a fool's chance on the "security through obscurity" route.

Huh. The major, international company I just got laid off from was running Mcafee. I wonder if they're farked now.

My mother runs Norton. I can't knock it into her head that YES I advised she install Norton on her machine (ten years ago! When it was a Win95 box!), but today, Norton's stuff is on the shiatlist.

Oh god, I can't imagine the bullshiat I'm gonna get from McAfee users at work tomorrow.


God damn I hate tech support.

CLEARLY I'm evil: Oh god, I can't imagine the bullshiat I'm gonna get from McAfee users at work tomorrow.


God damn I hate tech support.

Call in sick. We don't use it but I'm sure some of my users will call me asking for help. It's always fun to say "hey, for a fee" as they hang up. I think I'm going to make Monday a travel day.

In the job I had before my current one they insisted on running Norton. I made a plea for a different virus scanner for our department and the idiot manager chose McAfee instead of my recommended virus scanner (AVG at the time). I quit a day later.

Hooray for Linux (Fedora 10 to be exact)

MusicMakeMyHeadPound: OgreMagi: I'm a huge fan of open source. I use it every day both at home and on the job, but one place open source is failing badly is in GUI design.

So fix it.

/you can, you know.

No I can't. This is an error in thinking in the open source world. Not just anyone can design a GUI. A well designed GUI is a specialized skill and the people who are good at it have special training. GIMP's GUI was designed by someone who lacks that training and it shows.

they all kind of suck.

'Sup Geeks,

Typin' this on a Dell laptop runnin' on Windows Vista browsin' on Internet Explorer 'n protected by McAfee Security Center.

Runs fast. Runs great. Feels good.

Ed Finnerty: kb.eset.com

THIS!
Except version 4 came out awhile ago, you need to upgrade...

MusicMakeMyHeadPound: xria: As long as your own time has little to no value to you of course.

Internet douchebags sure say that a lot, but let's look at it economically:

You have
A: the amount at which you value your time
B: the time it will take you to change what you don't like about GIMP
C: the price of the alternative - the Photoshop version of your choosing
D: the factoral value of knowledge learned (where 1.0 means you've learned nothing)

If ((A * B)/D) <= C then it's worth it. If not, then go with C.

C starts at $700 + tax, so even if you value your time at a completely unrealistic $100/hr and learn nothing new from the experience, you've got at least seven hours where it's completely worth it to alter GIMP's source code.

/or you can just pirate PS, whichever.

Ok, let's be realistic here. Anyone short of a CS master/PHD is likely to need to look up stuff in order to even START fiddling with GIMP's code. Before I fark with ANYTHING in there, I'm going to have to actually know what everything there does in general at least, and that would take days at best, probably closer to months. That's assuming whoever made that particular monstrosity was kind enough to comment liberally, something that I've noticed the open-source world tends to be bad at. Without comments, it will DEFINITELY be months, and some sections are likely to elude me permanently. And this is with a BS degree in computer science, so I'm already ahead of the curve on the 'average user'.

Given all that, assuming ANYTHING past the initial skim of the code can be done in 7 hours is hogwash, unless you are a professional coder to begin with. At which point, $100/hr for my time is a LOW estimate.

And all of that assumes I already have the tools installed and ready to go to crack open the source code, which on this machine I don't. I'd have to track that down as well (probably a good 30 minutes) and install it (another 30 from most code suites I've seen). Hour gone already.

Months of my time for literally no return other than the good feeling and a bit of experience that likely will be useless to me next week. Yeah, that's a great investment of my time.

Oh wait, that's pretty much been my general experience with everything Linux. Tons of fiddling, searching for answers, and general tomfoolery, a lack of useful, well-designed programs, and just a poor experience overall. I guess that's why the average user doesn't like Linux... you get what you pay for, and free shiat usually IS shiat.

sexy-fetus: I had mcafee for ages on a laptop that was mainly used for writing, web surfing and that sort of thing. Nothing that required an upgrade. It seemed to run slower everyday. That's when I realized that mcafee had slowly upgraded itself to be using about 60% of the processing power and even more memory. Uninstalled that and put avast on the machine and it was like a whole new computer.
I still have a hard time believing people are willing to shell out the money for mcafee when it's incredibly inferior to most of the free options available.
/Nobody ever leaves mcafee without becoming bitter.

This, this, and this. Oh yea, this too.
McAfee used to (10-11 years ago) be a decent product. Then they took on the MS method of programming. "Don't worry about efficiency. The user will just upgrade their machine to compensate"

earl_k

FTFA:

IT admins across the globe are letting out a collective groan after servers and PCs running McAfee VirusScan were brought down when the anti-virus program attack their core system files.

If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

I would love to hear what you (or any other of the people agreeing with you in this thread) think are better alternatives for a large enterprise.

I don't particularly like it, but I haven't found better either.

DjangoStonereaver: real shaman: *smug mac owner giggles*

My Ubuntu laptop just stole your Mac's lunchmoney.


djangostonereaver@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get maclunchmoney
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: The package maclunchmoney is too sexy for you, is too sexy for a shirt, is too sexy it hurts.
djangostonereaver@ubuntu:~$

Toy_Cop: The average user does not need anti-virus and firewall software. Just don't be a knob and click on stupid ad banners and suspicious e-mails.


/have never had anti-virus/firewall
//have never had a virus or problem.

Without AV software how do you know you have never had a virus?

I'm glad I ditched mcafee last week, my valuable porn collection may have been in danger

earl_k: FTFA:

IT admins across the globe are letting out a collective groan after servers and PCs running McAfee VirusScan were brought down when the anti-virus program attack their core system files.

If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

I'm an IT admin and I'm running McAfee.

/not my call, though; that's all decided by our security team at the home office
//feel free to call them dipshiats.

xellas84: Given all that, assuming ANYTHING past the initial skim of the code can be done in 7 hours is hogwash, unless you are a professional coder to begin with. At which point, $100/hr for my time is a LOW estimate.

You have a fairly inflated sense of what coders make.

LouDobbsAwaaaay: Linux_Yes: the beauty of Linux is that you don't need antivirus/antispyware/adware.

That's because nobody writes malware for linux. Because nobody uses linux.

Your local auto mechanic rarely if ever sees a Chinese Haima come in for repairs, but that isn't because they are built solid as a rock.

/dev/null

All you dip shiats praising AVG can kiss my wrinkled geek ass. I'm one of those lowly field techs for a school district with over 4000 PCs. Damn AVG quit updating and threw up a nag screen that would have done any rogue program, proud...THREE DAMN MONTHS BEFORE OUR SUBSCRIPTION EXPIRED!!! We just HAD to upgrade to 8.5 or be "UNPROTECTED". Scared the crap out of all our users and generated a ton of help desk calls. Of course the damn thing always keeps hitting on our key logger even after we add it to exclusions. Oh yeah and now it doesn't want to play nice with Corel painter classic used by the art dept instead of MS paint along with Photoshop. Refuses to let it run... says it's a trojan. OF course when we did renew the license and tried to use the network component to update about 40% of the updates failed and had to be done manually. That means the whole 2 field techs in our district, me and one other guy had to run around doing it.

As far as I'm concerned that bloated POS ranks right in there with Norton and McCrappy. They and their fan bois can all blow me

Rabid Gerbil: All you dip shiats praising AVG can kiss my wrinkled geek ass. I'm one of those lowly field techs for a school district with over 4000 PCs. Damn AVG quit updating and threw up a nag screen that would have done any rogue program, proud...THREE DAMN MONTHS BEFORE OUR SUBSCRIPTION EXPIRED!!! We just HAD to upgrade to 8.5 or be "UNPROTECTED". Scared the crap out of all our users and generated a ton of help desk calls. Of course the damn thing always keeps hitting on our key logger even after we add it to exclusions. Oh yeah and now it doesn't want to play nice with Corel painter classic used by the art dept instead of MS paint along with Photoshop. Refuses to let it run... says it's a trojan. OF course when we did renew the license and tried to use the network component to update about 40% of the updates failed and had to be done manually. That means the whole 2 field techs in our district, me and one other guy had to run around doing it.

As far as I'm concerned that bloated POS ranks right in there with Norton and McCrappy. They and their fan bois can all blow me

AVG used to be the best. I stopped using it when their quality started to match McAfee and friends. I now use Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.