Virus

[robinson46176]

I'm getting more and more fond of Linux. I'm running Ubuntu 9.10
Here is a page talking about Linux and viruses. It is pretty small print on my laptop so you old guys like me may want to hit "Ctrl +++" to make the print bigger.
http://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/8261-note-to-new-linux-users-no-antivirus-needed
It is an article and a long discussion thread by a batch of geeks and a nut or two.
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Below is an article of mine on my switch over. I hope I have not already posted it on this forum. I don't remember what I had for breakfast let alone what I may have already posted somewhere. If this is a repeat please accept my apologies.
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Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Die!!! #$%& Vista... Die!!!

EEEGADS I hate Vista... It isn't all bad but the bad parts are so bad they over power the good.

I have puttered around with operating systems for a few years or so now and have had a puttering computer running a dual boot option running Mandriva Linux and Ubuntu Linux and another running Simply Mepis Linux. I also bought an old iMac so I could learn a little about OSX. My main desktop box and my main laptop were both running #$%& Vista. I have been able to keep my desktop running pretty clean but my laptop is used the most. It had become a great slimy slug reminding me of Java The Hut. No matter how much cleaning I did on it it just wallowed. It was poor from the start and just kept getting worse. I was spending half of my time running various virus scans, mal-ware scans and system optimizers. While it should have been a very fast system it started bloated and kept going downhill. Booting was as slow as an army tank in quicksand. When I wanted to do something it was always busy off playing by itself. Even shutdown took forever. Recently the CD/DVD drivers became corrupted.

For years I have ran Zone-alarm as a firewall and AVG as an anti-virus.

I have generally accessed the web for a while using a USB broadband modem from Verizon. I also keep a very low cost land-line dial-up ISP (VTISP) as a back-up. A few weeks ago I broke the USB broadband modem. My wife fell off of a ladder (she doesn't drink) in a big walk-in closet and when I heard her I pretty much flung the laptop aside to go to her aid. Not exactly a good thing for an electronic device sticking out of a port on one side of the computer.

Since our phone company has been promising us DSL “any day now” for at least three years I didn't want to wait on them and we do not get cable out here. My son used to have satellite access and it worked fine as long as it was not snowing, or raining or the sun shining so I didn't want that. I had been fairly happy with the Verizon broadband except for the unreal cost of running over their 5 GB limit. I never ran over but it was always hanging over me like the Sword of Damocles at .25 cents a MB.

I had heard of a new gizmo that Verizon had now that serves as a USB broadband modem and will also generate its own WiFi hotspot and serve up to 5 WiFi devices at once. I found that I could upgrade to it for the same monthly money I was already paying and after a rebate the front cost was about $100. The new contracts call for .05 cents a MB on overage instead of .25 cents a MB.

I started setting it up and on the desktop it went like silk and the same for my wife's little net-book. My #$%& Vista laptop was another matter. After two days of fighting I said... Well, I won't repeat what I said... What I did though was to download the latest version of Ubuntu Linux and burned an install Live CD. My Cd drive drivers were still corrupted but it doesn't need those drivers for boot up. I sat it up to dual boot between #$%& Vista and Ubuntu 9.10. It all went perfect and the WiFi setup was a piece of cake. Now this laptop really flies. It is much faster than it was when I bought it new. All of those #$%& Vista problems just went away. I also no longer have anything sticking out of the side of it. So far I can carry it anywhere in the house and it works fine on the WiFi. I have not gone outside with it yet. When I get a chance I will sort the Vista out to run a few special pieces of software that may not run well on Linux.

While I have liked the concept of Linux for some time I have also been critical of it for some time as “not quite ready for prime time”. I still feel that way about a lot of Linux distributions but I think that Ubuntu has pretty much arrived. I did consider upgrading to Windows 7 but when you compare price, “free” for a great operating system looks really good...

[heathicus]

I'm a Windows guy and I share your hatred for Vista. But I do love Windows 7.

I've tried OSX (I even installed it on my wife's Dell laptop!) and Linux, but even if the learning curve is small, I find I just don't have time to go through it. I get in a hurry wanting to do something and can't jump right to the function I'm looking for, or keyboard shortcuts are different (I could never get used to the CTRL and ALT being reversed in OSX), or something else happens and I go back to Windows.

I do have Ubuntu running on my main file server at home. I rarely interact with the user interface, though and I couldn't tell you what version it is. Setting up the user accounts and the permissions so the Windows computers could access the files was sort of a pain.

[Ed in Tampa]

The problem is every one is different. I for one have never used keyboard shortcuts, I use the mouse. I don't think I pressed the Alt, window key intentionally since the mouse support was added to a PC. I use the ctl key to be able to do multiple selections for things like file deletes and such but I still click file delete to do the actual deletion.

I'm fascinated with Apple and I keep trying to convince myself I should buy one.

What Microsoft should do is offer windows in various favors a stripped down born for speed version, a semi pro version where you have control over what windows will and will not do for you, a normal version similar to what windows is today and a new beginners version where windows takes you by the hand and does what you want.

The thing that mystifies me is everyone has all these add ons that become part of the startup load and then they complain about how long a boot takes. I know every "add on" Flash, real player, quicktime, Java and such I put on my system slows my machine down both at boot time and run time. My machine runs it's fastest when I have no add on applications running. The minute I add the printer/scanner support software, the various video rendering softwares, the anti virus, etc and etc my machine goes into slow mode.

I remember during the Sawdust sessions we had to install a third party video program. I screamed and hollered but if I wanted to see the sawdust session I had to install it. The minute I did my machine slowed down.

I don't think the problem is windows as much as it is all the add ons everyone installs.

[dusty]

I sorta doubt you got this exactly right there Ed (in Tampa).

Add-ons occupy space whether they are running or not but do they consume time even when you have not invoked them.

Example: I have HP Image Zone loaded on my machine but I don't invoke it unless I want photo images. Do you believe that slows my machine?

I look at Task Manager and see no evidence of that....0 cpu time unless I am doing pictures.

[heathicus]

I sorta doubt you got this exactly right there Ed (in Tampa).

Add-ons occupy space whether they are running or not but do they consume time even when you have not invoked them.

Example: I have HP Image Zone loaded on my machine but I don't invoke it unless I want photo images. Do you believe that slows my machine?

I look at Task Manager and see no evidence of that....0 cpu time unless I am doing pictures.

It still has an impact, Dusty.

A lot of programs, especially big ones like Microsoft Office, and media viewers like Quicktime, Flash, etc, will, at minimum, run a "quick launch" type program in the background at all times. This pre-loads some of the core elements of the program so that, when you open that program, it loads faster (because it's already half loaded). I'm not familiar with HP Image Zone, but it wouldn't surprise me if it runs something in the background that is constantly checking for your camera to be connected. If you look at the Task Manager, even if an application is using 0 CPU time, it is still taking memory. The more memory being consumed, the more the swap file has to be used. (Simply put, the swap file is hard drive spaced used as if it were RAM, but the hard drive is a lot slower than RAM).

But even ignoring that, simply using your computer will slow it down over time. When you first set up a computer, format the hard drive, do a fresh install of Windows and your applications, all of the files are physically located on the hard drive in an orderly and efficient fashion. As you use the computer, create files, delete files, move files, rename files, etc., that orderly and efficient layout of files on the hard drive goes kaput and your hard drive becomes "fragmented." The head on the hard drive has to travel to multiple places, far apart on the hard drive just to load one file. Defragging the hard drive helps, but the defragger built into Windows, while much better than nothing, is not that great.

Then there's the Windows Registry. The Registry is a big database that stores configuration settings for Windows, your hardware, and applications. As you install programs, they all add a bunch of stuff to the registry which makes it bloated and take longer to load on startup. And when you uninstall a program, seldom does the uninstall also clean all its crap out of the registry.

[dusty]

I sorta doubt you got this exactly right there Ed (in Tampa).

Add-ons occupy space whether they are running or not but do they consume time even when you have not invoked them.

Example: I have HP Image Zone loaded on my machine but I don't invoke it unless I want photo images. Do you believe that slows my machine?

I look at Task Manager and see no evidence of that....0 cpu consumed by HP time unless I am doing pictures.

[heathicus]

I sorta doubt you got this exactly right there Ed (in Tampa).

Add-ons occupy space whether they are running or not but do they consume time even when you have not invoked them.

Example: I have HP Image Zone loaded on my machine but I don't invoke it unless I want photo images. Do you believe that slows my machine?

I look at Task Manager and see no evidence of that....0 cpu time unless I am doing pictures.

It still has an impact, Dusty.

A lot of programs, especially big ones like Microsoft Office, and media viewers like Quicktime, Flash, etc, will, at minimum, run a "quick launch" type program in the background at all times. This pre-loads some of the core elements of the program so that, when you open that program, it loads faster (because it's already half loaded). I'm not familiar with HP Image Zone, but it wouldn't surprise me if it runs something in the background that is constantly checking for your camera to be connected. If you look at the Task Manager, even if an application is using 0 CPU time, it is still taking memory. The more memory being consumed, the more the swap file has to be used. (Simply put, the swap file is hard drive spaced used as if it were RAM, but the hard drive is a lot slower than RAM).

But even ignoring that, simply using your computer will slow it down over time. When you first set up a computer, format the hard drive, do a fresh install of Windows and your applications, all of the files are physically located on the hard drive in an orderly and efficient fashion. As you use the computer, create files, delete files, move files, rename files, etc., that orderly and efficient layout of files on the hard drive goes kaput and your hard drive becomes "fragmented." The head on the hard drive has to travel to multiple places, far apart on the hard drive just to load one file. Defragging the hard drive helps, but the defragger built into Windows, while much better than nothing, is not that great.

Then there's the Windows Registry. The Registry is a big database that stores configuration settings for Windows, your hardware, and applications. As you install programs, they all add a bunch of stuff to the registry which makes it bloated and take longer to load on startup. And when you uninstall a program, seldom does the uninstall also clean all its crap out of the registry.

[robinson46176]

I kind of like using stuff on-line (which I always said I would never do). I would not put my bank records or tax records on there but I use Google documents for a lot of my writing which quickly becomes public anyway so why bother to hide it. One reason I like the Google documents is that with my little wifi device (or the USB device I used to have) I can work in the office area, the shop or even toss a laptop in the cab of the truck and work from out on the big back hill where I can see for miles... No matter where I am at I can pull up any one of a dozen projects and write or edit and I am always working on the same copy. I could of course do that with a thumb drive but I like having the on-line resources right there for instant researching. Some more important stuff I do and store on my own drives. I will not pay for the silly over-priced Microsoft office now that Open Office has come so far and is free. I also find it faster than MS Office. It will run on Windows or Linux either one. Years ago it had some rough edges but as I use it now it always works perfectly.
I keep hearing some good things about Windows 7... I may have to buy a copy just to get completely away from $%# VISTA. I would back up to XP but they will be dropping support for it quickly to force people to move to Windows 7 (maybe). If I can get my family tree setup to run properly on Wine (or something like it) then I will just stick with Linux completely. They may even be working on a Linux version of my family tree software now. They are selling a number of new home systems with Linux now (at least on-line and at Wal-Mart) and so most software developers will have to start doing both Windows and Linux to stay in the market.
BTW, I stayed away from Apple due to higher cost on new ones but bought an old iMac to learn a little about OSX. Quite frankly I have not been all that impressed with it especially for the cost. When I use it I always feel a little like I am standing on my head milking a cow. I know that iMAcs are old but my god could that silly round mouse be any more awkward? And why are those open close buttons on Safari so tiny? It is like shooting at flies at long range using a derringer.
Maybe it is just me...

[cv3]

My Computer die. I had nursed it along for a number of years but the time came to get a new one last week. The new one has Windows 7. So far I like it. I think there are 3 or 4 Windows 7 editions. I have the home edition. It is different and I am trying to learn to it. My grandsonis a big help. My wifes office is updating to the largest 7 edition. They are finding that with XL they are having trouble interacting with other offices that have moved up to 7. The owner of place where I got my computer told me that most new programs that are in works will not work with older systems in a year or two.