Quote:
Originally Posted by a-j
... I really don't miss antivirus-software slowing down my boot-process or desktop-firewalls "calling home". With Linux I just don't need shit like that...
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For power users (and most webmasters probably qualify for that label, except for those who hire people to do anything more scary than opening the start menu and launching their work applications
) security problems under Windows are heavily overexaggerated - both by Windows users themselves as well as proponents of Linux, Mac and any other alternatives.
It's certainly true that historically there have been - and still are - a lot more potential threats against Windows than the other operating systems.
But potential is the keyword in that sentence.
You don't need resident virus and malware scanners running and you don't need to constantly worry whenever you visit a website or check your mail.
Hell, if you've got a router with a built in firewall it could even be argued that you probably don't need a software firewall running under Windows (I do currently have the basic Vista firewall running, aside from my router firewall - it's not like it's doing any harm anyway, or using up an even remotely significant amount of system resources).
I've said this many times before in assorted other Windows related threads, but I still feel it holds true - common sense (don't click on the link in that interesting but slightly odd email from
sexybabe34y834@hotmail.com), a firewall and the latest Windows updates (the latter in many cases not even vital), and it's quite likely you'll never suffer any kind of Windows security issues worse than a few tracking cookies.
If you want to be extra safe, use Opera or FF instead of IE - but everyone really ought to be doing that anyway, as they are much better browsers.
I do run full virus and spyware scans every few weeks (well, often closer to every few months really) - tracking cookies are the worst that pops up in the spyware scans, and the only two times I've had a virus over the last eight years, were the times where I plugged into a LAN with several hundred users right after a clean Windows installation, with no firewall and without the latest service pack.
User stupidity at its worst - although in my defense (sort of) I had already been stupid enough not to get hold of a firewall before I did the clean install, so I really needed to plug that cable in to get hold of one
.