I've had it up to HERE with spyware!

[Fixion]

I have a program that can't get viruses*, spyware can't affect it*, I don't need to be running a spywaredetector and virus scaner all the time, and its free.

Its called linux.

*"There are about 60,000 viruses known for Windows, 40 or so for the Macintosh, about 5 for commercial Unix versions, and perhaps 40 for Linux. Most of the Windows viruses are not important, but many hundreds have caused widespread damage. Two or three of the Macintosh viruses were widespread enough to be of importance. None of the Unix or Linux viruses became widespread - most were confined to the laboratory."

But if you don't want to use/learn linux/unix, get the pro version of adaware.

[RT pRo AuToMaG]

Spybot has blocking features, as well as hijack guards...and it's free.

[Bluestrike_2]

Fixion:

Of the 40, all were for previous Mac operating systems.

Total for OSX(all versions) - 0

Although Intego has come out with a "hypothetical" MP3 one, but it is not in the wild, so I did not count it. If you do, the total is raised to a whopping...

1.

Correct me If I am wrong, but because OSX is UNIX based, is it harder for an *** to write a virus for Unix and Linux Operating systems?

[mcveighr]

You also have to account for the fact that the majority of people that write virii tend to do it to cause trouble, and more people use windows therefore more virii for windows.

Also less people know how linux works.

I don't know if its true but alot of people argue that linux has more vunerabilities.

EDIT: To the first guy, did you delete the files that adaware found?

[Kevmaster]

Correct me If I am wrong, but because OSX is UNIX based, is it harder for an *** to write a virus for Unix and Linux Operating systems?

#1 way to get a unix machine (or unix based machine) to crash: baseball bat.

[Fixion]

Fixion:

Of the 40, all were for previous Mac operating systems.

Total for OSX(all versions) - 0

Although Intego has come out with a "hypothetical" MP3 one, but it is not in the wild, so I did not count it. If you do, the total is raised to a whopping...

1.

Correct me If I am wrong, but because OSX is UNIX based, is it harder for an *** to write a virus for Unix and Linux Operating systems?

That entire paragraph is a quote from theregister.co.uk, I just made parts of it bold.

Yeah. It is possible to write a Linux/Unix virus. But because the operating system is so strait-forward it can easily be detected. And since Linux/Unix is multi-user and multi-permission level based, writing a virus that can overcome these obstacles is next to impossible. Unless you have a stupid admin who logs on as root all the time, or a virus that exploits a specific volnerability, the virus can't gain a user level that is required for it to do any harm. So a linux virus would not be able to spread, or it couldn't do anything harmful. So most virus writers just leave linux alone.

Besides, when there are so many suckers using windows, why write a virus for the minority of computers?

[Sparq]

But then, I have also seen (and had) viruses which I can only assume are written by linux advocates with too much spare time, as the virus included popup windows which mentioned that I wouldn't have this virus if I was using linux...

[bornl33t]

a few things come to mind.

A.) someone needs to write a virus or a "crawler" that tracks websites severing popups and nukes em... dunno how but it's gotta be possible?

B.) good thing I'm running RH alot latly

c.)I haven't had a virus or pop up or spyware since I started using google...a year ago. Seems to me most of the spyware comes from popups when you click on them. And so by no seing popup's you don't click on them and so you don't get their hax on your computer... I'm pry wrong but that's the xplanation I'm sticking with... that or I don't surf porn all the time which is known to be breeding grounds for that sorta stuff.....

d.) when all else fails c:\format c:<enter>

[fire1811]

run spybot to remove the spyware you have on there then go to google and search for "spyblaster"

download it and KEEP IT UPDATED

since i have been running spyblaster i have only seen one piece of spyware on my system in 6 months. and that was probably my fault for not updating it.

[cpm666]

lol

i had a neighbor reformat my comp a couple months ago (he works on comps for a living) and i asked him about spyware and viruses and if my spybot and ad-aware was working and he jus laughed and said I had the evil version of ad-aware and my spybot was really a trojan. i was so pissed, he later explained that ther is a good and evil version of both adware and spybot. he told me that adaware.com was evil and ad-aware.com was the good one. that jus makes you wonder wat has the world or internet for that matter come to, ther are viruses posing as virus protection and so on. anyway the point of this post was dload your ad-aware from ad-aware.com, with the hyphen.

[Bluestrike_2]

Ugh.

Ad-Aware : http://www.lavasoft.de/

NOT
http://adaware.com or http://www.ad-aware.com

Both are not the right copy. Ad-Aware = Made my LavaSoft.


When the majority is that foolish, why not write it for them?

Kevmaster : I made the programs crash. I ran:

Photoshop, Illustrator, Strata(while rendering a LARGE 3d file), Safari, Mail, iDVD, iMovie, and Unreal Tournament at the same exact time.

Only that made it crash(individual programs NOT whole computer). Talk about crazy. Try doing that on a Windoze machine.

Edit: It was done as a test to see it's limits ; not while trying to get work done.

[jayloo]

Fixion hit the nail on the head.

If you use a Micro$soft windoze machine you are completely open. No matter what you do you are too late someone just wrote another virus/spyware/worm for your wonderful OS. No matter how often u update your stuff you are too late.

Choose something *nix based. Pick a flavor any flavor

I will only surf the internet and read mail on a *nix workstation.

My internet server is Fedora, my laptop has red hat 9 and I have 5 more Sun solaris 8 servers in my basement.

The pc is only for playing unreal tourney 2004.

My 2 cents

[SIGSays]

im spyware/popup free.....

i got firefox by mozilla and adaware... just update the reference files occasionally and your set for life..

[PyRo]

I got a free copy of evidence eliminator once. It actually rid my computer of spyware, and also corrupted about half the stuff I had installed