MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: Why chdman is trying to connect to internet??

> > In terms of my desktop usage of Linux, I have never had any kind of trojan, worm,
> or
> > virus on my system, after 17 years.
>
> And? Having used Windows in many flavours since 1996 (close to 15 years now), I have
> never had any kind of trojan or virus on any of my systems. The only one time I ended
> up with malware, the W32.Blaster worm, was when I used a key generator (aha!) for
> some stupid, non-free, crippled trial program* which I can't remember, back in 2001.
> Since that was caused by my own stupidity at the time, I accept my defeat. Regardless
> of whether anyone uses Windows, Linux, Mac OS X or an amber screen dumb terminal from
> 1987, there will be malware programs out there for them. I think the last time I used
> a virus scanner or similar programs was in around 2004.
>
> * All the more reason to switch to open source. No fscking crippleware or half-assed
> trial programs by big corporations thinking they're actually doing you a favour.

I got a system crippling virus on Windows XP a few years ago on my laptop. I didn't do anything other than visit a web page - it was the result of a search for some home improvement thing or other. The moment I hit that page (I was stupidly using Internet Explorer instead of Firefox at the time for reasons I can't remember exactly) my system immediately went south. As soon as I noticed something weird going on - I think a window popped up, or my hard disk started going crazy, or something tipped me off within seconds - I hit the power button. But it was too late; my system had been infected so hard that I could not recover it and had to re-install. My system was relatively up-to-date with Microsoft security updates, and yet just *visiting* a single web page took my system down in about 5 seconds. There were a few things I could have done to be more secure:

1. I could have not been running Internet Explorer, which I usually don't but for some reason was that day.

2. I could have been running an anti-virus program, although I don't know if it would have stopped this particular exploit. I don't run anti-virus because I find the constant headaches of maintenance of the anti-virus software in addition to the inevitable slowdown of the computer to be unacceptable. Not to mention the fact that unless you pay for constant updates, anti-virus programs are pretty much pointless because unless you are always staying with the latest updates you will still be vulnerable to viruses that came about after your latest update. So I don't even play that game.

My own evidence is just anecdotal, and the only evidence offered in opposition in this thread has also been anecdotal (except for a few links to sites that I claim don't even support any evidence that Mac OS X is insecure). But I've been around the computer industry for a long time and while all systems have improved in security over the years, it is Windows that started out by far the least secure and had the furthest to go to meet the level of security provided by other operating systems; and I don't think that even now it has gone as far as the others, which themselves have also been improving over the years. That's just my opinion; and of course, you can disagree, which is fine with me.