I just read that one effect of the slammer worm that struck saturday was that users couldnt activate windows xp online. isnt it wonderful to pay big money for an os that you have to activate yet a worm can prevent you from doing so? no wonder microsoft is so worried about linux, as well they should be. this isnt an in depth article about it but here is where I got the information http://www.news.com.au/common/story_...E15306,00.html

ha ha ha ha ha ha suckers!

In no way does linux come close to win XP in the general user category of computing yet! I have been using XP since its release and I love it. I have also been running Mandrake distros since about 6.x, and unlike Linux, ALL my hardware always works on XP! As soon as a distro of linux comes out that I can use my digital camera/pda/ext HDD/etc. without having to go to command line i'll tip my hat you you. But, untill then I will keep XP as my main computing platform. Don't get me wrong though, I have GREAT expectations for Linux. I just don't see them coming through for me for a while.

Jay Tomten
-----------------------------
"Linux without problems isn't Linux."

*insert long thread about why one OS is better than another*

yaaaaawn. Always be careful about OS advocacy. It may lose you your job someday.

remin8, you can probebly expect to get snowed in with reactions soon. Good luck. Basically you have a bogus agrument why XP would be better. Why??? Search this forum and you'l know. In short; hardware support has every thing to do with cooperation of the hardware vendors. If they don't cooperate, you will have a hard time getting the hardware supported on your platform. I'm surprised that this much hardware (what, 90%) is supported, without much offical support.

Win 3.1 had all those config files, that was how long ago? Can it be that long 'cause I can remember tweakin' config/autoexec/win/system to get netscrape two something to just load let alone run. Linux will get there, you have to remember it's a fairly young OS compared to M$ but look how fast it's catching up.

And XP may look neat being all happy-clickey-gooey but trying to fix it is a pain! I just got used to where all the settings were in 9x/NT4 and they went and buried all of it three more menus deep behind all the idiot boxes and wizards! If the OS won't take whatever h/w or s/w you add and needs to be fixed then you sure as heck ain't gonna trust some overgrown paperclip with a magic wand to help. Just let me into /win/system and dev mgr and get outta my way with your "the wizard found your solution: contact technical support" crap.

When windows cruds out doing something you have no idea what it broke, when linux cruds out you can open up the config file it was modifying and fix it yourself. Sure all the luser protection is nice and friendly looking but sometimes it all doesn't work and you have to get at the guts.

Haven't seen many linux fixes that involve FFR (fdisk/format/reinstall) but if you like your windows then use it because linux isn't really luser proof enough for the masses yet.

XP does everything I want an OS to do. HOWEVER, linux does to, only linux does it faster, more efficiently, and most of all, doesn't cost me much more than the equivilent to a night out with some friends (Mandrake PowerPack is what, 70 bux? Slackware, what, 50?). XP by itself is very functional, but it's gonna run me, alone, 200 bux. Toss in an office suite and a DV capturing/editing program, and now we are talking an easy 500-1000 bux. Plus it's slow.

If XP does what you want, at a speed you can tolerate, and a price you don't care about, go for it. Competition alone never hurt anyone, and sometimes can be a good thing. However, I will stick with my faster, cheaper, sleeker, OPEN SOURCE, manageable OS.

Cool

my point was even microsofts own servers were shutdown by this worm, I wasnt arguing one os is better than the other. kind of ironic isnt it that microsofts own servers got swamped by their own security flaws

Very! I find it amusing, yet sad. So many people get "conned" into registering that crap and don't even know what they are doing. What's even more funny is MS probably didn't even think about that until it happened. [in an english accent] Bloody fools! [/english accent].

Cool

I think it's hilarious, more so then the fact that if you buy a "personal computer" OS it stops working if you keep it personal and never connect it to the public internet.

Honestly though, a worm shouldn't cause that much damage, using a worm to try to bring down the internet is like writing a word macro virus (and doing it on your personal registered version of m$ word) and then calling yourself a virus programmer. Everyone knows if you want to kill the internet you bring down routers and DNS servers but using 6 mo old m$ exploits to overload em, thats sorta interesting!

And while I'm here again,

remin8 what was you're login name?
<clickity click>
we had some problems with <checks the official BOFH(tm) calander> solar flares causing disruption of user data and I just wanted to check to make sure your files were safe.

Darin: I see your BOFH spirit is coming back to you, ooh and was it you to have fun with the bulk eraser on my 47th software floppy disk?!

"if the OS won't take whatever h/w or s/w you add and needs to be fixed then you sure as heck ain't gonna trust some overgrown paperclip with a magic wand to help."

I so agree with this. I never tried XP but all versions on windows relied on GUI tools, but if something stops working, the only solution is a:>format c:/s
and re-install. Damn, i remember even when i just started using computers and something didnt work, i took the computer to the store i bought it from, and what they did is just re-install windows. Later i got into the habit of keeping windows on a seperate partition, so re-installing i wouldn't loose all my files...
I don't think anything will change with XP, except the start menu is green now...
-NSKL

is it really that surprising to you that the os that 90% of the world uses, has the most security problems? i would say that if any *nix was the overwhelmingly dominate os, it would have much of the same issues.

wasn't this patch issued a few months ago? you can hardly blame microsoft for those that chose not to install the patch.

fragged one: As far as i know the backbone of the net, that makes it tick are indeed UNIX servers, and although microsoft holds 90% of desktop market, it holds WAAAY less in server market...
Did you ever hear about so many viruses/worms affecting UNIX, NetWare or other servers? No... i wonder why....
Windows has many exploitable things, and no rules to minimize the damage that could be done. (Ex TCP wrappers, TRUE multi-user concept). After all people write viruses/worms for windows because there are so many security holes. Why bother to break into something that is bullet proof like a *BSD if there are easily exploitable windows servers...
-NSKL

my point in this case, is that the hole was only there because lazy admins didn't install the patch.

oh yeah, windows xp is great, btw.

Redmond is a pc suckers paradise.