Re: [PLUG] X11 server for Windows

[Edmond Rodriguez <erodrig97.list@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 5:05 PM, JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org> wrote:

> "Microsoft Tax" = the additional hardware & yearly fees for the add-on
> software required tlo protect Windows from its own poorly designed and
> implemented self, while the overhead incidentally flattens Moore's Law.

I am all for Linux and have been using it almost exclusively.  I have
used XP quite a bit.

At a Central meeting once I brought the Windows vulnerability thing up
and asked what some of the vulnerabilities were.   I know there is all
the buffer overrun stuff that comes up all the time.  I sometimes get
security advisories in email similar to the buffer stuff for Linux
software.  Don't most of the problems come from people trying to trick
users into running various exe files or installing software?

I ask the question, if Linux were as highly used as Windows, would we
feel threatened?  Would people write software to try and trick us
(especially a novice user)?   Like trying to run some binary file from
some web dialog box made to look like a system dialog box or other
trickery to get an exe to run.

One person responded that a major problem with Windows vulnerabilities
is that many people run as administrator by default.  I never thought
of that before, but it does seem true.

So I guess I am wondering, other than it's popularity causing people
to want to do harm, what are the major vulnerabilities of Windows?
How much of the vulnerability is because of it's popularity (not
design) as compared to Linux?

Again, I prefer Linux, and it's performance and ease, but that is
another topic.


Edmond
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