(This is a letter to the editor I wrote back in April, but the
Pinnacle News rejected it because it was too long.)

Has your computer gotten all bogged down somehow? Is it holding 
open an internet connection for some reason? Are programs 
running slowly or strangly? Does the mouse feel shaky or slow 
to respond? If so, your computer has probably contracted an 
email virus, and you are unknowingly spreading such virus to 
countless other users right now.

Or, perhaps your computer has contracted a virus simply by being
connected to the Internet. Yes, really, if you are running any
version of Microsoft Windows, and it is connected to the Internet,
even over a phone line, you are in danger of your system getting 
compromised. Modern worms and virii will find you.

Do this: go to http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/ to download 
McAfee's free Stinger tool, to remove the most common of the 
currently circulating email worms. Follow the instructions on 
that page and then reboot your computer.

And then reconsider your choice of Microsoft Windows for your 
next computer purchase. You have a choice, and even though the 
major computer distributors would have you think otherwise, 
there are better operating systems out there. If security, 
stability, reliability, and performance are important factors 
for you, you owe it to yourself to at least take some 
alternatives for a test drive.

For personal use, nothing beats Apple's Macintosh OS X operating 
system. It comes with everything you need for normal everyday 
use, such as browsing the web, sending email, listening to 
music, watching DVD movies, writing letters, making 
spreadsheets, and playing some really great games. And it 
doesn't crash or open stupid security holes. Really.

For business use, it is time to consider migrating to Linux. Red 
Hat and Novell both have compelling enterprise packages, but 
any experienced Linux administrator can likely set you up with 
a reliable, stable networking environment without having to 
purchase the expensive enterprise options. 

If you simply cannot move away from Windows because the 
transition would be just too costly, consider moving to more 
secure email, web browsing, and productivity applications. 
Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org) makes the best browser on 
earth (FireFox) and is pretty close to making the best email 
client as well (ThunderBird). To replace Word, Excel, and 
Powerpoint, download OpenOffice from http://www.openoffice.org. 
All these applications are completely free of charge, the only 
cost being your time to download, install, and learn. It is an 
investment in the security of your data, and it is time to act. 
You'll plug the vast majority of security holes by simply 
switching to alternative desktop applications.

I use Windows, Linux, and Macintosh daily, and even though 
Microsoft has done a great job giving Windows a facelift over 
the years, it is mostly cosmetic fluff. The real innovation is 
happening in the world of open source, and mostly on the Linux 
and Macintosh platforms. While you need to take stock of all 
your requirements when making a new computer purchase, I 
implore you to at least consider the alternatives before 
blindly choosing the easy default of Windows XP.

© 2004 Paul McNett       [/Computing/Opinion] permanent link

Well, I have a blog now. This is actually pretty cool, because the blog I 
chose is a simple perl script that just reads plain text files in a given
directory. It is called 'blosxom', it is free and configurable, and available
from http://www.blosxom.com.

Open Source Software is just the tip of the iceberg.

© 2004 Paul McNett       [/Computing] permanent link