Worm bait?

[invalid at pizzashack.org (Derek Martin)]

On Wed, Aug 20, 2003 at 08:38:58AM -0400, Jerry Feldman wrote:
> This is very true. BTW: Dvorak (on PC Mag) is making a proposal that all
> PCs be licensed:
> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1224343,00.asp
> 
> Personally, I think Dvorak is an idiot, but he makes a good case for it.

I agree that Dvorak is an idiot, but that's as far as I'll go...  He
compares licensing PC users to licensing automobile drivers, and I
think that's a good analogy.  Most people start using computers as
teenagers (or earlier, these days), much as with cars.  How many
teenagers pick up a copy of the rules of the road, learn them for the
written permit test, and then forget everything they learned five
minutes after they pass it?  How many actually FAIL the test, maybe
even multiple times, because they can't be bothered to look at the
book?

Licensing computer users will be no different, and will solve nothing.
The average person will do the bare minimum required for them to pass
the test, and then not give it another thought.

As is often the case in our society, no one is looking at the real
problem.  Virtually all e-mail viruses/worms target one family of
programs: Microsoft Outlook.  Why is Outlook so aggressively targeted?
Because it's crap, and because its perveyors have a monopoly,
engendering rather a lot of hate.  If you want to avoid these worms,
you need only not use Outlook.  No other program is so aggressively
targeted.  Similarly, non-email viruses/worms most popularly target
Microsoft systems.  Even with the dramatic increase of the popularity
of Linux, there just aren't that many Linux viruses/worms out there.
So I really don't think it's a simple matter of virus writers
targeting the most popular platform; I think a lot of it is about
genuine hatred.  But even if it were simple economics, there's no
better argument for more competition in the market...

Why is no one looking at Outlook?  For the same reason Microsoft has a
monopoly in the first place: people who use it often feel compelled to
use it, for one reason or another.  Rather than admit their choice was
wrong, they seek more amenable scapegoats.

-- 
Derek D. Martin
http://www.pizzashack.org/
GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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