Worm bait?

[jkinz at kinz.org (Jeff Kinz)]

On Wed, Aug 20, 2003 at 10:07:18AM -0400, Derek Martin wrote:
> 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.

Plauges, Wars, floods, fire, earthquakes, volcanos and MS-Outlook.
The seven curses of humanity.

Derek nails it again.   :-)


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Jeff Kinz, Open-PC, Emergent Research,  Hudson, MA.  jkinz at kinz.org
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