Linux blah blah blah, Firefox balh blah blah, Mac blah blah blah.

All software has holes, all software has bugs. Get over it and keep them patched.

The End.

Do like I do. Use a main pc for work and sensitive files that is rarely connected to the internet and another PC for internet access. For the internet access PC, once in a while re-image the O.S for a fresh installation.

Except Windows is more like sieve. Catches the big things but allows thousands (millins?) of smaller things through.

Instead of new varieties, M$ should develop an OS that may require the occasional patch but not the thousands they put out over it's lifetime.

Can't wait to get flamed by all the M$ fanbois!!

But perhaps a comment on the naiveté of some of the Reg readers.

> Instead of new varieties, M$ should develop an OS that may require the occasional patch but not the thousands they put out over it's lifetime.

Sure. But here's the thing. My car has around 10,000 moving parts and I have to bring it in for routine maintainance and fluid changes twice a year. Windows XP has well over 40 million lines of code and I need to update it twelve times a year.

Now, I'm not a math teacher, but I think I am smarter than a fifth grader, so here goes: Simple ratios put it at 10,000:2 vs 40,000,000:12. Reduce to 5,000:1 for the car vs. 3,333,333:1 for the software.

Seems to me that Microsoft does pretty well. :)

All fun aside. Seriously. 40 million lines of code. Really think about that for a minute, then reread what you wrote.

i used to work with a guy who installed something called 'Freeze' on his machine. it basically took the machine back to a known point every time he booted it. safe for his kids to surf the net with, etc.

here: http://www.faronics.com/html/deepfreeze.asp

... aaaaarrrggghhhhh another fekkin security update......

why can't they bundle them all together and store them on a secure government cd - the'd get out much faster that way.

it was the (near) perfect solution and It's been dead since August. It doesn't usually take the geek community this long to route around the blockage...

Or, to put it another way, it takes one mechanic to service my car. Microsoft has about 60,000 employees.

Mechanic:10,000/1 = 10,000.

Microsoft: 40,000,000/60,000 ~= 666

Seriously, stick to cars.

http://www.faronics.com/html/deepfreeze.asp

that pice of software was a life saver when I ran a internet cafe any changes upto formating the hdd a simple had reset (pull the power cord) and it was undone that and a linux server made me imune to all malware just kill everything (on time vier the main circuit breaker) and back and ready

...my coat is the anarok with the starteck logo on it

Robin wrote:

"Now, I'm not a math teacher, but I think I am smarter than a fifth grader"

Unfortunately your joke may have gone over the heads of the UK readers where the show is called "Are you smarter than a ten year old?"

Watch what you're doing when you install this. Once I'd installed it, IE7 could no longer browse the Internet. This was the same on several computers in my house. Once I uninstalled it and rebooted, IE worked again. Obviously there is something wrong with it. There are lots of comments around citing similar problems.

So, DON'T INSTALL IT!!

As long as it doesn't damage Firefox I don't see the problem. Why did you uninstall it?

"Or, to put it another way, it takes one mechanic to service my car. Microsoft has about 60,000 employees.

Mechanic:10,000/1 = 10,000.

Microsoft: 40,000,000/60,000 ~= 666"

What's the Bible say about the number 666 again?

--Off to have a cold one.