CA to offer FREE Antivirus and Firewall Software to Windows Users Worldwide


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Pinoy said:
I happen to have used Kylix in the past and have, from time to time, read messages related to it, and I must say that I have read of horror stories about updated linux libraries (glibc etc) interfering with other applications.

In fact, Borland (yep, the developer tools company) has a policy similar to what you stated in your post. They only provide technical support for Kylix on Linux distros (with specific versions) that they officially support.


Being able to see the source code of Linux could, sometimes, mean nothing when the "higher ups" in the Linux community try to pass the buck back to you. ;) Again, this is the feedback I got from following the Kylix saga (if you're interested, search google for Danny Thorpe. He's the Delphi & Kylix Compiler Guy and he's got lots to tell you about Linux, and IIRC, the Linux Loader problem). :sweatsm:

Dang. We're getting technical now, aren't we.

Now let's get back to the virus and firewall thingy. ;p

:Later,

Hehehe..... as I said, the developer cannot provide me with stupid reason such as "That is Microsoft Library's fault, we can't see the problem" .....

Developer will bound to have problem when newer version is introduced in whichever platform, however, in Windows it will pass all the problem to the End user as both side refused to accept responsiblity. In an open source enviroment, the developer cannot give comment such as "Sorry, I don't really know what's the problem".

For Kylix, well, They are earning money from it, they had to work for it. If they wanted cross platform, they will have to live with it, noticeably x-platform is more complicated then single platform. If they only create "Linux" edition, or "Windows" only Edition, then they will have lesser problems. Noticeably, they will not need to link to existing graphical libraries and instead write their own library to work properly with existing system.
 

Clown said:
i remember that microsoft agreed to release its sourcecodes recently, no?

anyway i do screen and filter the packets that enter and leave my system, and some of the packets really did contain personal stuffs.
but not all goes to microsoft. they're from all over the place

so, just be careful. the internet is a dangerous place =)

A. The source code is only released to few "selected" companies or the government of a country. They will have to sign a non-discloursure form and they may not exploit any weakness they found in the code.

B. All the source code written specifically after they had used their "share source" program has to be vetted by "technical" advisor from MS inorder to be sure they did not "copy codes" from their OS.

C. End users, still cannot see the source code.
 

blurblock said:
Hehehe..... as I said, the developer cannot provide me with stupid reason such as "That is Microsoft Library's fault, we can't see the problem" .....

Developer will bound to have problem when newer version is introduced in whichever platform, however, in Windows it will pass all the problem to the End user as both side refused to accept responsiblity. In an open source enviroment, the developer cannot give comment such as "Sorry, I don't really know what's the problem".

For Kylix, well, They are earning money from it, they had to work for it. If they wanted cross platform, they will have to live with it, noticeably x-platform is more complicated then single platform. If they only create "Linux" edition, or "Windows" only Edition, then they will have lesser problems. Noticeably, they will not need to link to existing graphical libraries and instead write their own library to work properly with existing system.

Kylix was merely lip service. Was very disappointed with Borland abt this.
 

Clown said:
i remember that microsoft agreed to release its sourcecodes recently, no?

anyway i do screen and filter the packets that enter and leave my system, and some of the packets really did contain personal stuffs.
but not all goes to microsoft. they're from all over the place

so, just be careful. the internet is a dangerous place =)

Shared source is more of a PR move than anything else. Basically run firewall and dun open anything u did not scan. Pple cannot crack u if u dun open up services and run unverified programs.
 

xdivider said:
Kylix was merely lip service. Was very disappointed with Borland abt this.
Far from it. They've just come to accept that the RAD tool market for Linux was not up to its expectations. Kylix is still alive though, just that there won't be any updates to it. Not until 2005, perhaps (they've shifted their focus on .NET).

Anyway, simply put, Linux has pretty much been a failure when it comes to desktop applications. In terms of user friendliness, it still pales in comparison to what Windows has been offering for years.

:Later,
 

pauly said:
Hei everyone if you think you gonna take this shit!!! opps!!! :eek: you better be prepared. ;) nth in the world is for free :blah: if you want to get this free utilities think twice. but my advice is better go for the hardware firewall protection instead of software coz its very tricky. by using a free utilities you will have a to pay your product by giving info or shared data of your come without you yourself knowing. thats basically why people programers now using it for. Microsoft???? :eek: you kidding they are the worst among all they basically track all most everything if you are a online user. :blah: bottom line, i want to say its a good idea to chage your os or your pc to either mac or the new os lindows they are the most reliable os in "IT"

Hardware firewall for home PC? Gee.... I really hope you are not doing IT security as a profession.

Most companies are obliged by privacy regulations on level of usage of users' personal computers information. Uncommunicated soliciting or using unlawful means of obtaining information can lead to prosecution.

Software houses are not that silly nor that free to profile your computer friend. They are trying to chunk up market share for market dominance.

Your concern is unfounded.
 

Pinoy said:
Far from it. They've just come to accept that the RAD tool market for Linux was not up to its expectations. Kylix is still alive though, just that there won't be any updates to it. Not until 2005, perhaps (they've shifted their focus on .NET).

Anyway, simply put, Linux has pretty much been a failure when it comes to desktop applications. In terms of user friendliness, it still pales in comparison to what Windows has been offering for years.

:Later,

Well, failure or not depends on the developers not Linux. With due respect, but Linux is not a GUI platform as per-say. An international Standard of windowing system called the X-Window is running on top of it. The layer on top of it, called the Window Manager is the main layer that normal user sees.

Had you tried KDE 3.34 lately? It is definitely not anywhere inferior to Windows NT. On desktop application, it depends on developers. Open Office is rather powerful, so it K-Office (well, K-office isn't really ultra powerful, yet). It has a perfect base for thin client as it's plaform is fully compliant to W3C standard. However IE has the tendency to "introduce" useless "add on" which is proprietory to Windows so as to lock users in it.

More importantly, there are lesser virus, in fact there are almost no virus on Linux. All the loophole existing viruses attack has been patched. Even when virus attacked the system, chances are it would not be able to do fundemantal harm, namely because as a user, you do not have enough rights to harm the system, thus viruses is harmless too. It will not affect the whole village because 1 person got virus. Windows, however, default you to be a System Administator. In fact, you cannot run some program if you are not the administrator, thus it can harm the system pretty easily.

Linux also come with build in ipchain, a industrial standard powerful firewall, as differ to "personal firewall" whatever that is......

I personally felt it's user friendlness is there, definitely, however, most users has already a "pre determined thought" of windows's method of Windowing is the "user friendly" standard. Just for information Mac OS X is based on BSD, a spin off from Unix too, like Linux, basing of BSD code. I am quite sure in term of user friendliness OS X is definitely more user friendly then Windows. They practically invented user friendlness. However, if you ask a Windows person to use Mac, he / she will tell you, Mac is not User friendly at all. It all boils down to getting used to it.
 

I understand completely that Linux has several layers. Linux refers to the base OS kernel. You can have a GUI interface like KDE or GNOME running on top of it, similar to how Windows was but a GUI interface to MSDOS in Win3.x/95/98/Me.

However, from a general user's POV, everything that comes in a Red Hat / Mandrake / Suse or XXX disto box *is* Linux. So when User A finds a particular Window Manager clunky, or has trouble figuring out how to do Task X using a graphical interface (there are tons of documents on the net asking users to do certain things via the command line), or has trouble getting his computer peripheral / gadget / device to work, it reflects poorly on Linux, as a whole. IOW, to most users out there, there's hardly any differentiation between the layers that form Linux.

It's true that one thing that stunts the adoption of Linux is that some users have become so accustomed to the Windows Way of doing things that they expect the same approach to be there in Linux. However, let us not forget that Windows remain to be the most dominant desktop operating system out there. And the Linux community has to accept this fact and should try their best to reach out to the huge Windows user base. Unfortunately, AFAICS, this is one of the problem of the Linux community: that of being afraid to "copy" the same "Windows-ism" that some in the Linux community abhor so much (too much pride / ego).

BTW, the last Linux distro I've used was Mandrake 8.0 and Red Hat 7 (IIRC), and I did have problems using it. Even getting it installed already gave me headaches, since the installation was *very* confusing (kind of a hit-and-miss). IIRC, I also found myself clueless as to which boot loader to use (GRUB, LILO etc?), and IIRC, I ran into problems with that "first 1024 cylinders" rule. I also couldn't figure out how to get my then USB ADSL Modem to work and connect to PacNet etc. I hope that all these have been simplified in the latest releases of these distros. :p

Oh well... I guess this is my last piece for this thread for today. Let me state that I'm not defending MS and Windows "blindly". I'm far from being a MS zealot (*hint*: ask Watcher :bsmilie: ).

:Later,
 

Pinoy said:
I understand completely that Linux has several layers. Linux refers to the base OS kernel. You can have a GUI interface like KDE or GNOME running on top of it, similar to how Windows was but a GUI interface to MSDOS in Win3.x/95/98/Me.

It's true that one thing that stunts the adoption of Linux is that some users have become so accustomed to the Windows Way of doing things that they expect the same approach to be there in Linux. However, let us not forget that Windows remain to be the most dominant desktop operating system out there. And the Linux community has to accept this fact and should try their best to reach out to the huge Windows user base. Unfortunately, AFAICS, this is one of the problem of the Linux community: that of being afraid to "copy" the same "Windows-ism" that some in the Linux community abhor so much (too much pride / ego).

BTW, the last Linux distro I've used was Mandrake 8.0 and Red Hat 7 (IIRC), and I did have problems using it. Even getting it installed already gave me headaches, since the installation was *very* confusing (kind of a hit-and-miss). IIRC, I also found myself clueless as to which boot loader to use (GRUB, LILO etc?), and IIRC, I ran into problems with that "first 1024 cylinders" rule. I also couldn't figure out how to get my then USB ADSL Modem to work and connect to PacNet etc. I hope that all these have been simplified in the latest releases of these distros. :p

Oh well... I guess this is my last piece for this thread for today. Let me state that I'm not defending MS and Windows "blindly". I'm far from being a MS zealot (*hint*: ask Watcher :bsmilie: ).

:Later,

Not that Linux Community is afraid to copy the Windows, apprantely, MS actually sued a company (I shall not mention which company.... it is no longer there .... god bless the soul of the company) for it's Look and Feel .... claims that it is "patent" .... which bring fore the joke of "Why the whole world is so interested in Xerox's Trashcan".

Anyway, the First 1024 cylinders rule is not Linux Rule, it is the limitation of AT Bus, if you use SCSI, there is no such problem. USB ADSL Modem has no problem working with Linux, I had been using it before, but I switched to Eternet version which is more stable. Most problem with Printers and Modem stems from the "non-secure" format of Windows (to save cost, manufacturers really exploit the security flaw of Full System Admin Rights to save money on Bios).

Just for information, The Latest Suse 9.0 Did a perfectly great job to bring usability and Security into the home of users ;). It had all there is required to work properly..... lacking only in Games .... not that I am interested in that ;).

I could not blame you on your Windows talk. Most users will support windows as human are born resistance to changes. However, once users get used to Linux, there had been no return .... yet ;) ..... Basically, I can't stand Windows now ;). I would not use it until there is no choice.
 

wilddeepocean said:
Umm...
After so many discussion abour microsoft, windows, security etc... let's see what Bill Gates says....
here's the link http://www.australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,7664710^15382^^nbv^,00.html

and read comment regarding the interview in here http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1386150,00.asp

As bill gates said .... it's not MS OS fault, MS OS is the most secured system in the world. It is all the world's fault .... the hacker (crackers to be exact) should not write viruses to attack MS system. If they do not write viruses then MS OS is secured ..... So, I shall do the world a favour, I shall put up a bounty, whoever is the first to identify a virus creator that attack MS OS shall get x amount of money, of course this person has to be prosecuted and proven guilty first :what:
 

tonski said:
"nothing is secured in an internet world... "
I wholeheartedly agree. :D

Debian Servers Hacked

Project Debian is a 10-year-old variant of the Linux kernel, popular among the independent, or "enthusiast," crowd of programmers. The breach underlines that any operation system, even Linux -- often held up as a benchmark in security compared to other operating systems (namely Microsoft) -- is vulnerable to hacks.

"Today's software has a high degree of complexity and you cannot eliminate all problems, unfortunately," Schulze said. "Every GNU/Linux distribution is vulnerable, even OpenBSD faces vulnerabilities, however, quite seldom."
:Later,
 

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