In 1996.

[Lt Major Burns]

i was good at removing spyware. i was good at keeping the PC running like butter. i knew where it lay, i knew where to look. i had all the best removers.

but it was never completely clean.

[dalo]

Well, yes, it is possible to having a smooth Widnows based PC. Key is, I think it requires to much work to maintain a Windows PC, rather than /just start using it/.

[powermac]

I have never seen anything like it. What is that ? I know it is IE, but all the other stuff?

[Lt Major Burns]

toolbars that install themselves if you let them. most people have 2 or three at least at some point. that's what it could look like.

[fryke]

I hope you're not being sarcastic, because then I wouldn't explain. ... -> It's what's called spyware. You go to websites, and scripts automatically download and install little software. Or they get installed together with software you think is valid. They install these bars that "help" you find to _their_ site more easily. By installing themselves as the home, search and inbetween page. They look at what you're doing and sometimes send data to their servers about you. They try to control your computer. They _do_ control your computer. They're sometimes _very_ hard to find on your harddrive and not so easily removed. Others change your dial-up setup so you're dialing a very expensive number instead of your ISP. Most people don't notice that until the phone bill arrives (think THOUSANDS of dollars...). Of course: All of this is only possible thanks to Microsoft Windows.

[dalo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware

[nixgeek]

Did you all actually find the window with the web page displaying on it? It was a tiny rectangle at the bottom right which was displaying MSN.com. Incredible!

[dalo]

Well, it all boils down to the fact of market share. It's market share that makes viruses worth coding. Even if I ended up with OS X mainly because I've beviously been a Linux fan, I am not tehnically skilled enough to judge the different kinds of vulnerabilities towards viruses and worms --among UNiX systems compared to others. OS / 2 warp was, in the mid 90's, promoted by the fact that there were no viruses towards it. Technically, it had the potential of being just as vulernable to viruses as Microsoft Windows. But as of this writing it's pretty pleasant to be a Mac OS X users. I still feel that the really cool programs that are being developed, including games, will sooner or later also be ported to Mac OS X, and that I just have to wait. While the endless numer of adware-bloated-blink-and-click raving alone on the Windows platform.

Personally, I don't "hate Microsoft" for the sake of being "an" "anti-Microsoft", and I really don't hate multi-million-dollar-companies just because they are multi-million-dollar companies. There's simply no way I can do that and still love Apple and Sun the way I do. What makes me sick and tired is acutally not Windows as a miserable software failure, because they have always existed. It is rather the way alternative software and operating systems are hidden and prevented to use for the general public, simply because... because "maket share controls the market share".