Do you think that "most people" are equally capable in removing
Windows files?
Of course not. And I've vaccilated around for at least a couple of
years now with various flavors of help and suggestion formats on my
web site. I once had fairly detailed "safe hex" tips and suggestions.
I had quite detailed info at one time on the use of KAV, McAfee and
F-Prot for DOS av scanners. Right now, the flavor is far from detailed
(and far from comprehensive) and nothing more than a mere outline of
the "major surgery" items (I call them). I've lost interest in trying
to "reach the masses" since it's mission impossible. Part of my loss
of interest is the move by the masses to XP (and many techie types to
Win 2K). To my way of thinking and doing things, these OS are
ridiculous with their lack of a DOS maintenence underpinning. BTW, I
do work with the guys supporting the claymania web site. That's where
users should go for general virus info. And that's another reason why
I've pretty much abandoned doing anything much more with my own web
site.
I agree with your attitude. These are the December stats from my site
and IE is way out front. A year ago this wasn't true. The top 5 were
close in percentages.
MS Internet Explorer 57730 83.8 %
Mozilla 2901 4.2 %
Opera 2488 3.6 %
firebird 2357 3.4 %
Netscape 1537 2.2 %
Unknown 1314 1.9 %
WebCopier 127 0.1 %
Lynx 108 0.1 %
Konqueror 90 0.1 %
K-Meleon 55 0 %
Others 183 0.2 %
It's not "just" a browser war Art. It is a war to retain future
hardware that will run non-MS operating systems also.
Yes. But the IBM PC set the standard for hardware many years ago. You
can still run antiquated (and modern non MS) DOS programs on PCs
produced today and for the forseeable future. For what it's worth,
we'll be able to run Win 9X/ME on new PCs for many years yet.
BTW, all statistics of the kind you show above can be skewed by the
fact that Opera (and maybe other browsers) allow you to make it appear
that you're using a different browser than the actual one.
Sounds OS related to me.
I think there will be new vulnerabilities. These things are archived,
passed around and used to build new exploits. I think it is clear that
a great many of us are staying with the version of Windows that we
have. I hope that we can count on 3rd parties to offer up solutions
for 98 and 98SE now.
Vulnerabilites and successful exploits are two different matters. Even
if currently unknown vulnerabilities are found, the bad guys have to
figure out how to exploit them on a mass basis in order for them to
amount to anything. And if they are succesful, so will the white hats
be successful in neutering them one way or another. I've seen third
party fixes for M$ vulnerabilities.
Actually, fear of new vulnerabilites being found is a very weak excuse
or rationalization people use to justify doing whatever it is they
want to do in the first place
I like Windows 9X/ME. Now that I have
a 900 mhz PIII and DSL service it's finally what I had been after ever
since the 386 days. I've put a lot of effort into securing it. And I'm
not about to change from what I enjoy and like very soon! But I'm not
preaching it the way the Linux worshipers do. People can use what they
want and I couldn't care less
Or lobby to stop the prospect. Dealing with IE only sites now isn't
particularily productive. It is a waste of time for all practical
purposes. Far too little. Far too late.
Well, there are some things I do preach. Eradicating IE (and OE) is
one of them. Along with network settings it's the single most
important thing people can do for malware/spyware prevention. I'm
seeing signs of progress. My daugher is in the web design business and
she's commented on perceiving the change among the semi-computer
literate, many of whom have changed over to Moz based browsers for
their own personal use (as she has).
It is only when MS numbers and sales decline that the grip will
loosen. Then, the browser war can be fought.
I see it as going on right now. I see it as just warming up,actually.
Art
http://www.epix.net/~artnpeg