Sweaty Firefox

[drscott]

Just mowed, edged, string-trimmed, and swept myself into a stupor. My back hurts.

A few weeks ago I had to spend two hours (at least) updating my adware removal tools and chasing after spyware; a web page had installed about 20 different forms of malware. It took days to get them all. I don't doubt that most home users are now running machines with 100s of different infestations.

I've been relatively free of viral nastiness -- I have a hardware firewall box protecting the home network, antivirus tools, high-security settings on most things, and have never suffered any infestations until now. The key problem is Microsoft -- they installed many "extensible" features with a mind to making workgroup networks easy enough for any idiot, but the same "features," along with a refusal to use a standard buffer package to avoid overwrites, makes their systems unusually vulnerable for home use. When you add in their overwhelming market dominance, Microsoft software is the target of choice for any miscreant.

One easy and useful thing to do if you're stuck with XP: at least dump IE in favor of Firefox, the Netscape-based Mozilla Project browser. I've been using it for a few days, and aside from losing the Google toolbar I've grown dependent on, it's great -- noticeably faster and much less likely to allow harmful ActiveX controls to operate. For those few sites that can't operate without IE, keep it around, just set Firefox as your default browser.

Comments

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Well, my concern is not so much for myself (although the time lost to "defense work" is growing all the time) but the millions of users who haven't got a clue. Alas for me, I serve as tech support for several relatives who use email, browsing, and very simple applications, and their machines have become almost unusable this year. I plan to get the SP2 disk for them and have them install it, which should squelch about 80% of their problems, but Microsoft really has to bring back Uber-Bob, which locks the machine down so no harmful processes or applications can install themselves. If marketed as "improved security," you could sell millions of these. What are the ten or so things 99% of users want to do? Make those the top level interface. Simplify and hide most features. Make the multiuser stuff intuitive. Make components fit into a compatibility/dependency tree and check consistency, automatically downloading and installing as needed.

I realize they're weighed down by complexity, but their home market is about to go away in favor of some simple Linux/Sony/Tivo/iPod box, so attention to this matter is critical.

And I would never have suspected! But frankly, the Clark Kent glasses look a little odd on you...