log in through root

Rick Sewill rsewill at gmail.com
Sun Mar 28 20:24:39 UTC 2010


On 03/28/2010 12:04 PM, bruce wrote:
> hey...
> 
> as a guy who's been running different variants of unix/sun/vax vma for
> ~25 years... you can run as root/user with equal ability to screw up
> if you don't know what you're doing! running as a user implies that
> you can't do certain things/apps on a system.. but who's to say that
> someone didn't open up the system to allow users to run thoses
> "dangerous" apps as a user!
> 
> bottom line, people should know what the heck they're doing when they
> start to play on the system..
> 
> as to your issues with windows... what kind of virus system/apps are
> you running to prevent viruses from being able to be downloaded on the
> box???
> 
> if you have "good" anti-virus apps running, and they're updated on a
> frequent basis.. the system should be ok, unless she's going to sites
> that are probably good breeding grounds for getting infected. in which
> case, you should tell her to stay the hell away from those sites...
> 
> peace..
> 


It was Norton anti-virus...and I updated to the latest patches.
I updated Windows to the latest patches.
I updated IE to IE 8, hoping that would slow down problems.

Unfortunately, you hit the nail on the head.
Took her only a few days to get infected again.

She told me she was visiting hundreds of web sites looking for pictures.
I don't think any anti-virus apps, even if kept up to date, could help.

I am stuck what to do.  She doesn't want me switching her to Linux.

She wants her Creative Memories software to work.
She is comfortable clicking the IE icon to get to Yahoo! mail.

She's learned how to find pictures and how to print pictures.

She wants to go to hundreds of web sites looking for pictures.
It's something, she believe, the PC should be able to do.
She doesn't understand why her PC can't be kept safe.

I was hoping against hope, switching her to Linux would slow the problem
down.  I doubt if anything can be done to prevent it.

I'm afraid I took this off-topic.  Sorry to everyone for doing that.


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