virus got my laptop

I think I lost a video I had not uploaded yet.  Fortunately I had backed up just a couple of days earlier.

I was using AVG free for virus protection.  So I guess it isn't all that great.  I am now loading ubuntu on an old laptop.

The virus was quite smart.  It looked like part of windows and it said it had found a dangerous virus and needed to clean the whole computer.  Then it wanted money.  I smelled a rat and used my cell phone to look a few things up and found out that, yes, it's a virus scam thing. 

I decided to reformat my hard drive and start over. 

I failed to back up my files this summer when my laptop terminally failed, lost a couple months worth of field notes. 

The solution to virus trouble is simply DON'T RUN WINDOWS. 

All other OSes are virus free.

joshuaos wrote:
All other OSes are virus free.

Not really.  Windows is the most used OS so most viruses are written for it.  If linux was the most popular OS, most viruses would be written to target it. 

I too am a fan of open source, but telling lies is no way to promote it.

Far from being a lie, it is quite true that there aren't viruses for linux, and not just because it's less popular!  Whereas security has been a major concern for the whole linux world for decades, windows has been famously insecure.

Not to mention that MANY of the viruses out there gain entry through software that is specific to windows (word macro-viruses, IE specific attacks, etc!).

Though I've read a slashdot article about "proof of concept" linux viruses, there aren't any in the wild, and even if and when linux does gain popularity to rival windows, I doubt viruses will EVER be nearly as prolific as they are under windows.

There are viruses for linux - it's just that more recent versions of linux have been patched so they can't do their wickedness.

It is cool that linux does not have to run any anti-virus software.  At all.  Ever.

Because of this recent event, I put ubuntu on my old laptop.  I was running it and thinking "yeah, I think this will be fine." and then I put it in standby mode.  And then I brought it out of standby mode, the top inch of one of the windows was all scrambled.  And I thought "yup - this is linux, little odd things here and there."

I haven't really done anything with it since.

paul wheaton wrote:
Because of this recent event, I put ubuntu on my old laptop.  I was running it and thinking "yeah, I think this will be fine." and then I put it in standby mode.  And then I brought it out of standby mode, the top inch of one of the windows was all scrambled.  And I thought "yup - this is linux, little odd things here and there."

I haven't really done anything with it since.

I hear this kind of thing a lot, and I'll admit that linux often has it's hiccups... though anyone that argues that windows does not, baffles me.

I spent years and years navigating it's quirks and problems and viruses, and reinstalling it on average more than once a year (professionally for a decade or more.  I even worked, for a time, for "The Computer Guys" there in Missoula, I wonder if he's still around).

Ubuntu has been getting better and better, that's for sure, and considering it does so without the hardware makers in it's pocket, I'm glad not to run windows any more, and help those around me get off it too.

Joshua