PCMech Forums - View Single Post

Statica · 12-16-2004, 11:40 AM

Great comments out there, and I personally am pleased by the direction this thread has taken - we've gone from understanding that it isn't about Firefox being the most secure browser on the planet or IE being the most vulnerable, it's about proper EDUCATION on what it means to engage in a safe computing environment. And that's a reason why I come back to this thread, I've historically stayed away from too much participation in these reflective, subjective threads because my reality isn't necessarily someone else's.

sataraid0 raises an exceptional point, one of education and research in using computers. That is the starting point for being less of a target to attacks.

Again, coming back to mb26' point about patches for Microsoft's offerings being slow to permeate through .. consider the facts. When you have such a huge % of people running their OS it takes time to properly test out the patches, mostly because such patches have such far reaching effects. Look at the way XP is laid out, its now MS' universal OS for all computers and all users; it makes the issue much more complicated. NT and Windows 2000 had service packs and patches being released much more frequently, not because Microsoft has an inability to deploy patches at the drop of a hat, but it has probably more to do because of the target audience of NT or 2K professional (these OS' were released parallel to home user operating systems like 98 and ME). So now you've got this HUGE population of users with varying degrees of knowledge and pretense of the same, that need to be delivered patches and service packs that fix issues, contain new features, yet must be easy to install, universally successful - to be assimilated by people who are largely pessimistic (My thread on SP success rate was something that I found remarkable in that sense .. even though we had over 80% of respondents with successful installs - keep in mind also that this is a troubleshooting BB .. not a place where people come to say "all is well" - real world numbers are probably much higher; people will still claim to be wary of a servicepack because it comes from Microsoft).

Education, is what is lacking, in telling people what they are likely to be targetted by, and what is needed to keep safe. Yes, it's rather shameful that we have to tell people to go on the web armed to the teeth; but again, that is what is happening for everything. Cars aren't designed or improved based on what happens when you get home safe every night, they are designed for those instances when you don't - from seatbelts to varying technologies for impact detection and protection.

And that is what this site and this forum is about - proper education through community interaction. So saying that this browser and this program will protect you ad infinituum; is miseducation - and a dangerous trend that must be stopped. Accept the realities that a hole will come up where none existed before. I feel for people like Hal, who has to deal with people who have been miseducated about the merits of Firefox (yes! miseducation can be both in "OVER-extolling" virtues and in OVER-deriding the flaws) and have proceeded to dump their antivirus. Of course, in moments of frustration I have been known to say - good riddance to these people who have got derailed off the internet .. less people spreading their virus to their buddies on their addressbooks

12-16-2004, 11:40 AM	#30
Statica Premium Member Join Date: Jun 1999 Posts: 9,231	Great comments out there, and I personally am pleased by the direction this thread has taken - we've gone from understanding that it isn't about Firefox being the most secure browser on the planet or IE being the most vulnerable, it's about proper EDUCATION on what it means to engage in a safe computing environment. And that's a reason why I come back to this thread, I've historically stayed away from too much participation in these reflective, subjective threads because my reality isn't necessarily someone else's. sataraid0 raises an exceptional point, one of education and research in using computers. That is the starting point for being less of a target to attacks. Again, coming back to mb26' point about patches for Microsoft's offerings being slow to permeate through .. consider the facts. When you have such a huge % of people running their OS it takes time to properly test out the patches, mostly because such patches have such far reaching effects. Look at the way XP is laid out, its now MS' universal OS for all computers and all users; it makes the issue much more complicated. NT and Windows 2000 had service packs and patches being released much more frequently, not because Microsoft has an inability to deploy patches at the drop of a hat, but it has probably more to do because of the target audience of NT or 2K professional (these OS' were released parallel to home user operating systems like 98 and ME). So now you've got this HUGE population of users with varying degrees of knowledge and pretense of the same, that need to be delivered patches and service packs that fix issues, contain new features, yet must be easy to install, universally successful - to be assimilated by people who are largely pessimistic (My thread on SP success rate was something that I found remarkable in that sense .. even though we had over 80% of respondents with successful installs - keep in mind also that this is a troubleshooting BB .. not a place where people come to say "all is well" - real world numbers are probably much higher; people will still claim to be wary of a servicepack because it comes from Microsoft). Education, is what is lacking, in telling people what they are likely to be targetted by, and what is needed to keep safe. Yes, it's rather shameful that we have to tell people to go on the web armed to the teeth; but again, that is what is happening for everything. Cars aren't designed or improved based on what happens when you get home safe every night, they are designed for those instances when you don't - from seatbelts to varying technologies for impact detection and protection. And that is what this site and this forum is about - proper education through community interaction. So saying that this browser and this program will protect you ad infinituum; is miseducation - and a dangerous trend that must be stopped. Accept the realities that a hole will come up where none existed before. I feel for people like Hal, who has to deal with people who have been miseducated about the merits of Firefox (yes! miseducation can be both in "OVER-extolling" virtues and in OVER-deriding the flaws) and have proceeded to dump their antivirus. Of course, in moments of frustration I have been known to say - good riddance to these people who have got derailed off the internet .. less people spreading their virus to their buddies on their addressbooks Last edited by Statica; 12-16-2004 at 11:42 AM.