

Computer viruses slow African expansion - davecardwell
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/12/ethiopia-computer-virus

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jseliger
Not to turn this into a Slashdot thread, but I find it puzzling that the
article fails to mention Linux till the final paragraphs, then quotes someone
who is either being taken out of context or is a moron: "Khokhar says it's no
magic solution. "If you suddenly had an increase in Linux or Mac use in China,
you'd find those two platforms are just as vulnerable.""

Er, no: if you compile from the source or use well-known downloads, it's
pretty damn unlikely that you're going to have the same problems you have
getting CS 4 from a Warez site.

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elbenshira
I think what the article is saying is that if Linux or Mac OS X becomes more
used, then you will begin to see viruses pop up on those platforms. Of course,
I would argue that it's harder to find/write/distribute exploits for a unix
system than windows.

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likpok
This was clearly true of windows pre-vista. Post-vista windows, it may not be
so much. The vista security model is a very different beast (assuming the same
quality of user).

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olefoo
Interestingly, for the average user, Ubuntu provides a much more centralized
software repository than either Windows or OS X. Not to say that malware
targeting that platform doesn't exist; but it's more likely to be aimed at
Firefox than the base OS. It's much harder for a non-computer-savvy person to
screw up a modern linux desktop than any version of windows.

But basically what I hear you saying is that Vista was an attempt to catch up
to the safety and security of the linux desktop...

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likpok
In many ways Vista surpassed Linux. Linux has very rough process/file levels
(user, group, root). Vista allows you to have your processes (or root's
processes, IIRC) not be able to write to your files.

Which is a big win when a user level process (e.g. firefox) gets hosed (which
can happen quite easily to things like browsers).

Now this is wholy for the OS. The user issue you bring up still exists (and I
don't think Microsoft can fix that one).

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troels
> Which is a big win when a user level process (e.g. firefox) gets hosed
> (which can happen quite easily to things like browsers).

Run Firefox under a different user account, with limited access to the system.
Problem solved.

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likpok
It's not solved. How do you download a file? How do you let it download _this_
file, but not _that_ one?

Firefox isn't built to understand that concept, so it takes more than just
denying it write privledges to solve.

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troels
You download to the dedicated users home directory, and then you make your
main user part of the same group as the firefox-user. I didn't get the last
part of your question? Why wouldn't you want to download _that_ file?

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elbenshira
What an interesting problem. Unfortunately, the problem is not the anti-virus
software, but a general lack of technological knowledge, which is expected for
a developing country.

Moving to a "more secure" OS (i.e. Linux) would be a good solution. This will
result in computing legitimacy (less pirating) and viruses. I doubt the normal
student or government worker (or anyone, really) need that super-advanced
feature on Microsoft Word.

Yet unfortunately, once again, there are bigger problems in Africa than lack
of technology. Fix the government corruption problem first, and things will
start falling into place.

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likpok
I don't use office software much. However, Word is much, much nicer than
OpenOffice. Even for basic editing. If people are doing almost anything more
complicated than the basic text document, they can use the well-researched UI.

Whether that is worth the price tag is up to them.

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davecardwell
There are a litany of economical, cultural, geographical, and other issues at
play here. Plenty of opportunities for enterprising startups to solve
problems.

~~~
troels
Unfortunately not much money to gain from it.

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smithjchris
Just like Aids....

