My Friend Uses XP, And This Made Me Laugh...

merovingianmerovingian
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
He got hold of an anti-virus program for Windows XP, as he'd never used one on his system.



He ran it, and it found 13 spyware programs residing on his HD.



Citing from the Mercedes-Benz A-Class ad: Some people just don't get it.



This makes me glad I use a Mac...



I'm interested to see if anyone else here has experienced the spyware programs for Windows. Do any exist for OS X? m.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 32
    ichiban_jayichiban_jay Posts: 660member
    when I ran Adaware on the PC in our house for the very first time, I found 187 spyware and adwares.
  • Reply 2 of 32
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    No spyware or viruses exsist for Mac OS X (that point will be argued by several members here) It's just too stupid to try and write something like that for an open-source based OS like OS X is. So no one does it, there are something like 50,000 known viruses, worms, and spyware programs for Windows XP alone (that doesn't count 2000, 98, 95...ect) and 0 for OS X (like I said, that number is debatable).



    That's just one of the millions of reasons that it's awesome to be a Mac guy.





    And remember rule #1:

    Friends don't let friends use Windows.
  • Reply 3 of 32
    cybermonkeycybermonkey Posts: 604member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by DMBand0026

    No spyware or viruses exsist for Mac OS X (that point will be argued by several members here) It's just too stupid to try and write something like that for an open-source based OS like OS X is. So no one does it, there are something like 50,000 known viruses, worms, and spyware programs for Windows XP alone (that doesn't count 2000, 98, 95...ect) and 0 for OS X (like I said, that number is debatable).



    That's just one of the millions of reasons that it's awesome to be a Mac guy.





    And remember rule #1:

    Friends don't let friends use Windows.



    Not being picky M8, but darwin is the open source part of OSX not OSX as a whole.



    Before my dad got his mac he used windows for his work, Mag publishing, when i realised he didnt have anti virus installed, I installed norton for him and low and behold he had 21!!! The worst thing was, they were all comming from one guy who email's him pics every day, So its just a continous circle of infections. Long live OSX
  • Reply 4 of 32
    jwilljwill Posts: 209member
    Yeah..the amount of viruses and stuff going around these days is amazing. It even makes some computer users paranoid to install things. But not me! (and I have a tendency to be very paranoid about anything, lol)
  • Reply 5 of 32
    nebagakidnebagakid Posts: 2,692member
    this is a good way to live by:



    get tested for STDs
  • Reply 6 of 32
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Merovingian

    He got hold of an anti-virus program for Windows XP, as he'd never used one on his system.



    He ran it, and it found 13 spyware programs residing on his HD.



    Citing from the Mercedes-Benz A-Class ad: Some people just don't get it.



    This makes me glad I use a Mac...



    I'm interested to see if anyone else here has experienced the spyware programs for Windows. Do any exist for OS X? m.



    this remindes me of a line from a weird al yankovic song, "Its all about the pentiums" one line in particular, as part of the 2.5 minute windows slam session he says "I update my system at least twice a day..."in 1999 it was a joke, but i realy do upadate at least 2x per day now, and your friend, i know the felling, been there.
  • Reply 7 of 32
    chinneychinney Posts: 1,019member
    A colleague at work just bought a new PC computer with XP. Before doing anything with the computer ? before even hooking up to the internet - he installed anti-virus software. The software immediately detected viruses, including some of the more serious ones that have recently been going around. This machine had come from the factory with viruses pre-installed!!! Has anyone heard of this happening? My colleague returned the computer to the manufacturer and demanded that they clean it up, which they did.
  • Reply 8 of 32
    cosmonutcosmonut Posts: 4,872member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Chinney

    A colleague at work just bought a new PC computer with XP.



    Who made the PC? They should be flogged.
  • Reply 9 of 32
    chinneychinney Posts: 1,019member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by CosmoNut

    Who made the PC? They should be flogged.



    I don't want to name names. They are a smallish local company whose computers, I understand, have received very good ratings in Canadian and U.S. magazines (I understand this to be the case, as I don't personally follow PC manufacturer ratings).



    I agree, however, that this should never have happened, although I can think of a couple of ways that it could have occurred (returned computer resold; internal testing of new computer before sale). Ultimately, my point here is not to point fingers at this one manufacturer, but just to illustrate how ubiquitous these viruses have become.
  • Reply 10 of 32
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Chinney

    A colleague at work just bought a new PC computer with XP. Before doing anything with the computer ? before even hooking up to the internet - he installed anti-virus software. The software immediately detected viruses, including some of the more serious ones that have recently been going around. This machine had come from the factory with viruses pre-installed!!! Has anyone heard of this happening? My colleague returned the computer to the manufacturer and demanded that they clean it up, which they did.



    Pre-installed software is one of the reasons I hate working with the Windows boxen my clients give me. Sooo many problems...
  • Reply 11 of 32
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by cybermonkey

    Not being picky M8, but darwin is the open source part of OSX not OSX as a whole.





    Well, yeah, but also, many apple made applications are standards based, and/or have open-source ties.
  • Reply 12 of 32
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by cybermonkey

    Not being picky M8, but darwin is the open source part of OSX not OSX as a whole.

    [snip]





    And like I said, it's open-source based...not all open sourced.



    Haha. You're right, I really have no idea what I'm talking about...sorta. But I do know enough to say stuff like that with a certain degree of confidence that I'm not saying something entirely wrong.
  • Reply 13 of 32
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    Quote:

    (like I said, that number is debatable).



    Yea that's what my counterpoint roommate said, he's a PC guy. I was like show me an OS X virus. There are simply none. Office macros don't count, since you can just turn off macros and even then I'm not sure if they affect Macs. I've never used macros so I don't worry about them I just the feature off.



    It's easy to forget how crappy PCs are until you have a problem. I didn't realize what a problem pop-ups were, and spyware, I haven't used PCs much in the last few years except for games. These issues alone really are bad enough to justify getting a Mac if you're just a casual web user, which is the majority of people! Sigh. Apple should really REALLY run a commercial about this, showing someone with XP and Kazaa and a million spyware/adware/pop-ups/viruses/worms.
  • Reply 14 of 32
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by DMBand0026

    And like I said, it's open-source based...not all open sourced.



    Haha. You're right, I really have no idea what I'm talking about...sorta. But I do know enough to say stuff like that with a certain degree of confidence that I'm not saying something entirely wrong.



    But you are not saying something entirely right... which can be a problem sometimes.
  • Reply 15 of 32
    quagmirequagmire Posts: 558member
    Before I was a die hard mac fan, I was a die hard pc fan. I had ( still have it) a Dell. Every 3 days norton would find at least 1 virus. Thats about 12 viruses a month. I didn't have an email address at the time. So how did the viruses get on it. The only answer I figured out is people hacked me while I was on the internet. While I used pc my parents have a 1st gen. PM G4. They have Norton on it too just to be safe. Not even 1 virus, worm, or spyware was found in the 4 years we've used it. Then I was steered towards the light side( apple) from my friend. I was going to get an ibook. But, he told me to get a powerbook. He is now jealous of me that I got it and should of let me get the ibook.
  • Reply 16 of 32
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    quagmire it is scary. Even if you don't do anything and let your PC sit there bad things can happen, you are right. The geniuses at MSFT leave ports and services like Windows Messenger service open by default, and of course 99% of users don't even know what that is. Then on the other hand, there's OS X which the Army uses to run their server, has 0 viruses, no spyware that I know of, a way to access Kazaa without popups, Poisoned, and a way to surf the web without popups/spyware, Safari/Mozilla, and a way to read email without worrying that simply clicking the email to render a preview pane will download a virus that deletes all the data on your hard drive (see Phatbot.)
  • Reply 17 of 32
    crusadercrusader Posts: 1,129member
    Ha, that's nothing. In doing updates for the school system here, I ran ad-aware on a computer with 2000, and it found over 1200 items! Ad-aware is a godsend however, and all Windows users should use it.
  • Reply 18 of 32
    mattjohndrowmattjohndrow Posts: 1,618member
    working for a repair company, which was mainly macs, we occasionally got a windoze peecee in, one time we scanned it for viruses, came up with over 1750 adware/spyware/whatever you name it!
  • Reply 19 of 32
    sobelizzardsobelizzard Posts: 130member
    i just found out about this nasty spyware stuff this past week.... a friend of mine called me to tell me that her computer is popping up all sorts of toolbars and not letting her browse properly.... i think we've got it sorted out now (found 12 viruses and over 150 adware/spyware goblins running around in there)....



    needless to say, she's saving up for an iBook.....



    i knew it was bad on the other side, but jeez, i had no idea
  • Reply 20 of 32
    artman @_@artman @_@ Posts: 2,546member
    Windows XP (& 98, ME, 2000 et al) is a virus.



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