Amazingly dumb remark about Linux

[Adam Myrow]

On Thu, 30 May 2002, Gregory Nowak wrote:

> I agree with what you say. However, if I understand you correctly, why
> do you want viruses for Linux to exist?

I think he believes that only popular operating systems have viruses.
This is so boneheaded!  Only insecure operating systems like Windows have
viruses.  Sure, viruses could be written for Linux, but most would require
that you run them as root, which any sensable person won't do.  The
problem with Windows is that everybody has the equivilent of root power in
the home versions that are most common.  Also, Microsoft made their email
clients capable of executing VB script and such which opened a huge can of
worms.  To me, those are the fundamental problems with windows not
counting Microsoft being nearly a monopoly.  Any user can trash their
system without trying.  In Linux, you don't trash the system unless you
spend all your time logged in as root.  As long as you are a normal user,
you can't destroy your own system through a wrong command.