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bigbull
12-05-2003, 01:46 PM
[B]If someone is giving away a program to stop spyware, how can I be sure that the program is not spyware itself?

Goslow unplugged
12-05-2003, 02:11 PM
You cant.
but you can download it from a reputable site after reading and researching it.
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BIG
BLUE If you don't like those kinds of thrills wait until the software is "out of" beta.

locustfurnace
12-05-2003, 03:24 PM
Originally posted by bigbull@Dec 5 2003, 03:46 PM
[B]If someone is giving away a program to stop spyware, how can I be sure that the program is not spyware itself?
One way to check is to download; if available, the source code for the app and examine the code yourself, ofcourse you need to know what your looking for also.
You can examine 1 piece of software with another.
You can run an application level proxy to restrict any outgoing connections without your permission, or password, so even if ANY spyware wants to spy on you, it needs permission, password, to connect to the network to transmit it's collected data. If you restrict spyware from phoning home, then who cares about spyware, its useless in its intended purpose if it is unable to transmit that data back.
I can care less if spyware is on my system; collecting everything about me, if i have rendered its ability to send that data back to its collecting servers.
You can also check on spyware watcher sites for known apps to contain spyware.

Guest
12-17-2003, 04:18 AM
go to download.com ....search "in downloads"
type in "spybot"

look for a program called Spybot Search & Destroy.
That's what I use and it seems to work well.

Quite user-friendly too
:D ;)

locustfurnace
12-17-2003, 09:36 AM
There is a rather large listing of spyware tools on this site, pinned at the top of the forum. Spybot works good, but does and has missed some spyware on machines i ran it on. So it might be good to run atleast 2 variances of the utilites.

Guest
12-17-2003, 09:06 PM
I tried running both ad-aware and spybot on my machine...
I ran ad-aware first...after it completed..I ran spybot...
turns out..spybot detected some of the files from ad-aware as spyware and wiped them out
:lol: So I just removed ad-aware and have kept spybot ever since :)

Goslow unplugged
12-18-2003, 12:23 AM
Originally posted by Guest@Dec 17 2003, 10:06 PM
I tried running both ad-aware and spybot on my machine...
I ran ad-aware first...after it completed..I ran spybot...
turns out..spybot detected some of the files from ad-aware as spyware Prolly spybot just detected files you had removed & quarantined using ad-aware as I've never seen/heard of ad-aware installing ! ! spyware.
Ad-aware would be more user friendly than Spybot-search & destroy last time I used spybot it had a bug that if you changed your mind about deleting files and clicked no in the dialog box that asks you whether you want to remove the files or not it would go ahead & remove them anyway ,lol, so make sure you only tick the files you want removed (no second chance) and make backups of your files/registry.
The above bug may well have been fixed by now Spybot & Ad-aware are both good freeware :) products spybot has more frequent spyware reference file updates
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BIG
BLUE If you don't like those kinds of thrills wait until the software is "out of" beta.

locustfurnace
12-18-2003, 12:29 AM
While i was Demo'ing out Armour2Net's, firewall utility. i ran its built in spyware checker and it had found 3-4 that spybot has missed. since i just ran spybot before installing installing the demo of Armour2net, it was interesting to see what spybot missed.
Have not run either programs in a long time, so might have to go get infected with spyware and run tests with the both of them again.

Goslow unplugged
12-18-2003, 12:43 AM
Originally posted by locustfurnace@Dec 18 2003, 01:29 AM
While i was Demo'ing out Armour2Net's, firewall utility. i ran its built in spyware checker and it had found 3-4 that spybot has missed. since i just ran spybot before installing installing the demo of Armour2net, it was interesting to see what spybot missed.
Have not run either programs in a long time, so might have to go get infected with spyware and run tests with the both of them again.
Sometimes it pays to run the spyware removing utilities once & then reboot and run them again to see if they pick up more dregs.
----------------------------
BIG
BLUE If you don't like those kinds of thrills wait until the software is "out of" beta.

locustfurnace
12-18-2003, 01:44 AM
Originally posted by Goslow unplugged@Dec 18 2003, 02:43 AM
Sometimes it pays to run the spyware removing utilities once & then reboot and run them again to see if they pick up more dregs.
yes, possibly. But since Windows is just one of many OS's that i run, i dont worry to much about the dreaded spyware/virus/trojans/worms have-to-reboot-when-installing-programs side too much. Since out of the many dozen OS's I run, Window is the ONLY OS to be afflicted via these nastys.
I guess thats just a bonus & reward to the Windows user-base, or possibly "buried treasure" inside each win-tel box!

Goslow unplugged
12-18-2003, 03:07 AM
Originally posted by locustfurnace@Dec 18 2003, 02:44 AM
I guess thats just a bonus & reward to the Windows user-base, or possibly "buried treasure" inside each win-tel box!
This is like pushing s.up.h & as much as it pains me to leap to the defence,lol, of closed source who out there is writing "spyware/virus/trojans/worms" for the other minor percent of desktop o.s's when you can attack the o.s. at the top of the heap.
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BIG
BLUE If you don't like those kinds of thrills wait until the software is "out of" beta.

locustfurnace
12-18-2003, 03:54 AM
Originally posted by Goslow unplugged+Dec 18 2003, 05:07 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Goslow unplugged @ Dec 18 2003, 05:07 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteBegin--locustfurnace@Dec 18 2003, 02:44 AM
I guess thats just a bonus & reward to the Windows user-base, or possibly "buried treasure" inside each win-tel box&#33;
This is like pushing s.up.h & as much as it pains me to leap to the defence,lol, of closed source who out there is writing "spyware/virus/trojans/worms" for the other minor percent of desktop o.s&#39;s when you can attack the o.s. at the top of the heap.
----------------------------
BIG
BLUE If you don&#39;t like those kinds of thrills wait until the software is "out of" beta.[/b][/quote]
well it does not work the same, even IF people write virii for other OS&#39;s, not just the open source, there is still PLENTY of closed Source OS&#39;s on the market. For most part, the virii run rampant on Windows do to its lackluster security.
On the other OS&#39;s, (which really are dominant in the server market), the programs can not run on their own with out permissions. This is why they - the OS&#39;s, are used in the server market more then Windows, I dont recall Windows scaling up to the BIG IRON either. Thats usually left to UNICES, like AIX, HP.
Without user ID&#39;s and Group IDs, viruses that DO make it on those boxes, can not run. Even if you do replace some daemons with trojans, alot of Admins will run - or should run their daemons chroot or jail em.

If a user purposesly downloads a virus on a Server OS, and executes it, it would only ruin their own home dir, as they, Virus, would not have access beyond /usr/home/*

also, binarys MUST be placed in the PATH, such as /bin / usr/bin / /usr/sbin, and to be able to add a binary to these directorys, someone with root permissions & password is the only one who can add these binarys to those directorys. It is very uncommon to be able to run binaries from userland. they have to run in the directorys that are laid out for them. So Joe User, can not place a virus in these path directorys to make them run. if he does not have root or su/wheel permission & password.
plus you have kernel securelevels and can chflags binarys and directorys which can accomplish many things such as deny the chflaged binary from being deleted, overwritten, or amened.
Windows will run a binary anywhere you place it. It has no set area that has flags for "CAN RUN" & "CAN&#39;T RUN"

File also have different attributes in other OS&#39;s, such as the attribute to be executable. Windows will run anything that ends in an .exe. While under Unix the file must have the attribute to be able to run, even if it is a binary file, if the permissions are not set for it to be able to run, then it wont run.

Mac OS does not suffer from viruese either, neither does Os/2, Ecomm Station, BeOS, QNX, .........

locustfurnace
12-21-2003, 09:07 PM
Ok i went an got infected with a webdialer, filenames were 6959077.exe &
7015314.exe, with a registry patch titled r.reg and several shortcuts and files were placed in the C:&#092;program files. and 2 folder were created and files placed in there, the folder being called GlobalDialer
this was installed via a java script from an unknown website. it also appears that they might have installed the dialer via a hidden javascript in a css (cascading stylesheet), so that&#39;s another good reason to possibly specify your own css to use.
the files are disquised as DOT.dat files. so they do anot appear as a html file.
the site that is being used to download the dialer is h**p://download.globaldialer.net, which i then added to the host file to block.
once i stopped the dialer, i ran spybot v1.2 - which has been installed for a couple days prior. and spybot did not detect these.
So i copied the files and emailed spybot developers and mailed them the files as well. so they can make adjustments.
how did i detect this dialer? by paying attention to the responsiveness of the computer, and noticing under the task manager the MSHTA.exe being listed.

is spybot the best out there? its good, but rem that does not mean you are immune from getting foisted with something NEW and unknown to these spyware detectors. this is the 2nd time i have been infected with dialers and spyware that had gone undetected with spybot.
course not using dial-up internet is a plus when dialers are concerned since i no longer have a modem or phone-ine hooked to system. So they can not reach out and phone home - literally.

i just installed Armour2net Firewall to see if it would detect anything missed by spybot, and yes it did, since i ran spybot about half an hour ago and it did not detect the dialers, and gave me a clean bill, i thought i might try the Armour2net firewall&#39;s spyware checker, and what does it do, it turned up 3 missed by spybot. which are ACOR, Webhancer, and Bonzibuddy,
Which i find amazing as i thought after seeing Bonzibuddy show up in the detected listing as something spybot should have detected yet failed to do so. So now that brings the number of misses (this run) to 5 for spybot.

Goslow unplugged
12-23-2003, 08:25 AM
Thanks locustfurnace interesting now can santa tell me where I can download Armour2net firewall&#39;s spyware checker for free ;)
Originally posted by locustfurnace+Dec 17 2003, 10:36 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (locustfurnace @ Dec 17 2003, 10:36 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>... has missed some spyware on machines i ran it on. So it might be good to run atleast 2 variances of the utilites.[/b]Did you by any chance see if adaware found anything that spybot didnt.
Originally posted by -locustfurnace@Dec 21 2003, 10:07 PM

how did i detect this dialer? by paying attention to the responsiveness of the computer, and noticing under the task manager the MSHTA.exe being listed.Spybot also has a tool that shows/kills cue more running background processes than TaskManager though I like & use EndItAll.
(or Sys.Info. if I need a headache)<!--QuoteBegin--locustfurnace@Dec 21 2003, 10:07 PM

So i copied the files and emailed spybot developers and mailed them the files as well. so they can make adjustments.[/quote]That is how the best freeware is improved,by users lending a hand.
More freeware that can prevent an activeX variant of your "infection" from installing/running
(extract from SpywareBlaster database): GlobalDialer
CLSID : {38545C2A-O3CD-42C3-BC62-C537A6D5A8F6}
General Information: Premium-rate dialer, most likely for adult-rated material. If installed, it could dial to an overseas toll number without you knowing and cause large charges on your phone bill.
--------------------
BonziBuddy tracks browsing habits and displays targeted ads.
WebHancer monitors websites being viewed and can send performance data back to the maker&#39;s servers.
----------------
FAQ
#2) How does SpywareBlaster&#39;s protection work?
-SpywareBlaster works by settings "kill bits" in the registry. These "kill bit" registry entries are set for the spyware ActiveX CLSIDs (unqiue IDs that identify an ActiveX control). When a kill bit is set for a CLSID, the ActiveX control that uses that CLSID cannot install itself via your browser, nor can it run if it already installed. Microsoft sometimes uses these kill bits for fixing Active-X security holes.
...protection is still the foremost purpose of the program, but it also provides unique utilities like the exclusive "System Snapshot", and various useful tools... spyware/tracking cookie blocking... of course, is still free.
------------------------
ACOR not found in Spywareblaster database
----------------------------
BIG
BLUE If you don&#39;t like those kinds of thrills wait until the software is "out of" beta.

andrew n.
12-23-2003, 11:35 AM
For a beginner to Linux, which version could anyone recommend to me? I tried Mandrake 6. something a while back but the installation process wasn&#39;t user friendly enough for me. Are there any which are designed to be used by Windows people switching to Linux, but which still have all the nice security features? (in other words, comes with a partition program, or even doesn&#39;t need to be on a different partition, and all the graphics/multimedia related stuff is easy to install and use) .. i&#39;m sick of using Windows for the internet .....


a. n.

locustfurnace
12-23-2003, 12:19 PM
Originally posted by andrew n.@Dec 23 2003, 01:35 PM
For a beginner to Linux, which version could anyone recommend to me?
you might want to start a new thread with this question as it may get mixed in or lost in this current thread.

locustfurnace
12-23-2003, 12:31 PM
Originally posted by Goslow unplugged+Dec 23 2003, 10:25 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Goslow unplugged @ Dec 23 2003, 10:25 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Thanks locustfurnace interesting now can santa tell me where I can download Armour2net firewall&#39;s spyware checker for free [/b]
You can downloadload Armor2Net from, http://www.armor2net.com and use it for 30 days. its Shareware. If you like it one can purchase it for only &#036;19.99. Nothing wrong with using shareware & actually paying for it either.

Originally posted by -Goslow unplugged@Dec 23 2003, 10:25 AM
Did you by any chance see if adaware found anything that spybot didnt.
No i did not. as i said before, i dont worry much about spyware and the likes, since i usually reinstall my Windows OS once or more a month, due to testing and trialing software so much that i need to start clean often. So i had spybot installed a few days before i got these dialers and all. then i just wanted to try the Armor2net also, which was on my archive HD. But i did not try anything else.
<!--QuoteBegin--Goslow unplugged@Dec 23 2003, 10:25 AM
More freeware that can prevent an activeX variant of your "infection" from installing/running[/quote]
yes, as i have said also before, i usually run IE without java-scripting and active X enabled, but as i said in a few posts up the list, i was looking to get infected on purpose to see if Spybot would detect or miss, since i had it missed before on some infestations.

Gmork
12-28-2003, 12:06 AM
I use Webroot&#39;s Spy Sweeper, it works well and can run in the systray to keep an eye on cookies, etc.
http://www.webroot.com Recently repaired a friends machine. Found 45 different spyware progs. and over 2500 traces... Needless to say I gave him a talking too :P

TheBulbasaurfreak
01-10-2004, 11:36 AM
Checklist:

Spyware remover: Spybot Search and Destroy
Firewall: Sygate personal
Browser: Mozilla Firebird
Spyware "Firewall": SpywareBlaster/Guard
Cleaner: MRu Cleaner

Linux dude
01-12-2004, 06:14 AM
Originally posted by andrew n.@Dec 23 2003, 12:35 PM
For a beginner to Linux, which version could anyone recommend to me? I tried Mandrake 6. something a while back but the installation process wasn&#39;t user friendly enough for me. Are there any which are designed to be used by Windows people switching to Linux, but which still have all the nice security features? (in other words, comes with a partition program, or even doesn&#39;t need to be on a different partition, and all the graphics/multimedia related stuff is easy to install and use) .. i&#39;m sick of using Windows for the internet .....


a. n.
If you want to run Linux, RedHat 7 and up comes with a very nice grapic user interface that walks you through the entire install process. You can choose to install onto an EXT2 partition that it will make and format for you, or if you want to test drive it will do a PARTITIONLESS install on a FAT32 partition. If you choose this option I recommend an mimimum of 256 system RAM and at least 64 video RAM as it takes a preformance hit and is very memory hungry&#33;
I have tried many "flavors" of Linux and really like the improvements that RedHat has come up with. If memory serves me correctly RedHat ver.9 is now available and would probably be your best choice.

locustfurnace
01-12-2004, 03:11 PM
Originally posted by Linux dude+Jan 12 2004, 07:14 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Linux dude @ Jan 12 2004, 07:14 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>If you choose this option I recommend an mimimum of 256 system RAM and at least 64 video RAM as it takes a preformance hit and is very memory hungry&#33;
[/b]
GNU/Linux is not memory hungry, unlike other OS&#39;s, GNU/Linux reports memory usage differently then does Windows. Plus it handles and takes advantage of all the memory you have.
Also you should rebuild your kernel if you want to improve performance. Thus eliminating those options compiled into the kernel that you have no need for, and optimizing the kernel code to your specific CPU.

IT also depends on what window manager your using, such as KDE, or Fluxbox, or Blackbox or XFce how how much memory is being used.
Or you you opt not to us any.

<!--QuoteBegin--andrew n.@Dec 23 2003, 12:35 PM
For a beginner to Linux, which version could anyone recommend to me? I tried Mandrake 6.
a. n.[/quote]

There are other alternatives to Ms Windows besides GNU/Linux. Such as QNX, BeOS, Darwin, Amiga OS, Solaris, IRIX, the *BSD family and ofcourse; Apple Macintosh, and many many more.

But the most visible presently; aside from Apple is GNU/Linux.
Since GNU/Linux comes from a UNIX heritage, it is still much more complex than MS Windows.
The reason computers are popular now moreso than in the past, besides the lower pricing, is what Microsoft did with the desktop OS. Which was making it simpler to use a computer and making the OS affordable for end users and OEMs to pre ship systems with an OS. Apple still being quite expensive at the time too, made for the giant leaps MS took into the market.

GNU/Linux is FREE software, but that means Free; like Free Speech, not free from price. Lots of people think GNU/Linux can be had for free, and when it is not, the sellers should be tarred and featherd, but one is permitted to make profit from the software. So you might find some distros that you must pay for; like SuSE.

GNU/Linux still requires a user to be more knowledgeable about computers in general than the average Windows user. For most *NIX&#39;s (includes GNU/Linux, IRIX, *BSD, Solaris..etc) the user needs to know what sort of hardware they have installed, such as video cards and their chipsets, the chipset of the network cards or modems (NOT winmodems - they dont work for the most part under *nix), their monitor and its capable horizontal & vertical sync, ( not the 800x600 display resolution), such as Monitor 1 is [30Khz - 82Khz Horizontal[ and [50hz - 120hz Vertical] at 76hz.

You need to know what sort of mouse you have, and which port it is using, if it is a serial on ttys0, or ttys2...
Alot of this is now slowly being auto config&#39;d during boot time or installation time on a number of distros, but it still is not standard practive on all. so it is always good to learn these.

When you wish to load files from a CD-ROM on Windows you just place the CD into the drive, and click the, usually, D: drive. and your ready to go, While under the *NIX systems for the most part, you need to issue a command from a superuser account, to be able to read the cd-rom, so you would issue mount -t iso9660 /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom, and now you can read the contents of the CD-ROM under the directory /mnt/cdrom, or anywhere you wish to mount the drive, unlike Windows, UNIX does not care really where the physical device is, and there are no such things as a "c:" drive or "a:" drive. You mount your devices where you want. If i wanted to mount my cdrom drive as being called 650megs, i could mount it as "/home directory/my devices/650megs", and that would be where i access my CD-ROM from. Under windows my floppy drive is mounted as A:, under *NIX i have it mounted as "/mnt/floppy"

Windows makes is simple to install software, by pointing & clicking on a file and having it install and ready to run. While for the most part GNU/Linux requires you to know which route your distribution handles files, you can click and install also, but for the reason your picking GNU/Linux is the choice and control and ability to get more performance, so you would opt to compile the software from source and install that way, which requires more time, but gives you a much more finely-tune binary for your system.

Alot of distros now coming out that do make it much easier for a Windows user to switch over. Without requiring all the knowledge of a UNIX admin. but with any trade-off, you are also losing alot of the benefits, such as configuration & control and security, though loss of security does not mean your at the same level as Windows&#39;s security policy. Some of the distros, run the user as the root user, which allows you to control everything, such as mounting and installing software without need of switching to superuser. But this is a bad idea and decreases the effectiveness of *nix to "an accident waiting to happen."
Why do these distros run the everyday user at root priviliges? to make GNU/Linux more "Windows-like" to Windows users. as with Windows (except NT core versions; if properly setup) any user can install software and make changes without the need of a password.

Some distros come with GUI config utilites, and some still require you to manually hand edit these with a text editor. the benefit to hand editing is ofcourse; more power and ability to add undocumented tweaks, while a GUI config utility is only going to handle so many options. and it still requires you to be in a X session, while hand editing can be done via a term session. If your X does not load, you can not use the GUI editing utilty to makes changes to your system, if things go wrong. So another reason to learn to hand edit your config files.

It helps if you have a well working knowledge of DOS when migrating to *NIX. although there is alot of differences between the 2, the ability to navigate and get things done via the CLI is useful under *NIX.

Since you mentioned Mandrake Linux, (which started as a optimized version (i586) of Red Hat Linux) that you had once tried before, you might find it much easier to use today then in the 6.0 release days. Even then Mandrake Linux was much easier to install than the majority of distros at that time. Though it was not then the easiest, it was closer to easy then most.
One of the more interestingly easy distros was Corel Linux, which is longer developed by Corel, but still lives on through the Xandros Desktop OS, http://www.xandros.com/. it was designed as a workstation, not suitable for the average home user though, but did fine as a workstation. Another one that was advanced for the time was Caldera OpenLinux. One of the only distros i recall that when you started to install the OS, it then switched over to a nice game of Tetris you could play while the system was being installed in the background. Though i do not believe that SCO; with its lawsuit pending against IBM over its contribution to GNU/Linux, still offers its Linux distro to the public any longer.

Since there are many different distros for GNU/Linux you also have to decide if you want to use a pre built distro for speed of installation, or a build from source distro that will give you the most control over the whole system, from which packages are installed to which optimization you want, based on your CPU & hardware.

There are many choices when deciding on what you want to do with your GNU/Linux distro. Such as will this be a workstation? a server? a firewall? a multimedia system.
then there is, do you want to partition the drive to install the OS, or do you wish you install into an already occupied space, such as onto a FAT32 partition or DOS partition, or do you not want to install at all, but run your OS from a CD only. Do you want to run a floppy based version? or through an emulator? Do you want a full distro with thousands of packages or a mini distro, enough to build a decent base system

If you can have a fast net connex, then you can sample many varieties, if you dont, then you might have to purchase your CD&#39;s from online places, which can sell distros for less than a couple dollars (&#036;1.99 some places),http://www.linuxcd.org/, or from local bookstores which carry software, or even at the local computer super centers.

You might want to start out with a LiveCD version to use, this is a self contained version of a distro, that boots from a cd, runs the whole OS via RAM, so it does not require any partitioning or installing software. this will let you run the os and experience it without the headaches of installing.

there are a couple LiveCD versions also you can try.
Slackware-Live CD http://www.slackware-live.org/ is a bootable CD containing Linux operating system. It runs Linux directly from CDROM without installing. Based on Slackware.
Gnoppix, http://www.gnoppix.org/ is a linux live cd based upon Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (woody).
KNOPPIX, http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html is a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals.

Lycoris,http://www.lycoris.com/ is developed with the Windows user in mind, and may be an easier distro to install.
Yoper, http://www.yoper.com/ is a multipurpose high performance operating system which has been carefully optimised for PC&#39;s with either 686 or higher processor types.

DragonLinux http://dragonlinux.sourceforge.net/about.php is a complete Linux operating system distribution that has been customized to install on top of versions of Microsoft Windows or any version of DOS.
Phat Linux http://www.phatlinux.com/ can be installed on the same partition as Windows. Phat Linux will install like a regular Windows application, but run as any other Linux installation would.
Topologilinux http://topologi-linux.sourceforge.net/about.php runs on top of any dos/windows system without partitioning your hard disk. It is very easy to install Unlike other Linux distributions Topologilinux Does not need any partitioning.

TheBulbasaurfreak
01-16-2004, 03:08 PM
Only use Linux if u are experienced.

locustfurnace
01-16-2004, 03:33 PM
Originally posted by TheBulbasaurfreak@Jan 16 2004, 04:08 PM
Only use Linux if u are experienced.
The only way you become experienced is by using it, LiveCD makes is much easier to learn with less mistakes, as you can not delete anything on the LiveCD.
No one *knows* how to use Windows, until they use it.

TheBulbasaurfreak
01-17-2004, 06:18 AM
Ok, but some versions of Linux are hard to install to the beginner.

locustfurnace
01-17-2004, 07:03 AM
Originally posted by TheBulbasaurfreak@Jan 17 2004, 07:18 AM
Ok, but some versions of Linux are hard to install to the beginner.
They are all more complicated than MS Windows; but DOS is harder to use than windows as well but much eaiser to install. Since GNU/LINUX is similar to UNIX. You will need to know alot more about your OS than a typical Windows user knows, which i did state that in the above long reply.
Which is why i added links for some of the easier to use distros.

You don&#39;t need to know to much about GNU/Linux while running a LiveCD, just download the ISO, burn it, reboot computer with CD in CD-ROm, make sure the CD-ROM drive is set to be a bootable device, and it will start, Most of the LiveCD distros have on-screen instructions, if your able to read, you should be able to run it with little or no problems. the only problems will be if your running a system which relies solely on Windows drivers to make hardware work, such as alot of the Dells, Gateway, Compaqs. If your running on a hand built machine, you will have much more success in getting things to work.