Windows started life as a stand-alone workstation OS. Which is fine, if you don’t want any of that “networking” stuff bogging you down. Back in the 80s, when Bill Gates was actually writing code alongside his Microsoft cohorts, and when Max Headroom stuttered his way into our hearts…
No one wanted or needed to connect the office computers to each other. The computer was still mainly just something to let you use a spreadsheet (read: gift-from-gods) and to use the printer. Dot matrix, all the way baby.
No, not that Dot Matrix. This:
But before I get too carried away with inserting silly pictures here… let me get back to my point. Windows was never intended to be used in a network. This goes from Windows 1.0, through to 2.0, 3.1, NT, 95, 98, 2000, Me, XP, Vista, and 7. But everyone uses Windows to access the internet, don’t they? Yes. Well, not everyone. Most people.
And most people who run Windows are forced by the lax nature of their OS’s security features to install and run software that enhances said security.
Linux, BSD and to some extent Mac users thumb their noses at Windows users and boisterously proclaim “Virus? What virus!?” Mac users thumb their nose at everyone else, but that’s another story. I’ll talk about the noses of Mac users and how said noses are all covered with the shit of St. Steve Jobs some other time.
But for now, I’ll just mention 3 things. Antivirus, Anti-Spyware, Firewall. I have to run all 3 on my Windows machine… the only one I allow net access beside the virtual Windows XP running here inside my Linux box.
But on that Windows Laptop, I need to block unwanted internet traffic, filter out bad things and even (horror of horrors) remove malware once it’s found its way onto my computer.
So I run Avast Antivirus, Spybot Search & Destroy, and a software firewall. That slows the computer down, and can be easily defeated by the very latest malware… but it protects that computer from most harmful stuff.
I was running a firewall called “COMODO”, but because the newest version won’t install…. I’m now running Zone Alarm. I had used Zone Alarm in the past, back in my Windows 98 days. It does a fine job of doing what Linux doesn’t need. Seriously, after messing around with trying to install the new version of COMODO and then having to download and install Zone Alarm instead, I can’t ever fathom going back full time to the world of Windows for internet use.