Day: January 15, 2009

The lack of knowledge about Linux is mind-boggling! This story is about a girl that dropped out of college “because of Ubuntu Linux.” Right. She bought a Dell computer with Ubuntu on it, then was frustrated that her Verizon CD from her ISP wouldn’t load on it, so she “couldn’t connect to the Internet.” And, horror of horrors, it wouldn’t run Microsoft Word! So, I mean, how COULD she go to college! What a crock! A) I could get her on the Internet in minutes, with no CD, B) OpenOffice opens, reads, and writes Word documents. So, there you go, more evidence that Linux is evil and is a scheme to make everyone a college dropout! Please.

Woman blames Dell for missing online classes

“Abbie Schubert paid more than $1,100 for a Dell laptop hoping to enroll in online classes at MATC. But something stopped her: Ubuntu. That’s an operating system for your computer similar to Windows that runs off the Linux system. Schubert says she ordered her laptop online at Dell.com expecting to buy your classic bread-and-butter computer. She didn’t realize until the next morning her laptop defaulted to the Ubuntu operating system. ‘It’s been a mess,’ she said. ‘I regret ordering the computer.’ Schubert says she never heard of Ubuntu before learning that’s when she accidentally bought. She called Dell the very next day and says the representative told her there was still time to change back to Windows. But she says Dell discouraged her. ‘The person I was talking to said Ubuntu was great, college students loved it, it was compatible with everything I needed,’ said Schubert. So she stuck with it. Later, she discovered Ubuntu might look like Windows, but it doesn’t always act like it. Her Verizon High-Speed Internet CD won’t load, so she can’t access the internet. She also can’t install Microsoft Word, which she says is a requirement for MATC’s online classes. As a result, with no internet and no Microsoft Word, Schubert dropped out of MATC’s fall and spring semesters.”

I guess the Dell guy she called had never heard of the “ID 10 T” issue with users.

Ouch! 1.1 Million in 24 hours! That is one busy little worm!

Researcher: Worm infects 1.1M Windows PCs in 24 hours

“The computer worm, that exploits a months-old Windows bug has infected more than a million PCs in the past 24 hours, a security company said today. Early Wednesday, Helsinki, Finland-based security firm F-Secure Corp. estimated that 3.5 million PCs have been compromised by the ‘Downadup’ worm, an increase of more than 1.1 million since Tuesday. ‘[And] we still consider this to be a conservative estimate,’ said Sean Sullivan, a researcher at F-Secure, in an entry to the company’s Security Lab blog. Yesterday, F-Secure said the worm had infected an estimated 2.4 million machines.”