On 3/8/2012 9:44 AM, Scott wrote:
> Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand cue the Wars of the OS/Platform.
> (I want to put Linux on a box. No idea where to start. Macs seem like
> they're for the feeble-minded and fanbois. There, that ought to get
No need for wars... to each his own. If you want to play with Linux
without committing to installing it, google around for "live CDs".
These let you boot entirely from CD, and run Linux from memory with
access to your files on a windoze box but not actually installing it
permanently. I like Puppy Linux, it's also a great repair tool for windoze.
If you want to install, try Ubuntu or Mint. It's definitely possible to
set up a PC to boot multiple OSes, but I'm not sure if the installer for
either of those two facilitate it after the fact.
Anti-virus -- I and a few sysadmin tech friends whom I'm very respectful
of have recommended and used ESET NOD32 for years. Newegg.com
frequently has it on sale for under $25 w a year's update subscription.
The One tech guy who is anti-Microsoft and used to go with ESET says
the "Microsoft Security Essentials" package actually works better, and
it's free. He's over all the tech at a large county K-12 school system
with hundreds of PCs, and that's their standard now, I'm told.
Of the free stuff, AVG has VERY high system overhead. And "Avast" just
doesn't do the job. I've tried Ad-Aware and Spy-Bot in the past and
consider them worthless. Once a machine is infected, it's very probably
no product may be able to remove it, since much of the mal-ware is
designed to thwart installation of AV products.
-Wayne
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