Classicamiga Forum Retro Edition
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Thread: Norton
Buleste 09:38 25th January 2012
I tried the free trial of Internet Security Complete 2012. Uninstalled. Tried the free AV and it still hogged resources and installed Geek buddy and Comodo Dragon and didn't even give me the option not too.

AFAIK I haven't got any infections (at least according to AVG, Avast and Avira in the past) and in the 2 1/2 hours it took Comodo to search 2% of my computer it didn't find anything either so there should have been no reason for it to hog all the CPU all the time but it did. After uninstalling it all yesterday I've switched my computer on today and it's installing itself again!!!!!
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Stephen Coates 10:31 25th January 2012
I wonder how safe my Linux system is from viruses .

I'm not running any anti-virus/anti-malware software on here.
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Harrison 14:15 25th January 2012
Whilst virus and malware are know to exist, you are quite right Steve. Due to how Linux works, with it's permissions systems and hierarchy it's quite hard to directly hack, so malware is too much hassle compared to Windows. Equally because everything normally needs to be compiled before installing due to the vast number of different distributions and builds, it again makes it very hard to develop a standard virus that would work for all versions.

The reason Windows is so prone is actually because it is so user friendly. Consider the Microsoft have made it possible for a lot of code as far back as Windows 3.1 to continue running even under Windows 7, which is quite impressive, and so really does offer the user a good environment to run their code, but also allows virus and malware writers the knowledge that the whole userbase can also run their malicious code.

Linus will never become a standard desktop OS for the home user purely because of this, and IMO Windows will continue to, attracting the same annoying security issues.

Now take Mac OS X. Why hasn't that attracted the same level as Windows? It is a fixed OS much like Windows. All copies of the same version are the same and will run the same code. And pretty much all versions of OS X are compatible to run the same code. Some does exist, but it is more the smaller userbase and how the OS is used that I think limited the interest, more than being able to.
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Stephen Coates 15:00 25th January 2012
Remember also, that with OSX, Apple haven't supported the Classic environment for quite a long time now, so no OS9 software anymore, and I think they have also ditched their PowerPC emulator now as well, so its MacIntel stuff only now.
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Harrison 15:26 25th January 2012
True, but they have been using Intel CPUs for quite some time now.

BTW, does anyone know if any infections have ever been found on Amiga OS4 and other PPC OSs?
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Stephen Coates 20:13 25th January 2012
Hehe. They must have been on Intel processors for about 6 years now. That's quite a long time in computer terms.

No idea about OS4 viruses. Not saying it wouldn't happen, but I'd say its very unlikely.
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Demon Cleaner 20:34 25th January 2012
At the beginning of the Amiga 500, viruses became more and more common and frequent, and because of the whole swapping, they spread very fast. Never happened on the C64 before.
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Harrison 22:26 25th January 2012
I think the Amiga was the first place I started seeing virus infections. Some magazine cover disks were also accidentally duplicated with virus infections on them and distributed... then the next month a huge apology and the utilities to remove it was on the next cover disk. Those were the days.

I remember reading about an Amiga virus that would trick an A500 into thinking it had 4 floppy disk drives connected and would make it draw to much power to certain parts and damage them. I'm not sure if that was actually true, but I did hear it from more than one source. And actually, when you have a fixed hardware platform like the A500, or today's consoles, it makes it much easier for someone to target the hardware specifically, whereas in PCs they are very modular with no 2 PCs ever having identical hardware.
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Stephen Coates 23:36 25th January 2012
Originally Posted by Harrison:
Some magazine cover disks were also accidentally duplicated with virus infections on them and distributed... then the next month a huge apology and the utilities to remove it was on the next cover disk. Those were the days.
But was it accidental?
Maybe it was a way to sell more magazines?
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Buleste 09:29 26th January 2012
I'll take some of what I said about Comodo back.

It's not bloatware I just didn't notice the custom install to get rid of the options for installing Comodo Dragon and Geek support.

I have run the AV as smart scan and it took a respectable 8-9 mins. Full scan however is a problem even with almost every background programme turned off except Task manager (to keep an eye on resources) and Resource manager. It wasn't taking up as much CPU power or memory but it still made multi tasking impossible for me.
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