           
Why Linux?
Glad you asked! Linux
is commonly known as a server operating system or an operating system
for advanced users. Can a non-pro use it, and why should he or she do
so?
While Linux did begin
its life as a server operating system and an
operating system for advanced users, Linux has made significant progress
in a most key area: its graphical user interface.
Linux now has a very
easy to use interface for both the Windows and Mac crowd. The desktop
looks, acts and feels incredibly familiar, as do applications such word
processors, spreadsheets and photo editors.
Here are a few reasons
to use Linux:
FUNCTIONALITY
Linux comes with many tools you normally must buy separately if you run
Windows or Mac, including a full featured office suite (amazingly similar
to Microsoft Office) and a complete software development kit that is comparable
to Visual C++.
STABILITY
Linux is a very stable operating system. Linux systems don't crash often,
and don't need to be rebooted for anything other than upgrading the operating
system itself.
(ALMOST) NO VIRUSES
Linux is not prone to viruses. Because of how Linux handles data, a virus
cannot overwrite system files or append itself to applications unless
you are working as the "root" user. Linux has no registry or
DLL files, so Windows viruses have no effect on Linux at all.
PRICE
Linux is available for download for free. You have the option of buying
Linux CD sets at a very low price. But the two or three core disks, with
thousands of applications and tools, are there for the taking. And these
are "crippled" versions. They have the same files as the CDs
in the store box.
OPEN SOURCE
Linux is completely Open Source, meaning programmers around the world
have access to its "source code", which is code programmers
can read and modify. While this may not affect you as an end user directly,
it affects you indirectly because this means that Linux and its tools
and apps are under continuous, shared development. And updates to the
operating system and all the other software is a snap.
INDEPENDENCE
If the maintainers of traditional proprietary software (such as Windows
or Microsoft Office) stop working on it, or choose to ignore your problems,
you're on your own. Nobody can help you. DOS users remember a great program
called Q&A. Once the company that developed Q&A went out of business,
another company bought this marvelous app and then let it die. If someone
stops maintaining a Linux software application, someone steps in and continues
the work. The software is not "company owned" and controlled,
and so won't become a Q&A.
SPEED of development
Due to the its open source nature, many programmers from all around the
world work on Linux, causing it to develop and mature much faster than
other software.
FLEXIBILITY
If you need a feature in an application (or the operating system itself),
you don't need to turn to the maker of the application to get it in -
any
programmer can do it for you!
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Linux
News and Notes
Q: How can somebody send out
spam using a fake address without the owner's authorization?
A: All a person needs to do is put whatever they want before @whatever.xxx
and they can spam all they want with it. All you need is a mail server.
It
doesn't even have to be yours.
Q: Has anyone tried to do anything about it?
A: About a day after the first complaints come in, companies contact their
lawyers. But the advice, in a nutshell, was 'ride out the storm'. If you
aren't made of money, there isn't too much you can do about it (without
spending about 100,000 US dollars, at a minimum). There is a problem of
the absence of spamming laws in the US in every state, not to mention
what laws may or may not exist internationally. That means that you'd
have to prove that your rights had been violated or the law had been broken
in some other way that doesn't have to do with spam per se.
Q: Why so much money?
A: There are some serious issues here. One is that you don't know exactly
where the spammers are located. You know that they are using some
legitimate servers to relay spam and you would have to subpoena those
ISP's
administrators. They would also have to monitor it and report to you.
They're
not going to do this for free. Some of the servers are outside the United
States, so that complicates the situation tremendously. There are also
a
number of cable/xDSL users with compromised systems that are being used
to relay the spam. A network administrator commented once that there may
well be 1,000 or more of these compromised home systems relaying spam
out there. The bottom line: To find the actual interested parties, to
find and shut down their spam relays and locate and notify the owners
of ompromised
machines would be a truly Herculean task.
Q: Why don't you go after the people at the phone numbers listed in the
spam?
A: In all likelihood, as has been seen in these types of cases, the person
who owns the number could claim that they did not tell the "spamming
agency" to send the advertisement using @whatever.xxx in the From:
and Reply To: headers. In order to prove otherwise, you would have to
subpoena their accounting records and find the name of the agency (if
there actually is one) that was used -- it may well have been a cash transaction
in which case there'd be virtually no record. In the end, the burden of
proof is on you, not the accused spammer.
Q: Isn't there something you can do about it?
A: Yes and No. If you have a giant parent company behind you throwing
cash
at everything and anything you might ask for, yes there's probably a lot
you
could do. You would have the necessary funds to find the "company"
(if these
spammers are actually operating as a legal entity somewhere) and then
file a
lawsuit against them. But even with money, this would be a tremendous
task.
First of all, the spammers are relaying through any number of hacked
DSL/Cable users' machines that they control. They are also using a number
of open relays from Korea. A lot of administrators from the Far East simply
ignore any requests to close these relays. The spammers have free reign,
bottom line.
If you had deep pockets, you could also attempt to sue the people who
use the spamming agency. When someone did contact our lawyers about this,
the lawyers said this would be extremely difficult as well. It's like
when you
hire some young person to mow your lawn. Should you be legally held
responsible if it turns out that the young entrepreneur who so nicely
manicured your grass had actually used stolen equipment? you have talked
to
some of the people who used the spamming service. They just paid for bulk
e-mail to be sent. If spamming isn't illegal in most places, they have
done
nothing wrong from a legal standpoint. In the cases of the people others
have
talked to, they claimed not to know that the service they had paid for
was
carried out by a company used "stolen" e-mail addresses. This
is just a way
of putting the problem into perspective.
The short answer: If you don't have a big parent company with deep pockets,
given a choice to keep servers running, keep paying for leased lines and
all the other costs of operations, wise people choose to just handle complaints
with a polite "It isn't us" and go on with your business. Even
if you found them and won some lawsuit, the spamming might stop but you
would never get back your investment in the fight. It would be worse than
a Pyhrric victory.
Final conclusion: Especially
given the legislation before Congress, spam is here to stay and those
who "blacklist" spammers would themselves be legally liable
in civil court and stand to lose everything by restraining trade.
Buy the antispam tool of your
choice today.
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