[KLUG Advocacy] Will Malware Kill Windows?

[Robert G. Brown]

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 08:01:25 -0500, Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam at whitemice.org> wrote:

>>>...Lately I can't walk into the lunch room to reheat my coffee
>> >without someone telling my how their home computer is trashed...
>> >Is it really that bad out there?   
>> Yes, seems so!
>Interesting.
Most people are intimidated or simply overwhelmed by the volume of
the problem, and how pervasive it is. These people are living lives
that do not have fighting spam as high on their agendae...

>It seems this would open a real opportunity for fixed function consoles
>that are just web/e-mail, etc... but yet these never seem to catch on.
>Always seemed odd to me.
The basic problem, I have found, is keyboards. Note that a number of 
applicances HAVE caught on, as long as they provide some well-defined,
even if limited, functionality, and didn't have a visible footprint. In
particular, I'm thinking of those little (and Linux-based) LinkSys router
firewalls. Inferior to YOUR favorite firewall? Doesn't matter. I've seen
a couple of e-mail applicances that are nice, but they have keyboards built-
in. Bad move! Make the keyboard a seperate, commodity purchase, package
the e0mail applicance so it doesn't need to be in the users face, and
they will drive down costs and improve flexibility.

There's also some thinking about economies of scale here.... why buy a
lot of limited functionality applicances when one item will do all of
whatthey all do, and more, for a cost that is probably lower per fun-
ction?

							Regards,
							---> RGB <---