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For once, I'm on the side of the angels when it comes to homeland security. A few months ago, the federal Department of Homeland Security issued a warning. It seems that Internet Explorer, the web browser that comes with Microsoft Windows, is a threat to the nation's security because it has so many flaws which allow outsiders to get information from your computer.
According to the department, there are a number of
significant vulnerabilities.
However, it is possible
to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities by using a
different web browser
like Netscape or Opera.
Even so, the department cautions that using a
different web browser will not remove Internet Explorer
from a Windows system,
and so its security flaws can be
exploited even if you're not using it.
During its anti-trust trial a few years ago, Microsoft argued that Internet Explorer was an integral part of Windows, and could not be removed without impairing the entire operating system.
There you have it: Windows users are security risks if they get on the Internet. I don't know when the federal government will start cracking down on this threat, but I now feel patriotic because this is being written and transmitted from a Linux machine.
I couldn't use the security-risk Internet Explorer even if I wanted to; for some reason, Microsoft doesn't make a version that runs under Linux. Even without Explorer, I have no trouble surfing the 'Net -- I have four browsers at hand (Lynx, Netscape, Opera and Kbrowser), and they do the job.
This isn't the only machine here, though. We produce a small magazine, and our graphics software (Corel) requires Windows. On those machines, we use Opera and Netscape for browsing, and Eudora for e-mail, rather than Explorer and Outlook.
Well-meaning people often advise us to switch to Macs for desktop-publishing, and if we could afford it, we probably would. But as it is, I'm limited in how much smugness I can reasonably summon, since I maintain a local network that has those Windows security risks, even if my personal machine does not.
That's one aggravation of modern life, I suppose; it's difficult to avoid certain moral complications. For instance, we finally got affordable broadband Internet access in Salida early this year. In fact, we got a choice, almost simultaneously: Qwest DSL or Bresnan Cable.
It wasn't too hard to dismiss Qwest. It tried to sell our telephone exchange, but the buyer backed out and sued Qwest for misrepresentation. After years of not spending a nickel to improve Salida's system, Qwest finally did an upgrade -- when some broadband competition arrived, and not a moment before.
One of its main stockholders is Denver billionaire Phil
Anschutz, who took away our railroad service, thereby
insuring that there will never again be many good
blue-collar jobs around here. The company that couldn't
afford to improve service in rural Colorado could find
$30,000 a week to pay former CEO Joe Nacchio for
consulting,
even though his major talent appeared to
be running Qwest into bankruptcy and attracting the
interest of federal prosecutors.Thus we went with Bresnan,
which had acquired our local cable monopoly from Comcast,
which bought it from AT&T Broadband, which got it from
TCI, which got it from Heritage Cablevision -- our cable
system has been through more hands than Jenna Jameson.
Bresnan, I read, was a small company based in upstate New
York which specialized in rural markets.
When the installers arrived toward the end of February, they said they could install the service on a Windows or Mac computer, but not on Linux. I had them put it on an old Windows clunker. Ten minutes after they left, I had a router running, and I was on the 'Net with Linux.
Broadband service is wonderful. The difference between dial-up and broadband is like the difference between a pump in the yard and indoor plumbing. You can manage with the former, but life is immeasurably more convenient with the latter.
By most reckonings, though, Linux boxes are at least as popular as Macs, so I wondered why Bresnan pretends that Linux doesn't exist. I nosed around and learned that Bresnan is owned by Charter Communications. And Charter is owned by Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft and still a major stockholder.
So the path to digital virtue, or even security, is one that I haven't found yet, try as I might. The only consolation, so far, is that I must have plenty of company out here, searching for that path.
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