Can of worms

*creeeak* The sound of a can of worms being opened...

I LOVE viruses and trojans, especially the smart ones that are difficult to get rid of. They make me a LOT of money. I am a computer technician who helps people setup and use networks. This also involves a great deal of time spent cleaning their Windows machines (now I think about it, I have never had to clean a Linux machine) after they have contracted various viruses, trojans and spyware.

Recently I cleaned a clients machine after he visited a compromised website. He did nothing else apart from visiting the site. A few hours later I gave him the bill. He was not impressed with the ability of his computer system to get compromised that way, as it was up-to-date with patches and has active anti-virus and anti-spyware software.

Why do people "want to buy" something that is, most likely, going to get infected from activities such as visiting a compromised website? What I don't understand is why people CHOOSE (because it IS a choice even if most people don't know that they are making it, and just tick the Microsoft box) to buy software that allows this to happen?

Needless to say I dual-boot MS Windows XP and Ububtu GNU/Linux on my laptop. I won't go into Ububtu fandom rants, but it does allow me to visit these types of sites and download the ecard.exe's of the world and have a look at them. I have looked at the infection methods of various trojans which spread using USB keys, and network shares using Ubuntu, safe in the knowledge and peace of mind that I CANNOT get infected by anything. This is invaluable to me in my profession and helps me get rid of nasty crap off computers faster, saving my clients both time and money.

Finally, I want to thank Bill Gates and Microsoft for making it possible for me to make a living doing this. It is not easy for ordinary people to make their computer systems and networks "just work". They want to focus on their business and make some money without having to worry about all this stuff. I am more than happy to help them doing this, but I still wonder why they pay for the software which creates these headaches in the first place, and then they pay again for my time to fix it.

Hamish