[vox-tech] Spyware For Linux?

[Bill Kendrick]

On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 10:20:09AM -0800, Bob Scofield wrote:
> A friend of mine was recently complaining that her Windows computer was too 
> slow.   She said it ran much faster after running a spyware program.

Spyware [see my note below] can definitely slow down a system.

> My son just sent me a message he received from the U.C.S.C. computer people. 
> They advised running spyware to speed up computers.  So here are my 
> questions.  Does Linux need spyware?  Is there spyware available for Linux?

*cough* ;^)

Actually, what I think you mean to ask is if there's spyware /cleaning/
software for Linux. ;^)  Spyware itself is the /bad/ stuff.

As for whether there's 'spyware' for Linux, that's a good question.
It's definitely possible.  You could easily download a package (or even
source) for some malicious piece of code.  Due to the nature of the
community, that kind of stuff would be short-lived, though.
(If open source, it will be patched to stop being naughty.
If closed source, people will complain.)


> Also, check this passage out from the U.C.S.C. post:
> 
> "Microsoft's Internet Explorer has been the target of many of the bad guys 
> attempting to ruin your web browsing experience. Use of the Firefox web 
> browser is great way to keep your web surfing as smooth as possible.  You can
> download it from http://www.getfirefox.com"

Excellent. :^)


I'm interested to read other people's takes on this...

-bill!