I am a musician, a taker of pictures, a rider of bikes, a father to plants, and roller of skateboards (no tricks). And I advocate Free Software and GNU/Linux.

 

Conficker: GNU/Linux’s way to mainstream

I personally hope that the Conficker/Downup/Downadup/Kido computer worm – that surfaced in October 2008 and targets the Microsoft Windows operating system, that activates on April 1st – shows Windows users just how insecure the Windows operating system is, and how slow Microsoft is to react to it, and “patch” it.

The Windows operating system has always been insecure – and I don’t mean as in self-esteem, although :b

When hundreds of businesses stop production because of this worm; people should think about an alternative OS. And, the GNU Operating System is the best choice.

If this worm proves to be very troublesome, what’ll happen?

Websites like MySpace.com, WhiteHouse.gov, Homestarrunner.com – if these servers are infected – will go down. Or, they will become spam websites, displaying advertisements and sending out thousands of spam and denial of service emails.

Thank Stallman Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Wikipedia are running GNU/Linux! These are among the most popular web sites as well, coincidence?

And here is the problem: Websites like WhiteHouse.gov are running the Microsoft IIS web server. And if the WhiteHouse.gov web servers are infected with Conficker, there’s no telling what’ll happen. WhiteHouse.gov is, obviously, a governmental website, and if it becomes a spam website, displaying advertisements and sending out thousands of spam and denial of service emails to other countries, that’s a national threat(kinda).

Certain messages sent from WhiteHouse.gov can cause serious problems, like say “Declaration of War” – although almost all countries will ignore such a message – ordering certain “goods” from countries.

Also, who knows what kinda of other servers WhiteHouse.gov could be connected to. Missile systems, Air Force navigation systems. For things like this, I don’t want Microsoft involved at all.

WhiteHouse.gov is likely running the Microsoft IIS web server because the person they have in control of the servers, the “web master”, only knows how to use Microsoft Windows. That’s a problem.

So I hope; that Conficker takes down these websites, and does the things I mentioned. And people start to realize that they should have been using GNU/Linux like the people who were left alone, safe and sound, after the worm came and gone, did its thing(s), websites like Google, YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, Digg, Vimeo, CollegeHumor, etc.; and people like myself and hundreds of thousands more.

If this happens, GNU/Linux might actually become mainstream, maybe even over night.

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