Adaware awareness.

There are many forms of malicious software floating around the Internet. Spyware has recently come into the spotlight because it is such a wide spread problem. Most people equate adware with spyware because they often function similarly, but there is a difference.

Adware is advertising supported software which displays ads on your system.
Spyware is software designed to track your computer usage.

Adware often takes the form of spyware, not only displaying advertisements, but also tracking your web surfing patterns. This information then can be sold to data warehouses, or organizations looking to market to you.

Even more insidious is the loathesome malware. Malware is software intended to interfere with other programs on your system. Malware can cause programs not to function properly, or even bring down your operating system if it infects certain files.

As if these bad programs were not sinister enough, some organizations market Malware as if it was designed to remove spyware from your system. An analogy might help: some malware is like a thug dressing up in a police uniform offering to protect you, then jumping you for your belonging. If you ever see a pop-up advertisement saying Your PC might be infected with.... scan your system now, or something along these lines, you're best to close your browser and stay away from the site marketing the software. If the ad appears again right after opening your browser, you might already have a form of adware/spyware/malware.

One of the best programs for dealing with adware/spyware/malware is Lavasoft USA's Adaware. Note the spelling in Ad-aware, which is different from Ad-ware (an extra a). I guess the idea behind the naming of Adaware is that the program is suppose to make you aware of adware/spyware/malware.

Once you've downloaded Adaware from the Lavasoft USA site (don't trust sites you don't know - they could contain spyware) you should scan your system.

Though there are a number of anti-spyware programs that claim to be able to protect your system from spyware, I've found the claims to either be overblown, the programs to actually be spyware/adware/malware, or poorly coded so as to slow down your system drastically.

I've done a couple of things to minimize spyware problems. The first thing I've done is to not use the Internet Explorer web browser except for internal (Working Centre sites) browsing. I use Mozilla Firefox 99.9% of the time. Firefox has some added benefits that I really love (code engines).

The next step I did was disable Java and Javascript in the Tools -> Options -> Web features.

Resources

• Adaware - anti-spyware tool. (C|Net download)
  
• Mozilla Firefox - My favourite web browser.
  

Open Source software

In my last post I talked a little about Linux and I mentioned that there are thousands of programs available for Linux. I mentioned the fact that most were completely free. What I didn't mention was the dual meaning of free. Not only are most of the programs available for no charge, but the "source code" is also available for most of these programs. What that means is if you knew a lot about programming you could change the program to add extra functionality. If you come across a bug in a program, and you have the programming knowledge, you could fix it yourself - without waiting for some company to fix it for you. Software that fits under this umbrella is often called "open source." But Open Source is more than just being able to look at the code, after all, Microsoft sometimes lets organizations look at their code. Open Source also means you can't then take someone else's code and write a "closed" program. The idea is to share the wealth of knowledge and source. Use the source Luke!

Open source software isn't confined to Linux. There are open source programs for Windows, FreeBSD (a UNIX-based operating system), BeOS, and a slew of other operating systems. Hey, if you look hard enough you might even find open source software for the Commodore 64!

There are lots of web sites you can start looking for Open Source software. The great thing about these sites is that they are trustworthy. It's very unlikely the software on the two sites I'm about to list will contain viruses or spyware - though it's not impossible that one might. My favourite Open Source web site is "Freshmeat" http://www.freshmeat.net/. Freshmeat has a clean, simple interface. I also like the fact that you can browse by the type of software (i.e. education, games, scientific) or by operating system, programming language, or a host of other things. If you're looking for a Windows program, you just need to click Browse, then Browse by Opertaing System, Microsoft, then Windows (or DOS if you like). Don't count out DOS - it might be an old operating system, but there is still some very cool software for DOS, such as Advanced MAME: A game arcade emulator for arcade monitors and TVs, and Atomic Tanks, a very cool tank game with various levels of artificial intelligence.

The other good site is Sourceforge. Sourceforge is a bit more intimidating, but a lot of the software on Sourceforge is actually hosted by sourceforge, not just linked to. Sourceforge does categorize software, but there are fewer screen shots. Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/.

Of course, if you have an Ubuntu Linux system, there is already a slew of software on your system, and more available if you have a high speed Internet connection and use Synaptic to download more.

The Linux alternative.

Microsoft Windows is unquestionably the most popular desktop operating system in the world. With so many people using Windows, finding help usually isn't to difficult. Unfortunately there are a lot of security problems with Windows. There are many reasons for this that I won't get into here. Windows is also expensive. Windows XP Professional Edition, the full version with Service Pack 2, is currently selling on Staples.ca for $399.85CDN, much more than The Working Centre sells refurbished computers for. Given the cost of Windows XP it's easy to see why computer recyclers don't sell refurbished computers with Windows XP. And Microsoft Windows XP Professional doesn't even include Microsoft's famous Office suite. The full version of Microsoft Office 2003 Professional currently retails on Staples for $649.99CDN. There are light versions of Windows XP, known as Home, and Office, known as the standard edition, but these are missing features other operating systems and suites include. At over $1000 for just these two pieces of software it's easy to see why people are looking for alternatives... And one of those alternatives is an operating system I know and love called Linux.

Linux comes in many shapes and forms. At The Working Centre we use two flavours (called "distributions") of Linux. One of those flavours we developed just for The Working Centre, The Working Centre Linux Project (WCLP). We designed WCLP back when we refurbished 486s. The idea was to provide a simple free desktop operating system with lots of software. While there is Commercial software that you can buy for Linux, it's difficult to find in stores, and the majority of Linux software is free - you just have to know how to get it. The other flavour of Linux we install on our Working Centre machines is Ubuntu Linux, a very user-friendly flavour that comes from South Africa.

Now you may have heard that Linux software doesn't match up to Windows software. In some cases this is true, but often it's really the other way around. Most flavours of Linux include more software than Windows comes with, and the software often covers a much wider range of interests. Standard software, such as instant messaging software (gaim), web browsers, and office software (not Microsoft Office, but good office software) is included with most Linux distributions.

As I hinted, there is also a lot of other great unusual software. Electronics buffs will appreciate the fact that there is free software to design circuit boards. If you're into geography and geology there's a slew of free software to help you map aspects of the earth. And podcasters will love Audacity, a wonderful program for editing sound files. These are just a few of the thousands, yes I said thousands, of free cool programs available for Linux.

Ubuntu Linux comes with a program called Synaptic which makes installing software over the Internet as simple as right clicking and marking the programs you want to install - no scary text interface; though you could use one if you want, and sometimes doing things the old text-way is faster than moving the mouse and clicking on icons.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of Linux is that it doesn't suffer from Spyware problems. With the exploding commercialization of the Internet there are a lot of unsavoury types looking to make a quick and dirty buck. One of the ways shady organizations take advantage of people is by installing spyware on your system when you visit their web site, or click on their pop-up ads. Sometimes these ads are cleverly disguised as "helpful hints" telling you your computer is infected, when in fact it really isn't. There are ways of combatting spyware under Windows, which I mentioned in my last post, but one of the best ways is simply not to use Windows. Some people have suggested that Linux doesn't suffer spyware problems because it doesn't have the same amount of users - this statement is a myth proliferated by people who don't really know how Linux works. The real reason Linux is less prone to spyware problems has to do with the fact that it's built with a few more restrictions on regular users. It's possible to mimic similar security under Windows, but it isn't the default on most Windows installations.

Now I'm not saying that Windows is bad, or evil. Windows is an easy to use operating system, and it can be very secure if you know what you're doing, and take secure measures. We use Windows on the majority of our staff and public computers here at The Working Centre. But when I go home at night, the operating system I use on all my computers at home is Linux. Linux has a lot more software available for free. I don't have to 'activate' my version of Linux, and best of all, I can download Ubuntu Linux (and many other distributions) and give it away to anyone to use.