I'm posting this from IE, in Windows XP SP2, on my new MBP. Yep. I've entered the wacky world of BootCamp. It's wrong. So very, very, wrong.
Run firefox you bad man! Or at least Opera, ANYTHING but IE. I read somewhere that if you hook a Windows computer up to the web, install all the updates, but don't put anti-virus on it, it gets infected in under an hour. So get Firefox and some AV software, please. Don't get the zombified (Windows) pretty (Mac) all yucky. For our sake. For humanity's sake. For its sake. Still sweet though.
Wasn't it about a minute*? - H. *Or at least the updates you needed took longer to download than the nasty you didn't want. Or something.
Use Parallels Desktop instead. It may not be as fast a native Boot camp, but for quick bursts of Windows activity without needing to reboot - works like a charm!
but it isnt free........is it? anyway, i envy you... at least for the next 2 days...getting my macbook this week!!
Bootcamp is, your copy of XP to use it with isn't. I played around with bootcamp myself, but found that I really have no use for it. I don't really ever game on the go, and since Google just released a Mac version of SketchUp free (seems to work better on the Mac too, though I had to muck about with mouse settings to not trigger expose when I was trying to orbit around), I'm really all set, so I've declared it quite pointless for my needs. Still, it's nice to have there for those odd times. I won't consider it genuinely useful until I can run it off a USB drive, because having a useful-sized partition for Windows chews through too much of the 80GB drive in my MBP. Plus it's quite a bit harder to get by without a right mouse button in XP than OSX.
That's probably right. On both counts. It's something crazy like that. That's why I turn off our network to install Windows.
well i would say your both wrong(directed at noah and herbicide) xpsp2 survives for a while but xp with nada on it i think i can reliably time it to under 20seconds though all this matters on whether or not you have a nat box or something similar between the net and the box though you can quite easily run a winxp sp2 box(with winupdates) with no AV and using ie without getting any nasties biggest security problem with any machine is the user real oses *nix(etc) and real software(FF,opera,etc) only help so much though in other news i wish my macbook would show up :\
Where has all this Windows will be infected in minutes stuff come from? The PC i am on now, which has been on 24x7 for at least 2 weeks and has been on for the a year since the last install is on XP SP1, has no firewall to speak off, no virus checker and no updates, i browse the web constantly, i download from dodgy sites, i do everything. And i've had 3 virus attacks in that year, all unnoticeable to me, only found them when i did an online scan with Symantec. Go fiqure. Obiously, as tacticus said, NAT is the answer!
I have my PC on 24/7 constantly, no protection other than my router (hardware firewall, with several ports open) and my [un]common sense. And the most a scan would find on my computer is the odd cookie from a possibly-dubious site. I question "infected" within minutes. Attacked is reasonable, if not sitting behind a firewall of sorts. Unless you're machine is hacked, you don't just become infected.
Assuming you simply plug your computer into the cable/DSL modem/phone line, assuming you have no firewall set up on your computer, assuming that you have no updates. With SP2, it's a little better. And I actually have proof of this, I just did some work for a friend that involved wiping her old computer, and right after wiping it I stupidly reconnected it to my neighbor's unprotected wireless to check something, and BAM! I left it and came back an hour or so later, installed NAV, wondered why it was screwed up. It found 5 viruses.
Thats complete ********. XP won't become infected if you know how to use it. I'd expect at least 90% of the users here that post regularly would at least know what sites not to go on, what links not to click, what browser to use. And saying that XP would be infected within a minute is absolutely rediculous. I've been using XP on my machine at work, granted with a firewall (but a firewall won't stop virii infecting your machine), and no antivirus for over a month and I haven't had any problems. Also, I use IE too, although firefox is installed.
weird because i run my (windows) machine with no anti virus software for weeks on end without shutting it down and it's never gotten a virus. repeat after me, kids! USER. STUPIDITY. (oh, and a hardware firewall)
Couldent agree more, hardware firewall, ability to not be an idiot... use firefox and you dont need virus software. IMO antivirus software is to fix stupid mistakes that you made, or failed to protect against.
As Matkubicki said, NAT is the answer. NAT is almost certainly why the people saying 'I've been online x months with no antivirus and I'm fine' have not been infected/compromised. The people saying that if you put an XP machine 'online' it'll be compromised within minutes are inferring that the machine itself has recieved a public IP address. Its true, put a vanilla XP install (no SPs) online with a public IP (ie, not behind a NAT router) and it will be comprmised very quickly. Put it behind a NAT router with nobody using it and it would be ok indefinately. Put it online behind a NAT router with someone using it to surf dodgy sites and it'll likely be buggered pretty quick. Users = worst security threat for PCs.
Quite funny to see how users who a few weeks/months/years ago were worshipping their homebuilt PC's are now turning on the machines they vetted for ages just because they have a mac... I've got a Macbook and whilst yes, it's a VERY smooth machine, I wouldn't like to not have a PC around me... perhaps it's just me. I'm not installing bootcamp on my mac however - 1. because I have a PC at home and 2. because it involves messing with partitions, which I hate.
The Apple notebooks are the fastest ones you can get when it comes to processor based tasks, but nothing else.
