Another good justification for my continued insistence on wiping all my new laptops and installing Linux on them, is that manufacturers can’t be trusted. Apart from all the bloatware and advertising crap they fill them with; apart from the fact that Windows is an appalling beast of an operating system with more security vulnerabilities than a chocolate front door, we have this:
On March 1, 2011, I called and logged incident 2101163379 with Samsung Support (SS). First, as Sony BMG did six years ago, the SS personnel denied the presence of such software [key loggers] on its laptops. After having been informed of the two models where the software was found and the location, SS changed its story by referring the author to Microsoft since “all Samsung did was to manufacture the hardware.†When told that did not make sense, SS personnel relented and escalated the incident to one of the support supervisors.
The supervisor who spoke with me was not sure how this software ended up in the new laptop thus put me on hold. He confirmed that yes, Samsung did knowingly put this software on the laptop to, as he put it, “monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used.â€
Key loggers record every keystroke and mouse click. Usually with some extra information like what program was running when it was pressed, what website was active, etc, etc.
In other words: Samsung are perfectly capable of harvesting all your usernames and passwords.
We don’t even need crackers now do we? The manufacturers are happy to install root kits, viruses, trojans and key loggers on your machine right from the factory.
Seriously people: you’re putting up with this why? Because you can’t be bothered to learn how to use OpenOffice and GIMP instead of MS Office and PhotoShop? The vast, vast majority of computer users could get by perfectly well with a Linux laptop, but they choose to pull down their trousers and rub Vaseline over their collective arses for manufacturers who treat you like meat. I am the IT guy in my family, and I’ve moved my wife, my father in law, my Dad, my Mum, and my Grandad on to Linux. They are all getting along fine. What’s more, I have considerably fewer headaches from their systems.
Oh I know — “I have this specialised software that I can’t do withoutâ€, blah, blah, blah. Not interested, you’ve dug your own grave.