atw: OT: Viruses

Stuart wrote:
> I use the virus-proof Word Viewer and Powerpoint Viewer
> to look at MS Office e-mail attachments

"Virus-proof" sounds like a brave assertion, but I think I know what you
mean - it's a bit like sending Word documents in RTF format, which doesn't
support macros and is therefore virus-proof. (Mind you, popular opinion is
that the words "Microsoft" and "virus-proof" are mutually-exclusive terms.
Ultimately, I suppose the words "software" and "virus-proof" are mutually
exclusive.) 

I'm very interested to see how well some non-Microsoft software (in
Microsoft's territory) avoids viruses. I'm thinking in particular of
OpenOffice, which can read and write MS Office documents. It has a macro
language, so executing macros stored in MS Office documents seems like a
natural thing for it to do. But whether it should or does or ever will (or
whether doing so is safe) are all a different matter entirely. 

People complain that Microsoft software is full of security holes, but if
someone else's software was as widespread, I doubt that _it_ would fare any
better than Microsoft's. 

> I've never lost work time to a virus, but I've lost a 
> huge amount of time over the years to anti-virus software

I've never thought of it that way! I suppose it's like insurance - we tend
to assume that the moderate on-going cost is preferable to a large (and
perhaps unlikely) outlay. Sometimes it proves to be worthwhile, other times
it doesn't. (Just yesterday a colleague complained that she'd received just
$800 from her medical insurance as compensation for $4000 in medical bills.
And of course she'd been paying her premium for that "privilege"!)

Regards,
Craig 
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