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Technology FLOSS: Windows = Antivirus = Pollution?

I just read an article by the University of Calgary where the author claims (and I think he's correct) that IT is a huge pollutant. For example, we have hardware that becomes obsolete, we have to produce electricity to pump into our gadgets, etc.

Not long ago I read another article where it's calculated (or so they say) how much pollution is produced by each search on google.

But, man.... I just couldn't resist the temptation of asking myself "... then how much power is spent on Windows implementing DRM protection mechanisms?". It has been disputed that it be a lot of energy to implement DRM mechanisms. It has been argued that this is not too much of an effort... that DRM in Vista is rougly a couple of LOC on the whole system. I just couldn't care less about it.. but then the next even more obvious question was "then how much pollution is produced by the usage of antivirus?". And here you won't tell me that it's just a little effort. Antiviruses checking whole computers (millions of them) weekly (at the very least), an operation that can take a while to complete, plus the effort of checking every jpg file that gets into a system. And using the antivirus is no low-cpu-ussage activity. I know that when a computer running windows is dragging behind a turtle for no apparent reason, I could just check processes to see if the antivirus is doing its stuff, if the box hasn't already being been invaded by the random virus that's hot at the time and that is eating all of the CPU sending all those beautiful Xmas mails.

What bothers me the most is that windows users are still paying for the ultimately bad design that was implemented on Windows early on (every .exe you downloaded from internet could be executed right away, default user is administrator, programs that won't run unless the user is an administrator, Firewall? What's that?, the usually long etc.). Vista is barely trying to fix all those problems, and we all know the backslash that things like UAC has been for Windows Vista (at least in its inception).... but we know where Vista is staying in user's preferences... so people are sticking with XP design flaws instead... and seems like it will be a little longer till it fades away into oblivion.

So... coming back to the question: Windows = Antivirus = Pollution? Can anybody try to make a wild guess about how much pollution is produced by antiviruses?

PS And I didn't mention hardware that's not capable of running today's systems. How many times have you being forced to buy more hardware (or another computer) just to get the latest incarnation of Windows to work acceptably well turning your perfectly working system (so far) into digital trash? That's another thing where at least GNU/Linux will help you avoid as well. As a matter of fact, I'm using the very latest release of Kubuntu, patched to use KDE 4.2 (using some of its 3D eyecandy, by the way) in a computer that's a little dated (I guess 4 or 5 years is a safe guess) on a box with a D865GVHZ motherboard (4 years old? Maybe 5?). I wonder if I could run Vista with Aero on this box. I guess that makes up another equation: Windows = New Hardware = Pollution? By the way, I'm sure other OSs will help you avoid those update cycles as well... but my experience is with GNU/Linux, so I won't speak for other OSs.

The great white shark: Linux Applications AIO II

Linux Applications AIO II by Augustus

Blender 2.43
Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

HandBrake 0.80
HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter

Clam AntiVirus 0.96.1
Clam AntiVirus is an open source (GPL) anti-virus toolkit for UNIX, designed especially for e-mail scanning on mail gateways. It provides a number of utilities including a flexible and scalable multi-threaded daemon, a command line scanner and advanced tool for automatic database updates. The core of the package is an anti-virus engine available in a form of shared library.

Dia 0.96
Dia is roughly inspired by the commercial Windows program 'Visio', though more geared towards informal diagrams for casual use. It can be used to draw many different kinds of diagrams. It currently has special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and many other diagrams. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files, using a subset of SVG to draw the shape.

Game Editor 1.2.3
This is a multimedia tool for game development, with a comprehensive set of features. Users can develop 2D games for personal computers and mobile devices.

LAME 3.9b
LAME was originally an acronym for LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder.Now, however, it really can encode audio files into the MP3 format, and it's got full GPL capabilities.LAME is one of the fastest MP3 encoders around, and since it's open source, it is readily available.

Flash For Linux 0.2.1
Flash for Linux project is a development environment for Macromedia Flash, a format widely used for web applications and vector animation.F4L is a clone, or imitation, of a Macromedia, Inc. product called Flash. The most current version of Flash is MX 2004. Flash is designed to help people make programs that can be used on any computer and that can be distributed over the Internet.

Dvdisaster 0.70.4
dvdisaster creates error correction data to compensate read errors which are not correctable in the CD/DVD drive.dvdisaster tries to read as much data as possible from defective media. Afterwards unreadable sectors are recovered using the previously created error correction data. The maximum error correction capacity is user-selectable.dvdisaster operates at the image level and does not depend on the file system.If you create the error correction data in time and keep it at a safe place, you have a good chance of recovering the medium contents from typical read errors and to transfer your complete data onto a new medium.

gPhoto2 2.3.1
gphoto2 is a command line application which enables you to transfer digital photos from almost any serial-port or USB digital camera.

Firefox
Mozilla Firefox project (formerly Firebird, which was formerly Phoenix) is a redesign of Mozilla's browser component, written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform. It includes a popup blocker, tabbed browsing, a smarter search, hassle free downloading, and improved privacy and security.

Quicktime 4 for Linux
This program is intended for content creation and uncompressed movies. It has improvements in colormodel support, bit depth, accuracy, reliability and codecs. It includes several front ends to encoders and decoders which are used by applications directly. Included in Quicktime for Linux is a front end of the libdv engine. An IEEE1394 front end is implemented in Quicktime for Linux. This front end tries to work around problems in raw1394. A parallel JPEG engine using libjpeg is implemented with a front end. This uses 2 processors for field based JPEG compression and 1 processor for frame based compression. A general colorspace converter implements colorspace conversion with nearest neighbor scaling for the large number of nonstandard colorspaces that Cinelerra uses.

XnView
XnView is a software to view and convert graphic files, really simple to use ! Support of more than 400 graphics formats !

http://rapidshare.com/files/45811516/Linux_Apps_AIO_2.rar
Password: linkpalace.info

ClamWin Free Antivirus 0.90.2.1

Nova versão do antivirus ClamWin FREE!!!

ClamWin is a Free Antivirus for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003. It provides a graphical user interface to the Clam AntiVirus engine. It features a command line interface for scanning files, updating the virus definitions, and a daemon for faster scanning needed on high performance systems.
ClamWin Free Antivirus For Windows is a completely free and open source anti-virus software package. It uses the GNU General Public License by the Free Software Foundation.

Changes in Version 0.90.2.1 - 27 May 2007:
- Outlook Addin now uses pylibclamav instead of clamscan to improve speed of email opening - New upgrades system getting ready for incremental updates

Download: ClamWin Free Antivirus 0.90.2.1
Link: HomePage

GET FREE ANTIVIRUS

Comodo Antivirus

Comodo Antivirus provides real-time scanning, where it resides in memory and checks your programs for viruses as they are run, as well as on-demand scanning for viruses. You can also schedule your scans. It automatically updates itself through the internet. Note that you have to activate your copy as well as supply your email address to get and use this software.

Clam AntiVirus

ClamAV is a free command line antivirus scanner for Unix systems. You can also integrate it with your mail server for scanning your email messages and attachments. It is able to scan inside archives like RAR archives, Zip archives, Gzip and Bzip2 archives (that is, it has unpacking engines for those types of compressed archives). If you are a programmer, you can even integrate the antivirus scanner into your own programs. This free antivirus program comes with source code that is released under the GNU General Public License. Prebuilt binary packages are available for numerous Linux distributions (Debian, RedHat / Fedora, PLD Linux, Mandrake), Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, AIX, OSF and Solaris 8 (Sparc).

AntiVir Personal Edition

AntiVir Personal Edition is a free antivirus program for Windows computers. It has a resident component that monitors file movements for signs of viruses. It also allows you to scan your computer and repair files that have been infected. The program comes with a facility to automatically check the AntiVir website for updates to the virus definitions and download them. Updates are free.

AVG Anti-Virus

The AVG Anti-Virus software comprises a resident program that works in the background, an email scanner (checks your email for viruses), an on-demand scanner (eg, you invoke it to scan your system), the ability to repair certain infected files, and automatic updates of the virus definitions.

F-Prot Antivirus for Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD and DOS

F-Prot Antivirus for DOS, Linux and BSD (FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD) is free for personal use on personal workstations. (Note: these are separate downloads; scroll down on their page to find the link appropriate for your system. Also note that the Windows and Solaris versions are not free.)

avast! Home Edition

avast! Home Edition is free for home users on non-commercial computers. You have to register your copy and supply them your email address so that they can send you a license key to activate the program.

BitDefender Free Edition

BitDefender Free Edition is a free antivirus program that includes on demand scanning, scheduled scanning, automatic and manual updates of antivirus definitions, etc. There appear to be versions available for Windows, MSDOS, Linux, Windows CE, and Palm.

10 Free Alternatives to Expensive Software

In order to run a business online or be a successful internet marketer, there are a few tools you're going to need. The cost for brand name software tools are often too expensive, especially when every dollar counts. Fortunately, there are alternatives to the big software names. These alternatives will fill your needs, and they are absolutely free.

FTP Utilities
Everyone needs an FTP program right? FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers. It's an add-on for your Firefox browser. It starts as a new tab within your Firefox browser and you FTP right from your browser.
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/684

AutoMailer
Marketers need to manage their email lists. Rather than pay a monthly fee to a service like aweber.com, here is a free (GNU license) PHP script you can install. poMMo is versatile Mass Mailing software. Add a mailing list to your website, or organize stand alone mailings. Unique features such as the ability to mail subsets of your subscribers set it apart from alternatives.
sourceforge.net/projects/pommo/

Antivirus Software
You really can't afford to work online without some virus protection. ClamWin is a Free Antivirus program for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003 and Vista. ClamWin Free Antivirus comes with an easy installer and open source code. You may download and use it absolutely free of charge. http://clamwin.com

ZIP Utility
You absolutely needed a ZIP utility to work online. 7-Zip is open source ZIP utility software. Most of the source code is under the GNU LGPL license. You can use 7-Zip on any computer, including a computer in a commercial organization. You don't need to register or pay for 7-Zip. http://7-zip.org

Spreadsheet and Word Processing
You'll always use Spreadsheets and Word Processors. OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It's a replacement application for Microsoft Office, and can even use Microsoft Office files. http://openoffice.org

Adobe PDF generator
The Adobe PDF format is everywhere online. PDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator

Video Capture Utility
Do you need to create a video? These days more and more tutorials are in video format. Jing is free program that lets you record video of what you do, or what you see. The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere.
http://jingproject.com

Graphics Editor
Would you like an alternative to the very expensive PhotoShop? Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.
http://getpaint.net

Photo Editor
GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.
http://gimp.org

Encryption
Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux.
http://truecrypt.org

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Thursday, 27 August 2009

Technology FLOSS: Windows = Antivirus = Pollution?

The great white shark: Linux Applications AIO II

ClamWin Free Antivirus 0.90.2.1

GET FREE ANTIVIRUS

10 Free Alternatives to Expensive Software

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