Happy New Year

Welcome back. It's a new year and and the world is in a real mess.

Financial turmoil continues. Israel has invaded Gaza again. The trains are more expensive and more broken than they were in 2008. The conflict in Afghanistan looks like going from bad to worse.

And, to top it all off, I've become profoundly disturbed at the state of my wife's Windows laptop.

Despite having all the sensible protection in place its riddled with malware and we've been left feeling powerless, baffled and paranoid.

No doubt that's how most Windows users feel most of the time. But the point of this post is how can this be and what can we do about it?

My wife pays me to support her Windows XP computer (don't ask) which she uses for her work as a civil servant. It's not that she prefers Windows, it's just that she needs Internet Explorer to access some government portals.

Naturally I have, over the years, snuck as much free and (ideally) open source stuff onto her laptop as possible. In common with many of us in the Free Software world we have an aversion to paying for software. So it comes as no surprise that I have stuck with the free version of the anti-virus software from Grisoft who make the excellent AVG.

Unfortunately, and of course with hindsight inevitably, 'free' proprietary software which is good and gets widely adopted can become 'not free' any more.

Just before Christmas when I was away my wife called me with a problem. Her computer had just 'gone funny'. The virus checker (run manually) found half a dozen 'trojans' attempting to do all sorts of nefarious things.

The computer was immediately switched off and our online bank was contacted. A lot of fuss and bother.

On my return I found out that my parsimony had lead to using a free virus checker which did only just that, checked for viruses. It seems that the vulnerabilities of the Windows operating systems are now so legion that quite simply I did not have enough protection and thus got zapped. 

I read all about the root-kits and spywares – a grief only Windows users have to suffer. To cut a long story short (and a few hours repairs), I had to buy AVG!

The latest AVG 8.5 at £47.50 (online + CD) works great by the way.

My wife's computer is now fine albeit some icons look odd and the task bar only will display three shortcuts but, hey, I now have low expectations and feel quite pleased with this.

However, returning my credit card to my wallet (yes, I used my Linux computer to make the purchase) I was torn between gratitude and resentment.

A quick search of the Internet revealed that I can buy a legitimate Windows XP Pro SP3 for £56. I ignored Windows Vista because, apparently, everyone does.

Excuse me, £56! I just paid £47.40 for AVG. This means that in the Windows-world you buy an operating system and then you have to pay much the same again to use it on the Internet!

Surely anybody can see that that is just bonkers.

No doubt this explains why high street PC stores are so keen to sell virus protection with their OEM computers. Apparently some sales staff are even trying to shift it with Linux netbooks. How amusing.

So to welcome in 2009 I am launching an analogy competition.

My own attempt is: 'It's like buying a car for £1000 and then having to purchase a separate £1000 'wheel-kit' to use it on the highway'. 

It's a little lame, I know. No doubt others can do much better. 

But please folks, wake up. Are you really made of money? Do you have infinite time to waste? Of course not.

There is only one low-risk software procurement strategy: Free, Open Source software on some sort of Open Source OS.

It's not perfect but I can't be doing with another dose of winter flu.

2009. The year of the Penguin?