Date: 09/16/07 (Microsoft Windows)    Keywords: software, web

It's me, the Vista n00b again. I want to thank everyone for the tips on my printer. I haven't had a chance to try them yet but I particularly liked getting one from someone who was specifically a vista user.

OK, question. I know that on Pee Cees unlike Macs or *nix systems, virii are an issue. My computer came with a trial of Norton. I don't use P2P filesharing (not yet at least) and whenever I've downloaded a file off the interweb I scan it with ClamWin and then do a custom install to make sure that it only installs exactly what I want it to. I also like how Vista asks my permission to do most things.

So realistically, given my using habits, how susceptible am I to getting infected? Should I pay to subscribe to Norton? In the Mac/*nix world there are a lot of horror stories of every windows computer being infected with dozens of evil virii and that it's just assumed to be a part of the windows experience.

Also, where is a good place to learn about basic common software packages that windows users use? Mostly I've been looking for versions of open source programmes that I know that are ported to Windows as well (like OpenOffice, GIMP, R, I haven't sorted out how to get gcc working yet).

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/83128.html