Folks, there is one critical step you _must_ take to protect yourself
and your data: you must stop using Internet Explorer!  There is no way
around it.

Yes, I know it comes installed.  Yes, I know a lot of sites won't work
properly without it.  Yes, I know it's easier to download Band-Aids like
scanners and the like.  But I.E. is a big fat "Hackers enter here!" sign
and it always has been.  It likely always will be; that's why Gartner
Group (which corporate America turns to for computer advice) finally
made this same recommendation.

You need to use Mozilla Firefox for all browsing.  Run, do not walk,
to http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ , download it and install
it.  Then forget I.E. ever existed.  I cannot stress this enough.
If you doubt my words, read what the Wall Street Journal had to say:
http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20041230.html .

So long as I.E. remains your primary browser it won't really matter
much whose virus scanners you install or how often they are updated.
And once you have stopped using I.E., your next big win is to stop using
Outlook.  Use Thunderbird, also from the Mozilla group:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/ .

The above will protect you from most current exploits.  To go the final
step to get nearly complete protection you need to get Open Office at
http://www.openoffice.org/.  MS Office has a macro language built-in
that gives documents complete control of your system the moment you
open them.  You are taking a chance every time you open an MS Office
document you did not write yourself.  Open Office has a macro language,
too, but it's safely sandboxed.  Scripts written with it cannot screw
up anything but the document.  Your system remain protected.

And, by the way, all of the above are just as comfortable, safe, and
useful on Linux as on Windows, so when you get tired of spending a
fortune on MS products you will find that final step to Linux to be
an easy one.

Larry Smith