Why the Linux Desktop Just Won't Work! and why Linux depresses me. 3737

If you buy a diesel car because you've heard that they get great milage, you don't then turn around and stick high-octane unleaded fuel into the gas tank, if you do, bad things happen.

Converslely, if you buy a car that uses unleaded fuel it's a really bad idea to try and fill the tank with diesel fuel.

If you use IE with ActiveX and ActiveScripting enabled, and use Outlook with HTML rendering via IE enabled in this configuration, you will be able to run any application on any web site, including every virus ever produced, without even blinking.

If you use FireFox and Thunderbird, or even use IE with ActiveX and ActiveScript disabled, you will get all kinds of nasty messages telling you that you're not getting the full "benefit" of the web site, but the most common viruses will bounce off and dissappear like spit on a superhot griddle. Even when a virus loading script is recieved, there is nothing to run the virus loader and nothing to execute the uploaded virus.

Conversely, FireFox has an "automatic self-install" feature, don't use this feature unless you absolutely have to and you really know and trust the host. The best thing to do is keep this feature disabled and only enable it when you are absolutely sure that you want the software and can't download-install it any other way. Generally, if you can't manually download and install it, you shouldn't download it and install it.