Dear Rob,
If you already know this, this may sound patronizing, but that's not my
intent...
The article is not about preventing the spread of viruses (unless you
consider Microsoft Corporation a virus).
They are simply complaining about proprietary formats. They are
attempting to 'spit into the wind' by refusing M$ documents and calling them
'secret' (in a somewhat vain attempt at forcing a 'cloak and dagger' motif
on them).
And if the 'virus' being spread is a Word Macro virus, then converting
it to HTML would (I think) effectively render it harmless since the browser
won't invoke the same macros. Don't quote me on that one; I'm no expert.
I also doubt that Bill Gates would laugh at a widespread effort to
refuse his company's formats, even if it was for a 'stupid' reason.
I would agree the idea of encouraging people to send plain text messages
or HTML messages. It is certainly more portable that Word. Here, here! Go
for it. Microsoft, however, is like spam: you can't ever get rid of it
completely but you can filter it out at your mail server. :-)
Greg
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 09:36:54 +0000 (UTC)
From: Rob Unsworth <rju@pacific.net.au>
To: psyche-list@redhat.com
Cc: gnu@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Excellent signature
Reply-To: psyche-list@redhat.com
On Thu, 23 Jan 2003 Jonathan_Pickard@scee.net wrote:
> This signature which I saw on Kevin Waterson's mail should get the
> message across.
>
>
> Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
> See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
When I first saw this sig I was all for supporting the FSF in this
campaign. That was until I read the web page. I found that in part it
is self defeating, because it contains the following.
"Receiving Word attachments is bad for you because they can carry
viruses........"
Two paragraphs later
"To convert the file to HTML using Word is simple......."
Apparently the FSF oppose receiving a virus sent with a Word
document, but if the virus is sent via HTML, thats OK.
Bill G must have laughed himself to sleep after reading that.
The FSF will get no support from me on this one.
Regards,
Rob
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