Linux.com: It’s Survival of the Fittest

“This week, the ILOVEYOU virus burned through millions of
e-mails, infecting computers around the globe. In the Linux
community, it is tempting to mock the less fortunate Windows users.
Further, it would be nice to place the blame with Microsoft, but is
it possible for a similar situation to occur with Linux
distributions?”

“The recent outbreak can only infect computers with Microsoft
Windows using Microsoft Outlook as an e-mail client. This
particular virus is able to spread using the tight integration of
Visual Basic Scripting with the e-mail client. The technology is
easy to use. In fact, the script is only about 250 lines worth of
code. Certainly the programmers at Microsoft met one of their ease
of use goals.”

“…Most Linux users are quick to point out that even if
malicious code was run, it could only affect the users own account.
True, but it could be argued that this is also the case for Windows
NT and 2000. Instead of laughing at the Windows users, it would
be interesting to see an open source solution providing the same
functionality as VB script and the security of Java. Perhaps
something like Kaffe could be embedded into new mailers such as
Evolution.“

Complete
Story