Linux desktop OS a no go

[nihil]

But it wasn't under the machine (Dell) warranty...

My wife has a Dell, it had a 12 month warranty.............after about 6 years the HDD died electrically. I can't do anything about that, so I just replaced it. Her documents were backed up and e-mail is on the provider's server so I just put a new drive in. The original was an IBM Deskstar ("Deathstar" we used to call them ).

I have three dead drives on my shelf right now, two Western digital and the IBM. Normally I return the drives to the customer as they have their data on them and disposal is their responsibility. Anyway I have no Idea what might be on them...............if you know what I mean?

One of the WDs was mine and a disappointment as it is a 100GB that had really not seen much use. The other is a 1.1GB from an old PI/133. I persuaded that to take a 3.2GB I had lying around. But it is hardly surprising the old drive failed, given its age and the fact that it had probably seen a lot of use.

I am not qualified to comment on the server issue other than to suggest that it is a different type of criminal who targets them, as opposed to home and small business systems. I think that you can be sure that they are technically competent and the "security through obscurity" proposition doesn't work.

[The-Spec]

The point I've always tried to make was that it didn't take any technical competence at all. As for computers, I've got so much luck with them... I could fart on a ouija board and recover your passwords in the process.

[gore]

Security through Obscurity works just fine Nihil The most popular method I know of is called a "Password". It's secure until someone knows it, then it becomes insecure.

[nihil]

gore old chap, allow me to set your English straight, a password is never "obscure"..........it is right in your face as soon as you try to access something that is password protected.

"Obtuse" is the word that you are looking for, which basically means hard to figure out, or "strong" in the case of a password