TR Hot 5: Linux newbies beware!

I'm Sonja Thompson with the second to last TechRepublic Hot 5 -- that's right, unfortunately, this video series hasn't been reaching a lot of eyeballs or generating much discussion in the forums, so I'm going to re-focus my time and energy doing some things on the site that hopefully will! Now, if you're a fan of video, rest assured that we'll continue to publish a weekly TR Dojo video, which you can find from the Video tab or the TR Dojo blog, and I'll also continue to do little one-off videos here and there, such as when we have announcements or new features that we want to share with you all. Plus, I have lots of new CafePress shirts to show off.

Alright, let's get to this episode -- on May 21st, 2010 -- because I'm ready to count down the hottest discussions of the week.

It was kind of cool to see a TR member's discussion make the Hot 5, but it sucks that he had the  Backwards OS Install Tragedy  experience. I mean, without even knowing the details, I'm thinking  Ouch! 

According to TR member deICERAY, he was running Windows 7 and decided to go back to Windows XP -- wait a second... did he just say Windows? Well, a lot of his TR peers said that was his problem right there!

He basically lost five years of work -- I lost 10, so I know how much that hurts. Some folks offered suggestions in the thread, and even TR member Ron K. followed up a week later with a post about the importance of backing up your data. It was not directed toward deICERAY, but still, it could have been a source of inspiration.

Mark Underwood provided some tips for desktop malware first responders, and he started off his post by describing a time when his Windows notebook was infected by malware.

IT professionals, particularly IT security professionals, are some of the most paranoid people on this earth -- in fact, quite a few of them who responded to this post said that they didn't believe Mark. I mean, how could a security-conscious guy allow something like that to happen?

Well, aside from Mark's 7 tips, there was some other good advice in this thread as well, such as from ocie3, who said the most prudent measure "is to run all applications in a Sandboxie sandbox each time you access an untrustworthy network" - and from SlvrBulet, who's #1 rule when it comes to malware is "don't panic!" 

Erik Eckel threw himself right in the fire this past week with his post about three advantages that Apple enjoys over Windows when deployed in enterprise environments -- namely, lower total cost of ownership, greater security, and better performance.

At the time of this recording, there were over 160 comments, and as you can imagine, it's pretty hot in there! That's why I think everybody, like me, should use both! Can't we all just get along?

Nicole Bremer Nash rose really close to the top with her Geekend post about unfriendly aliens -- or at least that's what theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking believes. Hawking doesn't think we should be in a hurry to televise our existence to the universe at large -- and after watching Mars Attacks! I'm not so sure that I disagree with him.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading over the comments from the TR community in the discussions thread, and I'll post the link in the blog notes so that you can check it out for yourselves. What do folks think they look like? Are they illegal? You know, answers to good questions like that.

And the hottest discussion of the week was thanks to Jack Wallen who listed 10+ mistakes that are made by Linux newbies. #1 on his list was "Assuming they are using Windows." (and we all know what happens when you assume)

Some of the other mistakes Jack listed include trying to make exe files work, choosing the wrong distribution, and giving up too quickly.

My favorite comment in this discussion wasn't very productive but it made me laugh, so I have to share with you all. TR member andrew-goodwin said, "(of the 10 mistakes Linux newbies make) surely #1 should be 'Using Linux.'" Ha!

Last but not least, we'd like to give a shout out to the TR members who have posted the most comments over the past week, so many thanks to boxfiddler, NickNielsen, AnsuGisalas (you changed it up on me), santeewelding, and Palmetto.

Thanks for watching, and be sure to tune in next week for the final episode of TechRepublic's Hot 5.