home|(jokes):."Win95 Is A Virus?" homepage|Seth Croston Barber

Is Windows 95 A Virus?

No, Windows 95 is not a virus. Here's what viruses do:

  1. They replicate quickly -- okay, Windows 95 does that.
  2. Viruses use up valuable system resources, slowing down the system as they do so -- okay, Windows 95 does that.
  3. Viruses will, from time to time, trash your hard disk -- okay, Windows 95 does that too.
  4. Viruses are usually carried, unknown to the user, along with valuable programs and systems. Sigh... Windows 95 does that, too.
  5. Viruses will occasionally make the user suspect their system is too slow (see 2) and the user will buy new hardware. Yup, that's with Windows 95, too.
Until now it seems Windows 95 is a virus but there are fundamental differences:
Viruses are well supported by their authors, are running on most systems, their program code is fast, compact and efficient and they tend to become more sophisticated as they mature.
So Windows 95 is not a virus.

Well see about NT-4


Seth Croston Barber <kn1ght@cyberis.net>
Last modified: Wed Oct 06 13:29:36 PDT 1999