Unfortunately, if you disable all scripting from the start, many many sites just don’t work (such as Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail). Scripting is central to current era site design.
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You know what would happen if you prompted users for every script interaction? Either:
a) They go to another browser that doesn’t.
b) They turn off the notifications first thing because they are “annoying”
Most of 20 years working on web browsers here. Never underestimate user irritation at prompts.
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Yeah, this was the point I was trying to make above. Your post is much more effective than mine 
Under the DMCA, I can get into trouble if I bypass the software locks on my car, or a on a DVD or ebook. Yet an outside entity can bypass the security on my computer in my own home and, most likely, get off with a wink and a nod. Granted, if it were a group of individuals then they’d be in trouble, but corporations are special people and get a VIP pass.
I’m telling you, that wall is going to have a helluva lot of people lined up before it when the revolution comes.
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Calling people idiots for running software that “they find on the internet” is disingenuous and rude, full stop.
I know what sites to visit for free software, and I’m generally able to tell what software shouldn’t be run, and what should be run–but that’s after ~20 years of being online with another chunk spent fooling with computers, and another chunk spent figuring out the truthiness of various websites to ensure the information presented is reputable.
My mom would run circles around a wide swath of the global population, mentally, in just about anything a person might care to name–finance, humanities, politics, she’s a godamn brainy whipsaw–but computers have never been and likely never will be her forte. She doesn’t peruse the deepest, darkest corners of the internet looking for new goatse sites, nor does she use bitorrent or pirated software. She does play games online, and in the past, running suggested software to play those games garnered her a trojan or three. She’s no more an idiot than you are Ghengis Khan.
So, this is all to say that your points 4 and 5 are so similar as to be almost indistinguishable, which certainly doesn’t make things easier, but it doesn’t make fools of the people who’ve gotten malware via those vectors any more than people who might grab a bottle of snake oil at the local automotive parts store. For that matter, you’d be shocked (shocked!) to know how many people have been fooled by something as simple as Lasik@Home.
I WILL grant that folks experiencing virii or worse after DL’ing stuff from bitorrent or installing pirated software dug their own graves.
Please forgive my tone if it comes off as huffy, but a prior post giving the same info as you did (but nowhere near as coherent or professional), and it came off like the proverbial Comic Book Guy mansplainer douche that absolutely riles me up.
And now I’ll have some wine and chill the fuck out.
No, it isn’t because I was pretty clearly talking about pirated software…but I could have been more clear. All of that “free” software on torrent sites? Much of it is infected with malware just waiting for you to install it for them.
Get your mom an iOS device and call it a day or an OS X machine and tell her to only get stuff from the App store. Seriously. This is what I tell certain members of my family.
Because English and typos (I assume), I can’t tell if you’re talking about me or someone else.
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Not you, and yeah, typo. It was a prior post. And yeah, I’m considering a new mac for mom this xmas.
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Ah. Thank you for that. That means, interestingly, that my adblock is blocking pagefair, which is kinda weird.
OTOH, it probably just means I need to update it. Or switch to one of the other options you helpfully supplied
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