what is r00t.nu

[UALOneKPlus]

can anyone shed some light on this weird page?

I can't even find out what .nu extension is!

[Inertia]

I suppose you are talking about the Web url h**p://r00t.nu/ which brings up a screen with the following:

Debian GNU/Linux potato/stable aziz tty1
Linux 2.4.7 on an i686

Login: _

After waiting a little while, a Microsoft Internet Explorer message pops up with:

"Format complete!
Put your Linux CD on your CD-ROM and reboot to install Linux"

So I guess that it is related to a procedure for installing Debian Linux. It also has a message at the bottom of the screen that says "Formatting C drive completed", so this could also be a dangerous procedure unless you know what you are doing.

My advice is unless you know what you are doing, DO NOT ACCESS THIS ADDRESS ON THE WEB. As far as I can tell, my C: drive is still intact and nothing new has been written to it so I assume that message was harmless.

See Site map for Debian web pages for further information.

The .nu country code stands for Niue, an island near New Zealand. See Niue Island.

[David]

if you click on the double underline you'll eventualy be able to access the readme which is here.

[UALOneKPlus]

I think the message was a script intended to be a joke for Windows users. No web page has the capability to format your hard drive, unless your windows machine is unpatched and you don't have anti-virus running...

I suppose you are talking about the Web url h**p://r00t.nu/ which brings up a screen with the following:

Debian GNU/Linux potato/stable aziz tty1
Linux 2.4.7 on an i686

Login: _

After waiting a little while, a Microsoft Internet Explorer message pops up with:

"Format complete!
Put your Linux CD on your CD-ROM and reboot to install Linux"

So I guess that it is related to a procedure for installing Debian Linux. It also has a message at the bottom of the screen that says "Formatting C drive completed", so this could also be a dangerous procedure unless you know what you are doing.

My advice is unless you know what you are doing, DO NOT ACCESS THIS ADDRESS ON THE WEB. As far as I can tell, my C: drive is still intact and nothing new has been written to it so I assume that message was harmless.

See Site map for Debian web pages for further information.

The .nu country code stands for Niue, an island near New Zealand. See Niue Island.

[Inertia]

I think the message was a script intended to be a joke for Windows users. No web page has the capability to format your hard drive, unless your windows machine is unpatched and you don't have anti-virus running...

Yes, I agree it must be a joke. How many Windows machines do you suppose are unpatched and don't have anti-virus running? I would guess in the millions. These are the unsavvy users, but they pay the price for someone with a truly malicious intent.

Malicious code with the capability of destructive behavior is not uncommon, and there are many ways of transferring it including web page content.

Personally, this type of "joke" doesn't appeal to my sense of humor.