Microsoft’s new operating system, Vista, was barely out in beta when security company F-Secure advised that an Austrian going by the nickname of “Second Part to Hell” had already written a Vista virus. F-Secure has dubbed the new virus “Danom.”

The problem is that Danom is not really a Vista virus. In fact, the Windows technology after which Danom goes (and after which it is named) is Monad, which is Microsoft’s codename for its Microsoft Shell (MSH). (Get it? “Danom” is “Monad” backwards.)

A shell is essentially a text-based command line interface to the computer. It allows one to communicate more directly with the computer, rather than going through the operating system’s (usually graphical) interface. For the highly geekified, using a command shell is akin to sitting down and speaking directly with someone in another language, as compared to speaking to them only through a…

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