Shoulders of Giants

G

Gordon Darling

Shoulders of Giants

http://www.radsoft.net/resources/rants/20041218,00.html

"Week of December 18, 2004

They took isolated desktop systems and put them on the net.
- Bill Joy

Microsoft have done it again: demonstrated that the biggest software
company on the planet are totally inept when it comes to creating quality
software and totally incompetent when it comes to understanding what a
good operating system makes.

This past week the Redmond monster swallowed up a small twelve man team,
buying their anti-spyware utility. The thought is that Microsoft Windows
must be beefed up against this ever-growing threat of viruses, worms,
trojans, zombie recruiters, keystroke loggers, password stealers - and
whatever comes next week.

But the product they acquired is currently licensed as a subscription on a
yearly basis, and pundits believe Microsoft will continue to exact fees
for its use.

Something that leaves serious IT professionals speechless. The world's
worst operating system, a standalone catastrophe that should never have
been allowed on the net, a product which has already resulted in class
action lawsuits, will now be saved by yet another purchase. If ever anyone
doubted Bill Gates was about heroin economics, they need not stay
undecided any longer.

Chasing trojans inside a system is the most helpless, most pathetic
strategy imaginable - and no company in any field has ever been lamer
about providing quality to customers than Microsoft. Bill Gates has even
gone so far as to ask Internet backbone providers to beef up filtering so
as to protect his pathetic Windows.

This is not banner waving: the choice is not one of personal taste or
preference. Those days are unfortunately long behind. Today it is a
question of pure security, pure safety, and any system out of the box as
open as Microsoft Windows should not be allowed on a network, much less
the Internet.

The software market of Microsoft Windows is rampant and overrun with
cottage industries that all seek to compensate for inherent flaws in the
operating system. No operating system worthy of the name should allow
viruses to be downloaded to the local machine and run, or let rogue web
pages put files in the local file system, ready for startup at next boot;
any decent operating system would be ripe with speed bumps and
authentication procedures to prevent intrusion.

Microsoft Windows has none of this.

Even Bruce Schneier is saying today that people must abandon Windows. The
game is over, there is no turning back: all the spin blood sweat and tears
cannot make such a hopeless product any better. Windows is not a ship
sinking with a leak in the hull; Windows is a ship with no hull at all.

Perhaps it is easier for a software engineer to appreciate the situation
than it is for a kitchen table aficionado, but almost everyone should be
able to understand the not so subtle difference between discretionary
rights and frenetic chasing of bad programs. Windows allows everything,
and this is in its bone marrow; if any bad things happen, Microsoft's so
called software engineers scramble to plug a leak whilst Ballmer and his
brown shirts spin the media, claiming they know more about security than
any other company.

But Microsoft Windows by definition allows everything. There is no on disk
control. There are no guarded accounts. Files, both good and bad, can be
placed anywhere. Microsoft 'engineers' have too long played with
'technologies' which in effect give malfeasant programs a pat on the back
as they break through the perimeter.

Most of the worst worm outbreaks of the New Millennium were caused not so
much by inventive attacks as by operating procedures already provided by
Microsoft Windows itself.

The audacity of the greedy beady eyed Bill Gates knows no bounds.
Apologising for his crappy products was only a way to spin into digital
rights management; coming before the US government he showed nothing but a
total lack of respect for all that is ethical and for lawful institutions.
Getting sued or fined is to him just the cost of doing business. He might
as well - and most likely already has - politicians in his pocket.

But the Internet belongs to the world, not to Bill Gates. This of course
comes as a shocker to the snotty snooty wanker from Seattle, but it is not
his and never will be. The people using the Internet must however assert
their rights.

The fortune of Bill Gates is based on the value of his stock. Should that
stock plummet, his fortune will be destroyed. Should something bad happen
to his company, his stock will plummet.

What needs to happen has actually already happened: the world has
condemned Bill Gates, and not just once, just as the world has now
condemned Windows.

All that remains is that each and every computer user, whether in a shop
or in a kitchen, follow suit and abandon the both.

Microsoft Windows PCs are not cheap: they are much more expensive than
Apple OS X Unix boxes. And that's before one factors in the cost of
additional software to even attempt to provide the safety of computing
found on that latter platform.

When 'commoners' realise Bill Gates will now charge for a feeble attempt
to fix yet another flaw which should never have existed in the first
place, they might finally be pushed over the edge."

Regards
Gordon
 
B

Boris

I think Gordon is just another Microsoft-hater. I may be wrong but this is
just my personal opinion. I want to thank Bill Gates for making Microsoft
what it is, including all mistakes that have been and will be made. I am not
even going to defend MS, it is not necessary. I just wanted to express my
opinion.

- Boris

www.RegmagiK.com, Registry Editor that works for me
 
O

ozzy

(e-mail address removed) (ozzy) wrote in



you're ridiculous
truth is not abuse

they're already laughing at you in the Frei University Berlin

Rainer,

First... I'd like to wish you & your loved ones a sincere, happy & safe
holiday season.

Second... the OP's post did not have ANYTHING to do with freeware as another
user mentioned & he forgot to add the [OT] header such that users can filter.
It's getting more & more frustrating to read ACF because of the spam and
non-freeware related items.

Many people; myself included; are sick of spam in our mailboxes, let alone
having to weed through the same drivel in this nice freeware forum. Posting the
link was bad enough... but to re-post the whole message???

This area is starting to get way off topic in too many areas of discussion.
Last time I checked (this morning, BTW) MS windows software is not freeware.
Their products only run on an OS that you must buy.
Please correct me if I missed some link on that page that points acf readers to
freeware :)

Have an awesome day.

ozzy
 
M

Marc

(e-mail address removed) (ozzy) wrote in

and an abuse is the answer ?
ignore it, that's all

Regards,
 
R

Richard Steven Hack


Nice post.

Just as an example, last night I spent SIX HOURS trying to get Windows
98 to talk to Windows XP over a crossover cable!

Finally was successful by the expedient of re-enabling the Guest
account on XP (which I had turned off for security reasons) - and then
giving it - TA-DA! - an empty password....

It doesn't get better than this. I feel so secure with my Windows XP
with a Guest account with no password...

Even Windows 2000 wasn't THIS stupid!
 
B

Boris

Richard,
I consider YOUR post to be much more useful that the original one. At least
people can get their win95 to talk to winXP if they have to.

Congratulations on getting your computers to talk to each other. And 6 hours
is not that much, really. You must be very good.

Happy holidays to all.
 

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