Techies....do you hate Microsoft?

[SeventhSon]

Re: Techies....do you hate Microsoft?

[ QUOTE ]
As for the security issues in IE, well that's because it's the richest target for hackers. Don't any of you kid yourself into thinking the alternatives are *technically* more secure - they are simply not being targeted.

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+1

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,66989,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2

[Bert]

Re: Techies....do you hate Microsoft?

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Bert, most of what you said is the standard Slashdot wannabe hacker blithering nonsense I see all the time.

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Please explain what is nonsense. Are you saying IE actually does implement standards well?

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I do take specific and personal exception to this statement:

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The general corporate culture at MS seems to foster poor ethics...

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Dude, that's just pure BS. You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

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Let me first say I know many MS employees and most of them are great people. However there is a win-at-all costs culture in MS which has led to some extremely questionable behavior, and much of this is well documented by the anti-trust proceedings. I guess those pesky lawyers made that all up though.

Regarding the claim that "IE is just a bigger target", well, that's somewhat true, but only part of the story. Note that MS webservers, which do not have dominance over Apache based webservers on the internet, are still the most compromised. Explain that one please. IE is a buggy, poorly engineered, and poorly maintained piece of software. The fact that it is the biggest target suggests that MS should have invested much more in hardening it. It's not like they don't have the resources.

[Bert]

Re: Techies....do you hate Microsoft?

[ QUOTE ]


+1

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,66989,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe you forgot to read this part:

At the same time, the report said that while those vulnerabilities in the Mac operating system will increase, "they will likely be outnumbered in other operating systems for some time to come."


(Other operating systems == MS)

Mac OSX is based on BSD, which has a pretty strong security pedigree. Of course there will still be issues that arise, but they won't be nearly as severe or pervasive as what MS is facing today.

[SeventhSon]

Re: Techies....do you hate Microsoft?

Is this the JCF or slashdot? [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

[Bert]

Re: Techies....do you hate Microsoft?

Heh....Just to clarify: I have nothing personal against MS, I use XP on a bunch of machines and have no problem saying that Linux on the desktop is still pretty lousy in comparison (with the exception of security). Someone asked why people hate MS... I just gave a few answers. Maybe I'm flaming out my ass regarding antitrust issues, but when it comes to security issues, I can assure you I'm rather well qualified to comment.

[OnlineStageGear]

Re: Techies....do you hate Microsoft?

Another thing I think is funny is that Time Warner owns AOL which owns Netscape. When Time Warner used to have a log-in system for Roadrunner and went to install it on a customer's PC, they would install the latest Internet Explorer. Most Time Warner tech support people don't know thier way around Netscape very much. AOL last time I checked was still using a re-packaged Internet Explorer as well for browsing.

Matt

[jim777]

Re: Techies....do you hate Microsoft?

I'm responsible for about 25 thousand PCs, and MS is fine by me. I have lots of other worries, but XP ain't one of them [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[jeff300]

Re: Techies....do you hate Microsoft?

[ QUOTE ]
I guess my libertarian leanings come out when a topic like this is raised. Personally, I feel that if Bill Gates wants to include the entire Office suite, virus protection, Web browser, photo editing, multimedia, and every other piece of software known to man with every copy of Windows, then sell the entire thing for $10.00, it's HIS BUSINESS!

The whole "antitrust" thing just cracks me up. The last time I checked, this is still the United States of America and Bill Gates (or anyone else) should be free to market whatever product he chooses. In short, let the market decide. If consumers want to run Linux, they're free to do so. The same goes for BeOS, FreeDOS, MacOS, or whatever. They're also free to throw their PC out the nearest window (no pun intended) and get an abacus.


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You got it bud. [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

American entrepreneurs: be the best you can! But don't be too good cause then we're going to bust you up to let the losers compete. [img]/images/graemlins/nono.gif[/img]

What a crock. [img]/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[xenophobe]

Re: Techies....do you hate Microsoft?

[ QUOTE ]
All you guys just wish you invented what Bill Invented.

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Bill NEVER invented anything. He never was an inventor, he was a businessman. He outright copied, stole or bought out ALL of the innovation and technology that came out of Microsoft in the early years.

He copywrited public domain Basic, then licensed it. IBM's first computers had a EPROM on their motherboards containing Microsoft Basic on them well before the x86 architecture hit the market (starting with the 4004 if i remember correctly). IBM had to keep paying Bill even after they stopped using it. It was contracted, and Bill got royalties into the early nineties from IBM and IBM had to include a rom chip on many of their systems, even when it wasn't enabled...

He ripped Windows from Steve Jobs, who in turn got the idea when visiting a friend on an invite to Xerox's Palo Alto Research Division (PARC) a few miles from where I live. Xerox never intended to do anything with it, because they couldn't see the need or use, it was just a programmer's invention that really didn't do much at all.

So technically, he took freeware basic developd for the Altair 8800 , stole it, had it copywritten, sold it commercially, claimed that everyone using the freeware stole it from him (and screaming 'piracy') and proceeded to get rich from it.

MS-DOS was NOT the first Disk Operating System, MS-DOS was basically stolen from Digital Research, makers of CP/M which later became known as DR-DOS and even had the look, feel and quite a lot of shared code....

blah blah blah... but of course, everyone here knows all that [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Phil Katz is one of the "great ones", much more than Bill Gates, IMO.

[xenophobe]

Re: Techies....do you hate Microsoft?

[ QUOTE ]
As for the security issues in IE, well that's because it's the richest target for hackers. Don't any of you kid yourself into thinking the alternatives are *technically* more secure - they are simply not being targeted.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's so misguided.

Internet Exporer (79 Security Advisories, several of which are highly rated and have gone unpatched for YEARS)

http://secunia.com/product/11/

Firefox 1.x (12 Security Advisories)

http://secunia.com/product/4227/


People ARE targeting Firefox. Firefox IS more secure and FIXES their issues much faster. Just the sheer number of security holes that IE has had without any major update (until XP SP2) for YEARS and they were still finding them.

Firefox is developed by people from all around the world, and when an issue is found, it is worked on by various people, and the best fix is applied in a timely manner.

Sure, there isn't quite the user base, and the people who do use it are generally more intelligent than standard IE users, but still, Firefox IS more secure. The lack of ActiveX is major. Microsoft's lack of caring for CURRENT HTML standards is pretty pathetic too.

[xenophobe]

Re: Techies....do you hate Microsoft?

[ QUOTE ]
Note that MS webservers, which do not have dominance over Apache based webservers on the internet, are still the most compromised. Explain that one please.

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Yeah, you just wanna run NT with IIs installed... that'd be as safe as running naked through a briar patch. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Tekky]

Re: Techies....do you hate Microsoft?

From the Los Angeles Times
IN BRIEF / TECHNOLOGY



Hacker Attacks on Macs on the Rise, Report Says

From Reuters
Published March 23, 2005


Hacker attacks on Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh OS X operating system, thought by many who use the Mac to be virtually immune to attack, are on the rise, according to a report from anti-virus software vendor Symantec Corp.

Symantec said that over the last year, it had documented 37 high vulnerabilities, or weaknesses that leave the system open to malicious software attacks, in Mac OS X.

An Apple spokesman was not available to comment.






Copyright © 2005, The Los Angeles Times

[RacerX]

Re: Techies....do you hate Microsoft?

Ha, Todd, ya beat me to it...I just read that today and was gonna post it here.