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A few of the many, many articles:

Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. Quote: "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC."

Microsoft has no plans to tell us what's in Windows patches. Each update is a black box, and it's going to stay that way.

Leaks show that Microsoft writes release notes, so why can't it publish them? The lack of documentation of Windows' updates is a baffling move on Microsoft's part.

Microsoft's Software is Malware. Malware means software designed to function in ways that mistreat or harm the user.

How Can Any Company Ever Trust Microsoft Again?

NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered

Microsoft Gave the NSA Direct Backdoor Access to Outlook, Skype

Microsoft [lack of] Privacy Statement

Here's how to Block Windows 10 "Spying"

Oh please stop with the "source equals security" bullshit which is trivially proven false, ready? You have the source, kindly list for us the vulnerabilities in the Linux networking stack...what, you can't? How about any lousy code in the audio stacks? What you HAVE vetted the code, yes?

The "source equals security" fallacy is a fallacy of assumption, you assume because the code is there someone has done the work for you and vetted these millions of lines of code with zero actual evidence that it has actually occurred and in fact vulnerabilities like Heartbleed, Bash weaknesses that have sat there for years and the plethora of Linux targeted malware including commercial attacks give plenty of evidence that the opposite is true and the majority of code isn't looked at beyond whomever is actually working on the thing.

I think Windows 10 is a giant POS where the only thing that runs reliably is its baked in spyware (which makes it similar to Android so if Nutella is trying to copy Google? Mission accomplished.) but I also hate OS flag waving bullshit when it has no evidence to back it up, from "OSX doesn't get malware" which Macheads simply changed the definition of what malware was until that statement could still prove true and in the same vein with Linux based Android beating Windows several years in a row when it comes to malware growth and major Linux exploits coming out of the woodwork claiming source equals security is no different than claiming Santa Claus protects your OS, you have the same level of evidence for both statements.

Sigh....how to write a Linux virus in 5 easy steps using the same tricks malware uses, BTW wanna guess what kernel hosts the OS that has surpassed Windows in infections and has for over 5 years? That's right sparky LINUX.

So your vaunted "source" means absolutely nothing, its classic security by obscurity. wanna guess how much of your average Linux distro is actually vetted, as reported a couple years back by a scan of github access by a security firm? Less than 2%, that is all, the other 98% hadn't been touched by anybody but the authors who could have put any malware they wanted into it and you wouldn't know anymore than if you were on windows or OSX.

BTW I'll be happy to smack you with some citations if you'd like, from the KDELook bug that was hosted on all the major KDE repos for over a year to the Quake 3 malware that was hosted on all of the major repos for a year and a half, just ask. Thanks to Android we now have undeniable proof that Linux security is nothing but security by obscurity, and that if a malware vendor wants to own Linux? It gets pwned just as hard.

we will not allow any individual, group, or nation to sabotage American financial institutions or undermine the integrity of fair competition in the operation of the free market."

LOLs that's hilarious right? What integrity of fair competition: when favored HFT is practically insider trading

The SIP time stamps aren't just false when delayed—they are always false. The SIP applies a time stamp that is always later than the actual time of the quote, generally by the millisecond or two it takes for the quote to travel from an exchange to, and be processed by, the SIP. The trading advantage enjoyed by insiders is larger than subscribers may be led to believe.

And where also is the fair competition when favored flash traders get $$$$$$ unhindered while the small fry get charged/prosecuted?
The Trader as Scapegoat
Norwegian traders convicted for outsmarting US stock broker algorithm
p.s. yes I know the Norwegians got acquitted in the end but they got convicted first and had to appeal etc.

It appears to me that Microsoft is selling itself to secret U.S. government agencies. Who tried to kill the excellent TrueCrypt? The old original TrueCrypt web site pushes people toward a Microsoft product.

Can Microsoft be trusted? Here are some articles:

Windows 8: NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered (Aug. 22, 2013)

Windows: NSA "backdoor" mandates lead to a computer-security FREAK show Quote: "Microsoft Windows OS vulnerable to hackers, thanks to National Security Agency requirements." (March 6, 2015)

Windows: NSA Built Back Door In All Windows Software by 1999 (June 7, 2013)

Windows 10, Microsoft hiding what it is doing: Microsoft has no plans to tell us what's in Windows patches. Quote: "Each update is a black box, and it's going to stay that way." (Aug 21, 2015)

Windows 10, Microsoft takes even more control: Windows 10 is spying on almost everything you do -- here's how to opt out But, of course, Microsoft can change the spyware to avoid blocking. (July 31, 2015)

Microsoft can't be trusted: How Can Any Company Ever Trust Microsoft Again? (June 17, 2013)

Microsoft releases EXTREMELY buggy software: Microsoft Kills Many Critical Flaws, Some 0-Days, Un-Trusts One Wildcard Cert It is likely that there are many bugs Microsoft hasn't yet found. Are Microsoft products intentionally made insecure? (December 9, 2015)

You said, 'You obviously have no idea what the word "spyware" means.'

You obviously haven't been reading the many, many, many stories. Here are links to just 7 of the stories about insecurity and links to 2 stories about bad management:

Windows 8: NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered (Aug. 22, 2013)

Windows: NSA "backdoor" mandates lead to a computer-security FREAK show Quote: "Microsoft Windows OS vulnerable to hackers, thanks to National Security Agency requirements." (March 6, 2015)

Windows: NSA Built Back Door In All Windows Software by 1999 (June 7, 2013)

Windows 10, Microsoft hiding what it is doing: Microsoft has no plans to tell us what's in Windows patches. Each update is a black box, and it's going to stay that way. (Aug 21, 2015)

Windows 10, Microsoft takes even more control: Windows 10 is spying on almost everything you do -- here's how to opt out (July 31, 2015) But, of course, Microsoft can change the spyware to avoid blocking.

Microsoft can't be trusted: How Can Any Company Ever Trust Microsoft Again? (June 17, 2013)

Microsoft releases EXTREMELY buggy software: Microsoft Kills Many Critical Flaws, Some 0-Days, Un-Trusts One Wildcard Cert (December 9, 2015) It is likely that there are many bugs Microsoft hasn't yet found.

Badly managed companies don't produce good products:

Microsoft has extremely bad management: The January 16, 2013 issue of BusinessWeek magazine has a large photo of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (now replaced) with the headline calling him "Monkey Boy". See the BusinessWeek cover in this article: Steve Ballmer Is No Longer A Monkey Boy, Says Bloomberg BusinessWeek. The BusinessWeek cover says "No More" and "Mr.", but that doesn't take much away from the fact that the magazine called Ballmer Monkey Boy -- on its cover.

Worst CEO in the United States: Quote from an article in Forbes Magazine about Steve Ballmer: "Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today."

Another quote: "The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value -- and jobs." (May 12, 2012)

Correlation is not causation.

I did not imply that it is, I said that it disproves your assertion. If you make an assertion that $X causes $Y, and we find an inverse correlation, then we can be pretty sure that $X does not cause $Y. You asserted that $ISM causes $OBSERVATION. I contend that assertion by observing that $ISM is actually inversely correlated to your $OBSERVATION.

And I doubt the correlation. Do you have any evidence to support your conclusion, like a peer reviewed study?

You would doubt it; your ideology fails if the correlation of "more options for girls" = "Less girls in CS". Let's look at my observations, shall we?

Iran (few female rights): females account for 70% CS and STEM graduates (source)

Gulf region (so few female rights they can't even display their face in linked photo): females account for 60% CS and STEM graduates (source)

Qatar (few female rights): females account for 60% of CS and STEM students (source)

Malaysia (few rights for women): females account for 52% of CS undergraduates (Peer reviewed source)

Now let's see what the top ten feminist countries in the world look like:

Finland: 32% female CS students (source)

Sweden (possibly the largest number of female rights in the world?): 22% CS grads (source

Norway - newest figure I can find on line is from 1999, so ignoring it for now

New Zealand: less than 33% female CS graduates (source).

UK: 13% female CS graduates (source)

Canada: 27% female graduates (maths and CS) (source)

USA: 18% female graduates in CS (source

Netherlands: Can't find sources for this either.

The best countries for female rights have fewer female CS graduates than the worst countries for female rights. This is directly observable.

Now that I got some of the numbers, you just know that I'm going to repost this list (not a link, the actual list) every time you make the incorrect assertion that sexism *must* be responsible for the dearth of females in CS.

My position is backed by evidence. Women's experiences, detailed and comprehensive studies. I'm on my phone now so ask again tomorrow if you want a list, but Wikipedia has a good article about it with 59 references: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...

You've given a list of 59 references, of which only one academic article supports your position (somewhat tenously, but there you go). As it is clear that you did not read your own references, I'll leave it to you to figure out which one supports your $X causes $Y position. The other articles all repeat your mantra - that there are fewer females in CS - but none of them address the glaring issue of why this is not

Is Pale Moon fixed? I don't see any mention of that.

We switched to Pale Moon and are now not having problems with the instability of Firefox when there are many windows and tabs open. Since Pale Moon is based on Firefox, most of the Firefox add-ons work.

In the past, Google paid Mozilla Foundation $300 million each year to make Google search the default search engine in Firefox. Google apparently didn't cause problems, even though it paid a shocking amount.

Now, I understand, Mozilla Foundation gets most of its money from Microsoft. Microsoft pays Yahoo. Yahoo pays Mozilla Foundation to make "Yahoo search" (actually mostly Microsoft Bing search) the default search engine in Firefox.

The Thunderbird and SeaMonkey Composer GUIs have been damaged, apparently deliberately. File saves in the newer versions of both ask for a new file name, and don't suggest the last one chosen. The damage was reported several months ago, but has not been fixed.

Is that another example of Microsoft's Embrace, Extend, Extinguish? People who feel forced away from Thunderbird may choose Microsoft software to replace it. Is that something Microsoft is trying to accomplish?

In my opinion, dishonest people should not be employed in management. In my opinion, the managers and members of the board of directors of both Microsoft and Mozilla Foundation who approved the dishonesty of sneakily re-configuring Mozilla Foundation products should be immediately fired, and not allowed to have management positions in the future.

Mozilla Foundation may be desperate now that it has lost the incredible amount of money paid by Google.

A few of the many, many articles about abuse by Microsoft:

Microsoft has no plans to tell us what's in Windows patches. Each update is a black box, and it's going to stay that way.

Leaks show that Microsoft writes release notes, so why can't it publish them? The lack of documentation of Windows' updates is a baffling move on Microsoft's part.

Microsoft's Software is Malware. Malware means software designed to function in ways that mistreat or harm the user.

How Can Any Company Ever Trust Microsoft Again?

NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered

Microsoft Gave the NSA Direct Backdoor Access to Outlook, Skype

Microsoft [lack of] Privacy Statement

Here's how to Block Windows 10 "Spying"

I guess you're modded up because you sound interesting, but really? I'm not trying to be insulting but do you know what you are talking about?

This article is a little old but AWS really is that far ahead of everyone else.

Plus, in terms of services and features, AWS is also ahead.

Now where Azure has benefit is if you're an MS shop and you want to just outsource your entire backoffice. But if you're developing....AWS has a lot more features than Azure, if you know what you're doing. No, you can't throw together a .NET wizard-based project, but if you're using an open source stack, or more of a LAMP-like MVC environment (python, rubyonrails, etc) then AWS throws so many tools for you to use (RDS, Dynamo, S3, etc) then its hard to see how you DON'T think AWS is a good environment for developers.

And what do you mean by "Platform Issues"?

And actually, all the enterprise developers I've worked with are looking more at AWS than Azure (not that I'm some sort of worldwide development expert or anything).

Windows 10 is Malware. "Malware means software designed to function in ways that mistreat or harm the user." Will Microsoft top managers be the targets of a court case? Other spyware makers have been convicted. Will there be an anti-trust case against Microsoft's virtual monopoly?

Apparently Microsoft is moving towards these arrangements: With Windows 10, Microsoft has complete control over any computer connected to the internet, so Microsoft can use its spyware, which it calls "telemetry", to gather personal information to be sold to advertisers. Eventually there may be monthy payments to use Windows, as with Microsoft Office-365. Apparently Microsoft is paid by secret agencies of governments to steal personal information.

As many people have said, putting spyware into Windows 10, and not allowing people to know the purpose of "updates", will obviously be bad for Microsoft, eventually. So, why is Microsoft becoming even more offensive? It seems that the company is amazingly badly managed. For example, the cover of the January 16, 2013 issue of BusinessWeek magazine has a large photo of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (now replaced) with the headline calling him "Monkey Boy". See the BusinessWeek cover in this article: Steve Ballmer Is No Longer A Monkey Boy, Says Bloomberg BusinessWeek. The BusinessWeek cover says "No More" and "Mr.", but that doesn't take much away from the fact that the magazine called Ballmer Monkey Boy -- on its cover.

Worst CEO in the United States: Quote from an article in Forbes Magazine about Steve Ballmer: "Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today."

Another quote: "The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value -- and jobs." (May 12, 2012)

Articles about Microsoft abusing customers:

How Can Any Company Ever Trust Microsoft Again?

NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered

Microsoft Gave the NSA Direct Backdoor Access to Outlook, Skype

Microsoft has no plans to tell us what's in Windows patches. Each update is a black box, and it's going to stay that way.

Leaks show that Microsoft writes release notes, so why can't it publish them? The lack of documentation of Windows' updates is a baffling move on Microsoft's part.

Microsoft [lack of] Privacy Statement

Here's how to Block Windows 10 "Spying" (But, of course, Microsoft can change the spyware to avoid blocking.)

"They are getting the unintended consequences that any rational person should have seen coming a mile away. This is not going to go well for MS, and it would not surprise me if it ended up in court."

Will Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella go to prison? Other spyware makers have been convicted.

Will there be an anti-trust case against Microsoft's virtual monopoly?

Articles about Microsoft abusing customers:

Microsoft's Software is Malware. Malware means software designed to function in ways that mistreat or harm the user.

How Can Any Company Ever Trust Microsoft Again?

NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered

Microsoft Gave the NSA Direct Backdoor Access to Outlook, Skype

Microsoft has no plans to tell us what's in Windows patches. Each update is a black box, and it's going to stay that way.

Leaks show that Microsoft writes release notes, so why can't it publish them? The lack of documentation of Windows' updates is a baffling move on Microsoft's part.

Microsoft [lack of] Privacy Statement

Here's how to Block Windows 10 "Spying"

Will Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella go to prison? Other spyware makers have been convicted.

Will there be an anti-trust case against Microsoft's virtual monopoly?

Articles about Microsoft abusing customers:

Microsoft's Software is Malware. Malware means software designed to function in ways that mistreat or harm the user.

How Can Any Company Ever Trust Microsoft Again?

NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered

Microsoft Gave the NSA Direct Backdoor Access to Outlook, Skype

Microsoft has no plans to tell us what's in Windows patches. Each update is a black box, and it's going to stay that way.

Leaks show that Microsoft writes release notes, so why can't it publish them? The lack of documentation of Windows' updates is a baffling move on Microsoft's part.

Microsoft [lack of] Privacy Statement

Here's how to Block Windows 10 "Spying"

From a previously posted comment: Articles about Microsoft spying:

Microsoft's Software is Malware. "Malware means software designed to function in ways that mistreat or harm the user." -- Gnu.org

How Can Any Company Ever Trust Microsoft Again? -- Computerworld UK

Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages -- The Guardian

A member of an advisory group to President Barack Obama said about surveillance, "There can be serious negative effects on other U.S. interests". -- From the Reuters article, Russian researchers expose breakthrough in U.S. spying program.

Another quote from that article: "The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world's computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives."

"China is seeking to make its own secure smartphones, in an attempt to insulate its handsets from U.S. surveillance." -- Wall Street Journal
Links: Direct, possibly paywalled, also through Google Search.

How will China react to Windows 10, which gives Microsoft complete control over any computer connected to the internet?

Articles about Microsoft spying:

Microsoft's Software is Malware. "Malware means software designed to function in ways that mistreat or harm the user." -- Gnu.org

How Can Any Company Ever Trust Microsoft Again? -- Computerworld UK

Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages -- The Guardian

In a democracy, citizens are allowed to participate in government. Secret government projects in the U.S. make the U.S. less of a democracy and move toward hidden control.

Articles about secret agencies often assume they are managed well. But an employee of an NSA sub-contractor, Edward Snowden, was able to copy huge amounts of data. What would stop NSA employees from listening to telephone conversations of CEOs to find inside information for profiting from buying stock, for example?

NSA = No Sales for America.

Question: Other producers of spyware have been put in prison. How does Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella avoid a court case?

"... I'd rather trust the last official version of Truecrypt [7.1a] (with correct checksums) than any binary downloaded from the Veracrypt website."

When I go to the VeraCrypt web site, NoScript tells me that site uses Javascript from 3 different Microsoft web sites: aspnetcdn.com, msecnd.net, and s-msft.com.

The many connections to Microsoft web sites makes Windows 10 the world's most common spyware. Should you trust VeraCrypt when it is so closely monitored by the world's biggest spyware company?

Mozilla Foundation and Firefox are now controlled by Microsoft. Google stopped giving Mozilla Foundation $300,000,000 per year. Now Mozilla Foundation gets money from Microsoft through Yahoo. Microsoft pays Yahoo to use Microsoft's Bing Search. Yahoo pays Mozilla Foundation to use "Yahoo" search as the default in new installations of Firefox.

One of the effects of the control of the Mozilla Foundation by Microsoft is apparently that the Thunderbird and SeaMonkey Composer GUIs have been damaged, apparently deliberately. Every time you do a file save, the newer versions of both ask for a new file name, and don't suggest the last one chosen. The damage was reported several months ago, but has not been fixed.

A few of the many, many articles:

Microsoft has no plans to tell us what's in Windows patches. Each update is a black box, and it's going to stay that way.

Leaks show that Microsoft writes release notes, so why can't it publish them? The lack of documentation of Windows' updates is a baffling move on Microsoft's part.

Microsoft's Software is Malware. Malware means software designed to function in ways that mistreat or harm the user.

How Can Any Company Ever Trust Microsoft Again?

NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered

Microsoft Gave the NSA Direct Backdoor Access to Outlook, Skype

Microsoft [lack of] Privacy Statement

Here's how to Block Windows 10 "Spying"

"Why the hell do I pick your overpriced American company instead of the cheaper alternatives? Is it because you'll do a better job [slashdot.org]? Don't make me laugh."

So instead of choosing overpriced Americans (or possibly Europeans) you would choose somebody from India? Because they never have failed IT projects:

http://www.computerworlduk.com...
http://www.computerworld.com/a...
http://www.businessinsider.com...

Is that why Java rules the enterprise and Microsoft is relegated as a distant outsider? Java pretty much dominates enterprise development. C#? Not so much. Just ask the London stock exchange for experience with Microsoft and C#.

Since the London Stock Exchange switched to Linux/C++, your comment is irrelevant to this discussion.

http://www.computerworlduk.com...

VeraCrypt's website says it's "based on TrueCrypt", but the licence page says it's released under the Microsoft (!) Public licence (which is a free software licence, incompatible with the GPL.)

But TrueCrypt (now unmaintained) was never released under any free software licence, so VeraCrypt can't be both based on TrueCrypt and be under the Microsoft Public Licence. Anyone know which info is accurate and why they make this conflicting claim?

Of course, using Microsoft's codeplex hosting, and Microsoft's licence raises doubts about the software given that Microsoft has already been caught handing data to the NSA and putting in backdoors for the NSA.

Don't Feed the Super-Troll

1990: "The purpose of announcing early like this is to freeze the market at the OEM and ISV level .. One might worry that this will help Sun because we will just have vaporware":
Nathan Myhrvold to Bill Gates ..

1995: "Given that we are looking at the Internet destroying our position as the setter of standards and APIs do you see things we should be doing to use ACT assets to avoid this?":
Biill Gates to Nathan Myhrvold ..

The only people who blamed Microsoft for the LSE problems were technologically inept journalists and Linux zealots

Facts get in the way of your rabid spin. LSE blamed Microsoft for the TradElect problems, which is readily apparent because LSE got rid of TradElect (and Microsoft, and the CEO who recommended Microsoft). In spite of your indignant denial, most other observers blame Microsoft as well.

Typical Microsoft astroturd strategy - run out of credibility, then bring in the spinmods.

Timeline of the fiasco

HFT provides liquidity, and liquidity is of the utmost importance to traders.

Liquidity? And efficiency?You actually believe that bullshit? It's not about liquidity, efficiency, market making etc. It's all about transferring money from other people to them.

And that's of utmost importance: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-08/jp-morgan-has-zero-trading-losses-first-quarter
When you can do it with zero trading losses day after day it's almost like a tax you impose on everyone else (guess where their money comes from).

If the market is becomes more efficient as you claim why'd would these parasites be raking in big bucks? They'd be raking in smaller and smaller bucks instead. Think about that.

And they get bailouts and transaction rollbacks, trading pauses whenever they screw up big time.

When Joe Sixpack trader screws up, nobody bails him out or rolls back his transactions. And if he outsmarts an algo he risks getting a prison sentence: http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/security/3244186/norwegian-traders-convicted-for-outsmarting-us-stock-broker-algorithm/

Reality is it's about the rich and powerful continuing to transfer wealth from the less rich and less powerful.

After 4x years of life, with a recent PhD I am living a miserable life

You're doing it wrong.

Linux IT pros in US saw a giant salary leap in 2012
IT professionals enjoyed their biggest salary jump in more than a decade last year, but for those using Linux, it was even better.

Following up on its January 2012 study that found tech salaries had finally started to climb again, IT careers site Dice today published an annual update showing not just a continuing trend in that respect, but also a huge boost for those in the Linux field.

http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/careers/3422018/us-linux-it-pros-saw-giant-salary-leap-in-2012/

http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/11/a-tale-of-two-lock-ins/index.htm

Fandroid [popsci.com] throwing stones in a glass house?

The parent's claim that Microsoft is strong arming people into a Walled Garden, and my post pointing out that Apple does the same thing, is something about Android? Thanks for keeping it relevant.

Cute, comparing Microsoft's desktop support to Apple's mobile support.

Oh, in that case lets break it down further. How's WinPhone 7 working out for the developers? Microsoft's Mobile support is even shorter and more fragmented than Apples, thanks for bringing that up.

They're still releasing security updates for Leopard, a six year old operating system.

You're honestly bringing up something which hasn't had an update in over a year? And comparing to a system which has been out for double that, and systems which receive regular updates? Why would Berkley have an article about end of support migrating off of it? Not to mention the successor (Snow Leopard) getting this nice article.

Lock everything down except WoW. They can do all the other crap on the Linux machines. Give them not only a restrictive account but restrict what they can run to as limited use as possible. Just start fully restricted and then allow enough Wow runs correctly.

Prevent browser, email, etc use since that is a game machine and not an internet whore. Remove all browser plugins, remove the browser, remove all email clients, make any non-removable browser unusable on the internet by a firewall block or any more effective block. Block any out going ports and incoming ports except those needed by Wow.

Look for dubious MS practices and thwart them.
http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/security/3236713/microsoft-releases-tool-to-block-dll-hijacking-attacks/ I think win7 has something to prevent this now...after 12 years of it.

Read this but note that I'm an XP person and can't judge quality of it, I am working on that. It seems ok and is what I'd do to XP.
http://www.winfrastructure.net/article.aspx?BlogEntry=Quick-steps-to-Windows-7-OS-hardening

Read the references and adapt them to your system.
http://www.nsa.gov/ia/mitigation_guidance/security_configuration_guides/operating_systems.shtml#microsoft

However, it's not at all clear whether he'd be okay with simply invalidating copyright (making everything public domain, aka actual freedom, but permitting binary distribution of closed- and open-source alike), or if he prefers to keep copyright+GPL until he can bring about his "utopian" laws.

It's actually pretty clear: he was asked that exact question, and his answer was that he is not okay with it. He goes further and explains that he does indeed want to "substitute the legal requirement for anyone to provide source to any software they distribute".

If there was no copyright law, GPL would not exists, and RMS would be happy about it

That is not so, and RMS himself was very explicit about it. He would only agree to copyright going away if there was some other arrangement in the laws that would let him enforce copyleft - ideally, he wants copyleft to be universally legally enforced. Quote:

"I would be glad to see the abolition of copyright on software if it were done in such a way as to ensure that software is free. After all, the point of copyleft is to achieve that goal for derivatives of certain programs. If all software were free, copyleft would not be needed for software. However, abolishing copyright could also be done in a misguided way that would have no effect on typical proprietary software (which is restricted by EULAs and source code secrecy rather than copyright), and only undermines the practice of copyleft. Naturally I would be against that. In other words, I am more concerned with how the law affects users' freedom than with what happens to copyright as such.

It would be necessary to eliminate copyright on software, declare EULAs legally void, and adopt consumer protection measures that require distribution of source code to the user and forbid tivoization."

This has been repeated on every RMS and GPL post, and still someone has to write this. Sigh.

Indeed; and every time someone replies the way you did, I have to link to that article to show why you're wrong.

Facebook was different and new, they had an easy time. Money growth was easy when you can count on double-digit monthly compounded userbase growth. It will be harder now that user growth has slowed. Facebook also now has a target on its back, with many people shooting arrows. I can't guarantee success or failure, but i can guarantee with certainty Zuck will not have as easy of a time the next 5 years as the previous 5.

If you want to START a company, you need to have a drive that doesn't mesh well with sitting at the knee of an authority figure and have him dump his views into your brain.

I suggest that you read Steve Jobs' biography. Though he differed in skills, he both literally and figuratively sat at the knee of his (adoptive) father, Paul, and learned a great deal. His drive for perfection, even perfecting the things you can't see, came directly from Paul. Just because you have drive (and Steve definitely did) doesn't mean you can't learn from others. You just have to be smart on what you pick up, and Steve generally chose lessons well.

RUNNING someone elses company, on the other hand... any retard can do that.

Sure, just ask Leo Apotheker, John Sculley, John Corzine, etc... Corzine probably had the best resume of my short list of examples, yet failed hardest.

Running a company is not trivial. There was a book, From Good To Great, that talked about companies run so well that should be examples on how companies should be run. It was required reading in some business courses. Many of the companies listed are now gone, mostly from really bad management. Circuit City was one of those companies, so was Fannie Mae (easy to be good with implicit government backing, but even that backing failed them).

You have a very simplified view of the world. Entrepreneurs are mavericks that need to say f*ck off to absolutely everything around them. People who run companies are silly button pushers that can easily be replaced. My guess is you've never started nor run a successful company, for those views would cause you to crash and burn rather quickly. There is a common fallacy that just keeping things running is trivial. It isn't. The world can change around you and bash you against the rocks very quickly. Ask Nokia or RIM. Or the IBM PC division.

The nightmare wrt google docs is writing a doc in word, passing it to google docs for somebody's editing,

That's the nightmare for ANYONE trying to inter-operate with Microsoft.

And since it's the result of deliberate efforts by Microsoft to fight open standards, it should result in them being banned from government tenders.

http://www.adjb.net/post/Microsoft-Fails-the-Standards-Test.aspx
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/index.php?topic=20051116124417686
http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/1how-microsoft-fought-true-open-standards-i/index.htm

Microsoft has people working in the UK and the USA...

Maybe, but the Microsoft people working in the UK are largely employed to market products and lie to governments and standards bodies.

http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/05/how-microsoft-fought-true-open-standards-v/index.htm
http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_cost_of_ODF_and_OOXML.html

Note that you have until June 4 2012 to counter some of this Microsoft propaganda.

Within the Government Digital Service we are already demonstrating how collaboration between departments, along with a clear focus on the user, delivers better public services for less. Open Standards are crucial for sharing information across government boundaries and to deliver a common platform and systems that more easily interconnect. Open standards are vital for progressing this work and I encourage you to share your views in this consultation.

Francis Maude MP- Minister for the Cabinet Office
http://consultation.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/openstandards/

The PHBs realize they really don't understand technical issues and therefore denigrate the job in a delusional attempt to feel good about themselves. Followed by wishfull thinking on behalf of the CFOs.

"CIO role will eventually cease to exist, claim CFOs" link

ref: masters of innovation, strategy partners. terms of alignment, breadth of business perspective, departmental boundaries, process-centric view

close to the truth than we want to admit. http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/careers/21025/china-outsourcer-expands-iq-test-to-us-workers/

Patent No. 6854085, which covers technology to fill out forms on Web pages automatically.

Patent No. 5657390, for the technology called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), now called Transport Layer Security (TLS), which sets up an encrypted communication channel between browsers and the Web servers they connect to.

Patent No. 7478142, a technique for packaging applications that are delivered over a network and run inside a Web browser.

Patent No 5774670, which governs how Web servers and browsers can cooperate to preserve "state" information.

Closely related is the broader Patent No. 5826242, which concerns the use of ability of a Web browser communicate about state with a Web server using HTTP, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol on which the Web is built.

With this patents in MS hands... what could possibly go wrong?

Android's a Linux that's being "torn up" 4 security. See subject-line & what you quoted also: What you quote specifically notes PC's & Servers combined

You mean the already irrelevant niche for the home user - in which the mobile devices outnumbers the PC-es?

Also, I think you shouldn't shout that loud about the failure of Linux on the server, you may cause a market crash if some of the following decide to enter voluntary administration when they hear you qualifying as failures the followings: Google internal infrastructure, NASA and the other major users of OpenStack, IBM and other modern supercomputer builders, VMWare baremetal virtualization products, NYSE and London Stock Exchange...

When/if the world rids itself of copyright (good luck on that though), there would be no reason for GPL to stay either.

Richard Stallman disagrees with you on that.

Sure. gives me a chance to apologize for the "Oh please" above.

--
Here's what we are implementing and 11 implementations...
Note the Army version was just to be installed for the first time in 2007. It was pushed back to 2010... and I think it was cancelled in 2011.

http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/public-sector/3290394/us-armys-huge-sap-project-at-high-risk-warn-auditors/
US Army's huge SAP project at high risk, warn auditors
The SAP project, which is called the General Fund Enterprise Business System (GFEBS), will manage a $140 billion annual budget and serve nearly 80,000 users once it is complete. Some 15,500 users are now live on the system.

It has already seen delays and more than $53 million in cost overruns, according to the auditors' report. An initial "operational capability" milestone first set for August 2007 was pushed back to September 2010, it stated. A proposed December 2009 target date for "full operational capability" was moved to December of this year, it added.

Here are ten more failures.
http://www.cio.com/article/486284/10_Famous_ERP_Disasters_Dustups_and_Disappointments

You should NEVER trust SAP consultants. It was clear to the existing staff that what they were promising was impossible before we started the project. They say- "this project needs complete buy in. If you have any naysayers you need to remove them. everyone needs to beleive in this". So a few naysayers are fired to make the point and everyone else shuts up and the train wreck proceeds.

Most large stock exchanges run Linux, the last one to move was the London Stock Exchange http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/open-source/3260727/london-stock-exchange-in-historic-linux-go-live/. This is not because they can not pay for Micro$oft rubbish, but because reliability, speed and security

Last week, the company took the highly unusual step of telling pcAnywhere users to disable the program based on a 2006 source code leak and this month's claims by members of Anonymous that they were mining the stolen code for vulnerabilities.

Symantec spokesman Brian Modena declined to declare the now-patched pcAnywhere as safe to use when asked that question multiple times, but hinted that the fixes the company has released were sufficient.

So I guess that if you patched your version of PCAnywhere then you're safe according to Symantec.

The rubber has to hit the road somewhere. Maybe you can contribute to your Senator's re-election campaign and get legislation that gives you visas for ten million programmers who will all work for 25 bucks an hour 12 hours a day 6 days a week, live 6 to an apartment and when their six year contract is up, all go home exchange rate adjusted millionaires.

But somewhere on some machine, ultimately, code has to run without errors.

Rubber, meet road. Road, meet rubber.

I love it when fast buck, coke snorting, prostitute screwing, sexual harassing, hard drinking, low IQ, high ambition, hand pumping, bribe giving, sales men dirtbags come face to face with something the rest of us know as non-negotiable reality.

It doesn't make up for the career swath of career destruction they've cut through the industry, but still.

"Hey ! Does anyone here know how to program? "

One thing is, companies learn their lessons. My spouse's company outsourced everything and after a years time brought it all back and now everyone's job is VERY secure. They'll never do THAT again.

Same thing here. Bet you anything the FBI is hiring programmers right now after having seen the advantages of developing and maintaining their own supply of stable, competent craftsman -programmers.

IBM Lockheed SAP Deloitte SAIC Technodyne and all the rest are in the business of billing bodies by the hour. Full stop. The more hours they bill, hey man, the better the business is. These are of course the same companies who lobby Congress to import as much programming labor as possible to undercut the domestic market.

I bless anyone anywhere who wants to be a programmer or make money for themselves and their families. That doesn't stop me from observing that Mega Corporations cynically exploit those same people and systematically undermine the quality of the work product of the entire industry by first staffing with masses of unqualified programmers, then paying substandard wages, then systematically overworking them all of which has the effect of causing people who wanted to make a real lifelong career of their craft to be forced out of their careers and also having the effect of making an IT career seem like a route to a short lived, overworked and underpaid job to people who are considering it as a major.

As far as these projects go, in the end, none of it works. Like making the WRONG choice for your prom date, you as a project manager only have to hook up with any of these sleazy companies and wait nine months to turn yourself into the sorriest motherfucker on your block.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/12/20/indianas-gov-daniels-assailed-by-ibm

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/218515/county_alleges_sap_deloitte_engaged_in_racketeering.html

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/237939/epicor_sued_over_alleged_erp_project_failure.html

http://www.cio.com/article/678553/Auditors_ERP_Software_Woes_Could_Cost_Idaho_Millions

http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/it-business/3302164/lawson-embroiled-in-erp-lawsuit-with-customers/

Ridiculous, sure plenty of companies use windows and notice how these are pretty much all non-tech companies, companies where tech is not a core competency is often outsourced and purchasing decisions are typically made by people without a tech background and are often poor choices...

When it comes to applications on a large scale exposed to the hostile internet open source is king, think google, yahoo, facebook, twitter, akamai, amazon, and let not forget the worlds top supercomputers...
The fact is when it comes to organisations who understand technology open source is the more common choice...
Windows gets used in organisations where the decisions are made by people with little or no technical knowledge, who are much easier to fool with fancy marketing.

You talk about migrations, but don't mention what was migrated FROM... Many of these stories of saving money or time with a particular windows install are based on migrating from earlier versions of windows which were even worse... It's easy to make improvements when you start with the worst technology on the market.

Amusing you mention nasdaq, it's well known their core trading system is linux based.. want a citation? http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/open-source/3268210/nasdaq-in-open-source-tech-battle-with-7bn-nyse-bid/ or try google.
Also amusing you mention the london stock exchange, they did have a windows based system and it was often cited in propaganda pieces like yours, infact ms used to advertise it on slashdot. That advertising abruptly stopped about the time the london stock exchange suffered the first of several major outages. Their windows based system was derided by those who used it, it was slow and unreliable and got ripped out.

Have you ever worked at any of these companies? I have first hand experience with several on your list, and i would not hold them up as any kind of positive example... And let's just say that in any security audit, windows is pretty much ALWAYS the weakest link.

Given up on the CIS benchmarks yet? Or have you given up pushing flawed benchmarking tools without ever making any effort to actually understand how they work?

Do you even read the links you post?

London Stock Exchange serving malware:

http://slashdot.org/submission/1484548/London-Stock-Exchange-Web-Site-Serving-Malware [slashdot.org]

Says: The site has NOT been hacked, and there is a big difference. The alert is likely a result of "Malvertising",, a growing method for attackers to distribute malware via advertising tags"

Hacked CAs? You forgot diginotar, who were compromised due to keeping important servers on an active directory domain making them easy pickings... Also the link you posted has no useful information on it, all the reports i've read have stated the compromised systems at multiple CAs were windows, or compromised as a result of compromised windows boxes (ie keylogged admin workstations).

Sites built on Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP are the favoured targets of phishing attackers"

Do you even understand what phishing is? Here's a hint, it has nothing to do with the platform the site runs on.

Various linux related sites hacked, but have you bothered reading *how* they got hacked? Most of them appear to be due to admins of those systems being compromised, and the hackers then using their access to compromise the servers... It doesn't matter how secure a system is if you compromise the people who maintain it, now the question is what exactly was compromised initially and how was it done?

Now here's a real example from a security audit i did a few months ago...
Client had RedHat, Solaris, various cisco devices (routers, firewalls, switches) and an active directory domain with all the wor

Didn't RMS say something like: If there were no copyright, the GPL wouldn't be needed.

He didn't. What he said was that he would only agree to fully abolish copyright if the law is also changed to make copyleft mandatory; otherwise, he wants to keep copyright so that GPL has teeth.

Remember, RMS doesn't just want software to be distributed at zero cost. He also wants software to be distributed with source code. Abolishing copyright does not achieve that, since authors could still only give binaries to the users.

Actually, no, it wasn't - or at least that's not the present opinion of RMS on the subject. When explicitly asked, he had this to say:

I would be glad to see the abolition of copyright on software if it were done in such a way as to ensure that software is free. After all, the point of copyleft is to achieve that goal for derivatives of certain programs. If all software were free, copyleft would not be needed for software.

However, abolishing copyright could also be done in a misguided way that would have no effect on typical proprietary software (which is restricted by EULAs and source code secrecy rather than copyright), and only undermines the practice of copyleft. Naturally I would be against that.

Keep in mind that "free", to Stallman, is freedom of end user to inspect and modify the source code. So, in effect, he would only support abolition of copyright if universal copyleft was made law instead. He does not support freedom of everyone to copy and use as they see fit.

no need to filter when you can seize the whole domain.
http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/public-sector/3321625/us-seizes-domain-names-of-foreign-sites/

The plan consists of creation of two new dedicated enforcement units:

1. MAFIA Secirity (MAFIA'S) - a dedicated unit charged with protection of music and movie mafia interests. This will solve the shortcomings of former feeble attempts to protect Megacorps of England from the people of England.

2. Microsoft Windows National Guard - dedicated agents 008 through 9800 will protect Windows security loopholes around the world. License to Kill will be granted indiscriminately to resolve all outstanding security issues, similar to the way Microsoft Security Essentially operates in US.

The following does not make it cheaper for Joe:

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/07/24/business/0724-webBIZ-trading.ready.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/business/24trading.html

And it happens a lot. There were some that had very long "winning streaks" (months?), which is impossible for normal traders. It's basically two classes of traders.

The ones in the right class get their trades rolled back if "stuff happens".

The ones who aren't in the right class get prosecuted for winning: http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/security/3244186/norwegian-traders-convicted-for-outsmarting-us-stock-broker-algorithm/

Apple (lawyers) are saying (lawyers don't actually get irate as long as they get paid and the court time lasts longer and longer) that the patents were part of a standard. That Motorola et al purposely made their patents part of a standard, and are now using them to extort concessions out of Apple. This is unfair, because there is no way to work around the patents: you can't use a GSM network without using Motorola patents. So when the standard was made, all players agreed to license their patents for a reasonable cost.

That sounds suspiciously like something Apple is doing with HTML5 and the W3C standards. Maybe Apple is literally getting a taste of their medicine?

While this story keeps getting trotted out by the Linux evangelists, it's impossible to claim that the performance and stability improvements are down to the switch from Windows to Linux. The switch from the .NET based TradElec to the *nix based Millennium Exchange necessitated the change in underlying operating system, which means that the entire software stack has changed. The switch to the Millennium Exchange wasn't exactly smooth either. http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/it-business/3261816/london-stock-exchange-price-data-failures-emerged-immediately-at-millennium-launch/ Given that the LSE are rather secretive, most of us will never know what caused the outage that led to the switch.

The Register had a discussion on this some time ago. Basically, every health board patient record system had evolved to completely different formats for ranging from basic details like names and addresses to additional information pages on medical conditions. Imagine trying to merge 200+ separate and constantly evolving online job application webpages into a single unified webpage format including portfolios and show-reels, then you'd understand what they have to do. Add to that, the standard need for consultancy style specifications, reviews, and you could see they were trying to hit a moving target.

A guide to the crisis in the NHS national IT programme

I imagine that nobody is writing new applications in COBOL.

You could be wrong, you know

Fujitsu announced late Friday that it is shipping four middleware products designed to work with Microsoft's Windows Azure public cloud development platform

"The new line of products delivers runtime environments for Java and Cobol, two application programming languages that are commonly employed in building mission-critical systems, in addition to providing functionality enabling central monitoring between on-premise systems and the Windows Azure Platform."

Fujitsu Teams with Microsoft on Azure Middleware

Even Java, a much lauded language when it arrived 20 years ago, is already deemed to be old and "legacy". Yet, according to analyst Gartner, more than 70% of the world's business is run by a technology that was christened over 50 years ago - COBOL, or Common Business-Oriented Language.

At JD Williams Ltd, UK's leading direct home shopping company, for example, COBOL is one of the strategic languages used due to its key strengths in its English-like syntax, and the fact that is it very quick to develop in and easy to debug.

Recent research revealed that an average person would interact with a COBOL application at least ten times a day. With Gartner estimates putting the number of lines of COBOL code in excess of 200 billion, the global investment in COBOL applications exceeds several trillion dollars.

The case for COBOL

The HFT traders who know what they are doing are NOT doing arbitrage. Because they get a 30 millisecond advantage:

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/07/24/business/0724-webBIZ-trading.ready.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/business/24trading.html

When the favoured companies screw up they get the trades rolled back.
When they get beaten by "normal humans", they prosecute the humans: http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/security/3244186/norwegian-traders-convicted-for-outsmarting-us-stock-broker-algorithm/
When they beat the humans, they keep the profit as "rightfully earned".