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Remember the Truce program last summer?

It's a sales pitch, nothing more...check the e-week link above to refesh your memory...

from the second article:

The Automatic Update feature in XP allows users to set up their computers to automatically download critical operating system updates and security fixes. "Microsoft could be releasing patches to patch the patch--who knows what they're doing at this point," Perlow said.

That is pretty damn gross negligence right there: setting up a system to by default, blindly download oh... whatever the hell is out there.

If this were done in the auto industry, say, as in when you parked your car by default it would call a mechanic and get parts just made today and not certfied installed... Your damn right the government would step in when things didn't work and people started getting killed.

But nah, this is 'just' the software/computer industry. Its not that important to people... is it?

And the "XP Dramatically More Secure" article from a few months ago:

http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s%253D701%2526 a%253D16895,00.asp

Quoting Jim Allchin is fun:

Windows XP is dramatically more secure than Windows 2000 or any of the prior systems. Buffer overflow has been one of the attacks frequently used on the Internet. We have gone through all code and, in an automated way, found places where there could be buffer overflow, and those have been removed in Windows XP.

D'oh...

This article is from yesterday. Today they are reporting that Cox Won't Be Maintainer of 2.4 Linux Kernel

At eWeek.

Found this on the eWeek site with a search on 'xp performance':

http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s%253D25102%25 26a%253D16932,00.asp

Seems kind of a mixed bag. Two related things that were stated stood out to me though. First:

"The OS was even able to detect some new devices that aren't yet on the market when we simply plugged them in. And Windows XP installed the correct drivers, creating a true plug-and-play experience."

And second:

"And the 1.4-GHz Athlon scores were lower than expected. We suspect that there may have been a driver conflict between the Athlon system's AGP bus and Windows XP's default drivers."

So they can properly detect and provide drivers for external hardware that isn't yet even on the market, but they can't get a critical sub-system driver out for a piece of hardware that's been released for some time? As an Athlon owner it made me think anyway.

LEXX

The so-called iWalk is less PDA and more multimedia assistant. Rumors abound that it will serve as a airport-compatible music, video, and data (no, not personal calendar/address book).
eWeek will apparently have post-press conference coverage. (the press release for the iWalk is today at 10am PST).