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Bottom line -- troubleshooting a Windows machine is largely a guessing game. Occassionally you might get lucky and have an easy issue that can be solved within a few guesses. Most of the time, I'm left scratching my head.

Windows is very deterministic and easy to troubleshoot if you take the time to learn. It has distinct startup and shutdown procedures, driver installation, file system behavior, thread and process management, etc. These are all publicly documented, if you care to learn about them. Buy a copy of Windows Internals and you'll be amazed at what you didn't know. There are tools and utilities to automate all kinds of useful activities from the command-line, and if these tools don't exist, the APIs are very well documented on MSDN for how to create them.

Things taken for granted on Linux like verbose debug information, verbose startup/shutdown (w/logging)

Ever heard of that management console snap-in called Event Viewer? You might want to look into that. And as for debugging applications or even kernel-mode device drivers, Windows has some of the best freely available debugging facilities of any platform.

...ability to checksum the installed binaries to verify they haven't been tampered with

Read about Windows System File Protection. Run "sfc.exe /scannow" to validate your system files on XP/2k3. It uses hashes, not checksums.

...ability to view *all* running processes

Task manager? Tlist.exe?

It's pretty clear that you don't know much about Windows, which seems to be a common thread here on Slashdot. You'd rather trash Windows than spend the time to learn about what you don't know. It's easier to write off Windows as "unexplainable" just because you are too lazy to look behind the GUI.

Bottom line -- troubleshooting a Windows machine is largely a guessing game. Occassionally you might get lucky and have an easy issue that can be solved within a few guesses. Most of the time, I'm left scratching my head.

Windows is very deterministic and easy to troubleshoot if you take the time to learn. It has distinct startup and shutdown procedures, driver installation, file system behavior, thread and process management, etc. These are all publicly documented, if you care to learn about them. Buy a copy of Windows Internals and you'll be amazed at what you didn't know. There are tools and utilities to automate all kinds of useful activities from the command-line, and if these tools don't exist, the APIs are very well documented on MSDN for how to create them.

Things taken for granted on Linux like verbose debug information, verbose startup/shutdown (w/logging)

Ever heard of that management console snap-in called Event Viewer? You might want to look into that. And as for debugging applications or even kernel-mode device drivers, Windows has some of the best freely available debugging facilities of any platform.

...ability to checksum the installed binaries to verify they haven't been tampered with

Read about Windows System File Protection. Run "sfc.exe /scannow" to validate your system files on XP/2k3. It uses hashes, not checksums.

...ability to view *all* running processes

Task manager? Tlist.exe?

It's pretty clear that you don't know much about Windows, which seems to be a common thread here on Slashdot. You'd rather trash Windows than spend the time to learn about what you don't know. It's easier to write off Windows as "unexplainable" just because you are too lazy to look behind the GUI.

Bottom line -- troubleshooting a Windows machine is largely a guessing game. Occassionally you might get lucky and have an easy issue that can be solved within a few guesses. Most of the time, I'm left scratching my head.

Windows is very deterministic and easy to troubleshoot if you take the time to learn. It has distinct startup and shutdown procedures, driver installation, file system behavior, thread and process management, etc. These are all publicly documented, if you care to learn about them. Buy a copy of Windows Internals and you'll be amazed at what you didn't know. There are tools and utilities to automate all kinds of useful activities from the command-line, and if these tools don't exist, the APIs are very well documented on MSDN for how to create them.

Things taken for granted on Linux like verbose debug information, verbose startup/shutdown (w/logging)

Ever heard of that management console snap-in called Event Viewer? You might want to look into that. And as for debugging applications or even kernel-mode device drivers, Windows has some of the best freely available debugging facilities of any platform.

...ability to checksum the installed binaries to verify they haven't been tampered with

Read about Windows System File Protection. Run "sfc.exe /scannow" to validate your system files on XP/2k3. It uses hashes, not checksums.

...ability to view *all* running processes

Task manager? Tlist.exe?

It's pretty clear that you don't know much about Windows, which seems to be a common thread here on Slashdot. You'd rather trash Windows than spend the time to learn about what you don't know. It's easier to write off Windows as "unexplainable" just because you are too lazy to look behind the GUI.

It sounds from the article like it doesn't lose data. The complaining users are saying things like this:

"This isn't a minor glitch, but a major problem. Barring erasing my drive and reinstalling OS X, I am stuck with an Apple laptop that only runs Windows," wrote a user. "I don't want solutions that entail using the command line. I would like something from Apple saying that they recognize the problem and are working on it."

There's no data loss here. He can restore the system using the commandline but won't because he refuses to learn. He shouldn't be using beta software.

Your college definition of beta is oversimplified, anyway:

• Betas are released to a wider audience than alphas. The purpose is to find problems. If no one released a beta until they were absolutely confident there's no data loss, then no one would ever release a beta.
• Sadly, some vendors release production versions of software which does destroy entire partitions. I'm still mad about Windows destroying my Linux partition. There's a known bug here. In fact, my situation was different than described, and Windows still destroyed my Linux partition!

It sounds from the article like it doesn't lose data. The complaining users are saying things like this:

"This isn't a minor glitch, but a major problem. Barring erasing my drive and reinstalling OS X, I am stuck with an Apple laptop that only runs Windows," wrote a user. "I don't want solutions that entail using the command line. I would like something from Apple saying that they recognize the problem and are working on it."

There's no data loss here. He can restore the system using the commandline but won't because he refuses to learn. He shouldn't be using beta software.

Your college definition of beta is oversimplified, anyway:

• Betas are released to a wider audience than alphas. The purpose is to find problems. If no one released a beta until they were absolutely confident there's no data loss, then no one would ever release a beta.
• Sadly, some vendors release production versions of software which does destroy entire partitions. I'm still mad about Windows destroying my Linux partition. There's a known bug here. In fact, my situation was different than described, and Windows still destroyed my Linux partition!

I blame Debian. Both their "testing" and "unstable" both seem to work wonderfully.

I can also blame Apple, damn them for being reliable.

While we are making a list, how about those no goods at IBM or Sun. They do new and innovative things all the time and it just works.

How's a second rate operation supposed to make up excuses in a world like that? I mean really, it's just not fair.

If your computer already has Windows XP installed and you do not want to reinstall and reconfigure Windows and other programs, you need a third-party disk utility to resize the Windows partition and leave unallocated disk space for Windows Disk Protection. Note Microsoft does not provide support for third-party disk partitioning products.

How pathetic and typical. Bill Gates is letting everyone else "support" his OS and providing nothing but headache in return.

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As I now understand, there will be the following versions for Windows Vista
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/versions/def ault.mspx

Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Business - Pirated Aero Disabled
Windows Vista Enterprise
Windows Vista Enterprise - Pirated Aero Disabled
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Home Premium - Pirated Aero Disabled
Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Vista - Pirated Aero Disabled
Windows Vista Home Basic - Authentic Aero Disabled

and then there are other third party versions like,

Windows Vista Business - Cracked Aero Enabled

and so forth.

While it's great to suspect some extortion/conspiracy theory, the signed driver requirement is in place so that it'll be much harder for Hacker McPhee to install that driver rootkit on your machine.

For a legitimate hardware manufacturer it is not difficult at all to get their drivers signed through a certificate authority. This is not done through Microsoft (and is different from their certification programs).

Here's the text from http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/64bi t/kmsigning.mspx:

To obtain a PIC, a publisher must first obtain a VeriSign Class 3 Commercial Software Publisher Certificate. Registration with Verisign results in establishing a credential that can be used to establish a Microsoft Windows Quality Online Services (Winqual) account. The publisher can then use that certificate to authenticate itself to Microsoft. If the certificate is valid, Microsoft issues a PIC.
A publisher typically completes the authentication process once a year through the Winqual Web site. The process is completed over a channel that is protected by the secure sockets layer (SSL). Figure 1 illustrates the process of obtaining a PIC. For more information about Winqual, see "Resources" at the end of this paper.

Figure 1. Obtaining a PIC
Important: The process of obtaining a PIC is separate from the Windows Logo Program submission process. The PIC signing capability does not replace the WHQL program. Microsoft encourages publishers to use the WHQL programs such as the Logo and Driver Reliability Signing programs, whenever possible. The primary purpose of the PIC program is to introduce identity into the kernel-mode and driver ecosystem, in cases where participation in the WHQL program might not be suitable. The PIC signing capability does not require the publisher to pass certain Windows Logo Program testing requirements associated with WHQL.

Whilst not as fine grained as you are talking about you can completly disable USB drives, at least on Windows 2000, XP and Windows 2003 by tweaking file system permissions or the registry. Microsoft even detail it in a knowledge base article and it can be enforced by a domain policy if you're running AD.

Mind you, MS released four other Security Bulletins today, two of which are remote code execution / rated 'critical' bugs. One's in Windows Explorer, the other's in MSDAC, some data access middleware crap that's also remotely exploitable.

I agree. Release the patches when they are ready, and let the companies decide when to patch by implementing WSUS in their site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/updat eservices/default.mspx
This way everyone gets what they want. Home users can be protected immediately, for corporate users using WSUS, they get to maintain their status quo. This would even be better for some corporate users who would like to patch quicker.

My short list:

Anything by VanDyke software. This stuff just bleeds "professional": http://www.vandyke.com/

Now, how to turn Windows into a fully armed and operational battlestation:

Download Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX, aka Interix:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/sfu/d ownloads/default.asp

Install using the NetBSD pkgsrc guide for Interix:
http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/pkgsrc/platfor ms.html#interix

Now patch it (a necessary step):
http://www.duh.org/interix/hotfixes.php

Now, download and install the latest Interix bootstrap binaries from ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/bootstrap -pkgsrc/

Grab pkgsrc-current from ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current

Now go to town!

(Just don't forget to ALT-ENTER your C Shell terminal, with green on black text, natch)

Bundled in with this patch is a change to the behaviour of embedded controls in IE6 on Windows XP, due to the Eolas patent issue [slashdot.org]. This means that things like Flash navigation or Java widgets might not work without being clicked first to activate. TechWeb have a good article [techweb.com] with a summary of the changes, along with some links elswhere.

Amusingly, this behavior can be disabled with either a patch or a registry change.

The Exploit If you want to know more about the exploit that this release is supposed to fix, here is a shellcoded from of it (dated 03.22.2006).

And here's Microsoft's acknowledgement of the exploit (dated 03.23.2006).

And here's an "expert" saying that releasing the above exploit is irresponsible (dated 03.24.2006).

It is now 04.12.2006 and a patch is out to correct it.

*checks his watch*

Not bad, but your response time could use some imporvement.

> you have to register to download it

Direct links (copied from Digg):
32-bit
64-bit.

> you have to register to download it

Direct links (copied from Digg):
32-bit
64-bit.

All the EULAs I found contain one additional sentence at the end of that paragraph (see, for example, here): Sun Microsystems, Inc. has contractually obligated Microsoft to make this disclaimer.

So maybe MS wasn't being snarky... this time.

Maybe he means the freedom to plug all sorts of different hardware into the PC, without having Apple somewhere along the line making sure everything is DRM-compliant -- er, I mean, ":-) - riffic"?

As opposed to the freedom to plug all sorts of different hardware into a PC running Windows Vista, without having Microsoft somewhere along the line making sure everything is DRM-compliant -- er, I mean, ":-) - riffic"?

I wish they would implement a shortcut key for creating a new file or folder! If you use the keyboard a lot, here is a which you might find useful.

GriSoft (antivirus)

ZoneAlarm (firewall)

Ad-aware (anti spyware)

Windows Defender(anti spyware)

And don't forget windows solitaire!

those licensing doesnt apply only to Microsoft Virtual Server,
check this microsoft paper: "Licensing Microsoft Server Products with Microsoft Virtual Server R2 December 2005. and Other Virtual Machine Technologies"
http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/8/9/68964 284-864d-4a6d-aed9-f2c1f8f23e14/virtualization_whi tepaper.doc

Microsoft has made their server virtualization software available for free.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtu alserver/software/default.mspx

Seems no one is giving serious answers so i guess i will be the only one

Freeware or open source software:
01. Firefox, http://www.getfirefox.com/
02. Winamp, http://www.winamp.com/
03. Miranda, http://www.miranda-im.org/
04. Media Player Classic, http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli
05. ffdshow, http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDShow.htm
06. CDBurnerXp Pro, http://www.cdburnerxp.se/
07. Daemon-tools, http://www.daemon-tools.cc/
08. uTorrent, http://www.utorrent.com/
09. XnView, http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enhome.htm l
10. ExactAudioCopy, http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
11. Dev-C++, http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html
12. 7-zip, http://www.7-zip.org/
13. Real Alternative, http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternati ve.htm
14. QuickTime Alternative, http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alte rnative.htm
15. Process Explorer, http://www.sysinternals.com/utilities/processexplo rer.html
16. Uniform Server, http://www.uniformserver.com/
17. nLite, http://www.nliteos.com/ (sp+hotfix+driver slipstreaming and ability to remove almost anything from the windows installation disc, including wmp, ie, drivers, services, etc, you can get your windows install disc down to 180MB with a 70MB RAM footprint after boot).

Commercial/Shareware software.
01. NOD32, http://www.nod32.com/ - simply the best antivirus software out there
02. Cinema4D, http://www.maxoncomputer.com/ Great modelling/rendering program (also available for OS X)
03. mIRC, http://www.mirc.com/ not the best irc client, but it has a tiny memory footprint/feature ratio
04. Directory Opus, http://www.gpsoft.com.au/ replace Explorer with a far better file manager.
05. UltraEdit, http://www.ultraedit.com/ great editor for many textbased formats
06. Visual Studio, http://microsoft.com/
07. Nero Burning ROM. http://www.ahead.de/ my burning program of choice

I recommend the following software:
1) Quick To-Do Pro
2) Total Commander
3) MS One Note
4) Mozilla Firefox

I can't imagine my computer without these programs.

Productivity
- Dirkey - Free small utility that enables you to place invisible bookmarks on folders and go back to these bookmarked folders with shortcut key. It runs on startup and can be set to be invisible in your system tray. Works in Explorer and also Open/Save dialogue windows.
- ObjectDock - Free OSX-style dock for your PC!
- Windows Blinds - Skin your OS
- MS Alt-tab Powertoy - Alt-tab across open applications with an thumbnail preview of the open application.

Graphics
- Paint.Net - Free image editing program

Utilities (spam, anti-virus, FTP etc)
- Avast Antivirus - Free and better than AVG

I'm going to attempt a serious answer to this question... as a developer, the thing I miss most when I'm on a non-Windows system is Microsoft Visual Studio - the form designer, the ever-helpful code editor, and the C# language itself. You can download the Express versions for free.

Norton and Mcaffee both suck. I mean, they're both terrible, poorly written, resource-intensive programs. The best anti-virus software I've found is AVG Free Edition. Though, realistically, you only need AV software if you open email attachments and download stuff from websites that aren't obviously trustworthy.

For antispyware software, the only ones to use are Spybot and Ad-Aware. Again, you only really need those programs if you use Internet Explorer. Don't. Get Firefox instead.

What else is good and useful? VLC has been mentioned, it's the best media player. Some of these Powertoys are useful, especially TweakUI. For Instant messaging, Trillian is the best, though GAIM gets better all the time.

Other than that...games. I don't have any recommendations for those, you'll just have to find what you like. Have fun.

Google Desktop; Firefox and/or Opera; OpenOffice and/or AbiWord; and the requisite antispyware/antivirus apps, of course. Oh, and Google Desktop.
I also make heavy use of the following:

ClocX
Windows XP PowerToys (highly useful, especially TweakUI
Notify CD (bare-bones but elegant CD player)
ReadPlease (text-to-speech)
Foxit Reader (a much faster PDF reader than Adobe)
Trillian (multiple IM)
foobar2000 (audio player)

* Crimson Editor An amazingly powerful freeware text / script editor.

  * uTorrent Is there an open source Torrent Client in under 200k? Does it have RSS searching, bandwidth scheduling, automatic resume, and trackerless support? Yes? Oh, good then.

  * As -U- Type. Spell check anywhere. It's a great piece of software, if you can get over the fact that the author barely speaks any english.

  * 3 Plane Soft Screensavers. Ok, they're screensavers. And they're a rip off. But damn they're nice.

  * Trillian. 'nuff said.

  * The Bat! The second best mail client created, behind only KMail.

  * IZarc If there were need for zip clients anymore, this would be the one to have. Also handles about 50 other file standards, integrates really well with explorer, is small and efficient, and did I mention free? Best unzipper out there, including the pay options.

  * Folder Size Shows you how big your folders are. If explorer were made by Apple, it would do this by default.

  * True Crypt Data so secure even it doesn't know if there is more to be found in a file.

  * Thumbs Plus Arguably there are a lot of good applications in this space, and there are ones out there with better interfaces. But it is the only thumbnail application I've ever used that can handle upwards of 20,000 files in a single directory. If you take lots of pictures, this is the one.

  * DVD Decrypter Recently bought out by Macrovision to shut down it's decryptey goodness, DVD Decrypter is really a no-nonsense, no-fuss DVD ripper and burner. Want to rip a movie from a DVD so you can watch it later? One button. Want to rip it back to a DVD? Another button.

  * Microsoft Power Toys Nifty stuff from people who both hate and make the operating system.

And remember to use an antivirus, a firewall, and two anti-spyware suites. My personal favorites are AVG Antivirus, Kerio Personal Firewall, Spybot, and Ad Aware.

1. TextPad is a must.
2. The Windows Power Toys are worth taking a look at (I personally like the 'Open Command Window Here' tool).
3. Azureus for BitTorrent.
4. Windows Grep comes in handy for searching files (No thanks Google Desktop).
5. And of course, Visual Studio Express to get your hands dirty with some code.

1. TextPad is a must.
2. The Windows Power Toys are worth taking a look at (I personally like the 'Open Command Window Here' tool).
3. Azureus for BitTorrent.
4. Windows Grep comes in handy for searching files (No thanks Google Desktop).
5. And of course, Visual Studio Express to get your hands dirty with some code.

Windows® Defender Windows Defender (Beta 2) is a free program that helps you stay productive by protecting your computer against pop-ups, slow performance and security threats caused by spyware and other potentially unwanted software. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?Fa milyID=435bfce7-da2b-4a6a-afa4-f7f14e605a0d&Displa yLang=en Stay way form starforce games. As for some good games Visual pinball + Visual PinMAME Play and build pinball games Visual PinMAME lets you play real pinball games on your computer with the roms form the real games. http://www.vpforums.com/ http://www.pinmame.com/

The similar Microsoft product is SMS, not Remote Desktop. The Apple-compatible product similar to Microsoft's Remote Desktop is VNC.

Microsoft says otherwise. Note that this is a formal commitment (read: contract with Apple), so unless Microsoft is willing to breach and for some insane reason decides to kill a profitable software division (IMHO damn near impossibly unlikely), Office will exists on OS X for at least the next five years.

Really, why people think that Intel Mac users would somehow prefer to boot into Windows everytime they want to run Office is beyond me. Mac users have $, and they haven't been shy in spending it on a nice, OS X compliant version of Office.

But why the fuck would anyone need to dual boot?

This whole "licensing technology" thing confuses them.

They innovate so much that they've invented everything in computer science. What is left for them to license? Automobile technology? Drugs? Swinging sideways?

Given that there is no Microsoft product called Access98, migration is either easy, or difficult, depending on your PoV:
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeselectindex#A

I invite you to slashgeo.org. Quite smaller than slashdot (and only 6 months old), but it reach thousands of geospatial professionals and has over 8000 daily hits right now. It has an active GPS section that will undoubtly interest you and of course, the usual Ask Slash section.

"As a side note, I already purchased Microsoft Pocket Streets 2006"

Stories in other sections, such as web mapping, might also interest you since it includes stories such as Open Source Alternatives to Consumer Map Programs. A part of the story: "Open source tends to be lacking in consumer map programs ala Microsoft Streets and Trips and Delorme's Street Atlas. There are several efforts to repair that situation. GMap, Roadster, and RoadNav are three examples. [...]"

If I go to Sony's web page, I see a ton of things that have little to do with gaming (directly) - Stereos, Walkmans, TVs, etc. How can these guys say that Sony is "Ailing"?

And that's just the hardware side of the business. Don't forget that as well as Sony Electronics there's Sony Music and Sony Pictures.

To quote from Sony Corporation Of America's website (not Sony Japan, not Sony Europe, etc.)

Revenue for last fiscal (ending March 31, 2005):

Sony Corporation: $67b
Music Group: $2.3b
Pictures Group: $6.9b
United States $18.4b

Microsoft, in contrast, had a total annual revenue for the period of $36.8b (roughly half if Sony's).

The article talks about $2b a year utterly bankrupting Sony (assuming they simply sell consoles at a loss and don't recoup from game licensing, accessories, additional HD TV sales, gaining ownership of next gen DVDs through market share, etc.)

I'm not quite sure how a loss that barely makes it in to the couple of percent range will cripple a company so badly that it gets bought up by one with half the total revenue and no interest in the majority of the larger company's business.

Microsoft is a software and very specific hardware firm. They would be incredibly badly served by trying to take over an electronics, movies and music giant that's a far bigger company than they are. They're doing very well with the controlled growth they have right now.

The only way it would make sense for Microsoft would be if they could take Sony Computer Entertainment and leave the rest of Sony. Sony, however, gains a huge amount beyond direct console sales. A bankrupt Sony would be forced to sell off pieces. An intact Sony would likely have no interest in destroying its future TVs (cell), its future DVD players (blu-ray), its movie business (also blu-ray) and its appeal to the massively profitable 18-35 demographic that spills over from gaming to those big TVs, car stereos, etc.

Since Sir Howard Stringer took over Sony, he's made some incredibly tough decisions to get Sony, as a whole, back on track - so much so that he's become a major persona non grata in his own home country of Wales where he made tough choices and cut a huge number of workers. Here is a man who's clearly willing to do what it takes to make Sony profitable and who, more than anyone else on earth, has very detailed figures on the costs of the PS3 - yet he's not chosen to sell off Sony Computer Entertainment.

So, overall, we have a company with double Microsoft's revenues, with areas Microsoft's just not interested in, making them far too big to buy out in the entirety (which the original article appears to have totally missed). Piece-by-piece, SCE might be affordable for Microsoft but that requires Sony wanting/needing to sell - something they've shown absolutely no signs of.

Maybe the first commercial micro-processor. DECs VAX-8600 was asynchronous. And it smoked for the day. I worked on some of the multi-variant multi-source clock skew calculations for the simulator used to model the processor, among other duties. Very slick hardware for the time. External syncronous contexts are maintained of course for syncronous busses but the internal processor speed is quicker in theory and cheaper power since you have fewer switching transitions. Think of the fun in ECL logic back then. :)

Yeah, right. They may be `shaping up', but it will take at least a decade before they reach the level of Apple in 2006. Never mind that they'll have to catch up with Apple's 2016 experience then.

Having the better product doesn't seem to have helped Apple's market penetration so far, and imitation (*cough* rip off! *cough*) hasn't hurt their main competitor any.

If Sony only made playstations, and Microsoft only made xboxes, this would still have been a looney theory. But, in 2005, games represented less than 10% of Sony's revenue and less than 10% of Microsoft's revenue. These companies are NOT going to merge on the basis of games.

Microsoft sells Windows and Office (~80% revenues). Sony sells non-game electronics (~65%).

When in doubt about a story submission, you can always fall back on the standbys: no sources + no grammar = no good.

This is truly the stupidest post I've ever seen on Slashdot. Are you high? Almost every business, big or small, has a public fax line you retard. And they print that number on business cards, email signatures, the contact page of their website, and everywhere else they put their contact information.

Here are some fax numbers for you:

http://www.ibm.com/contact/us/
http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=mscom
http://www.intel.com/intel/location/USA.htm
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/AboutAMD/0,,51_ 52_3592_712,00.html

Obviously, the "Fortune 100" companies you've worked for were much bigger than these petty little corporations who have publicly available fax numbers. Since I work for a company that sells fax service among other things, I can tell you there are actually just a few (hundred thousand) more businesses out there who publicly publish a fax number.

Feel free to actually go to the websites of a few of the 99 or 100 Fortune 100 companies that you have never and will never work for and see if they have a fax number available online. Ass.

http://www.microsoft.com/msft/InvestmentandAcquisi tionsList.mspx

While I do agree with the general consensus that this is BS, your assertion that M$ does not work via aquisition is way off base. There were something like 58 aquisition and a couple hundred major investments in the last 10 years. You can see them here.

Even microsoft employees use pirated editions.

It's nice to know that you have lots of nice steps you have taken to protect yourself from malware, but most people wouldn't use them, they won't help anyway, and split privileges are available on Windows.

It's one thing for you to write a wrapper that chmods a file, runs vi, then chmods it back. But it's another to tell your mother that she can't edit files in her word processing program without giving her word processor write access, or telling her that she can't edit files she's opened with the File menu.

Anyway, all it takes is one buffer overflow bug in a standard library (say, gzip or a JPEG decoder) to let malware start up (i.e. spawn a mail or DDoS bot) which will be running until you log out, restart, or kill the process. Then all it takes is one local privilege escalation bug to let the malware install a rootkit, propogate like a virus, or just delete all the files in your home directory. BTW, if you think that iptables will prevent the spambot from communicating over the internet, all it has to do is debug a process (e.g. firefox) that has access rights and inject its payload there.

And unfortunately, setuid is possibly the biggest security holes that Unix has ever had. Every setuid program is a privilege escalation attack waiting to happen. If you can't control a pre-existing setuid program, you can always just set some bits on a filesystem to create one.

But since setuid programs will run as a given user without typing in a password, they are useless for security. The only thing stopping malware from running your vi-wrapper for each file in your home directory before deleting it is that nobody else knows about it (security through obscurity). If everybody did that, there would be a standardized way to do it, and malware would be able to trivially take advantage of it.

Of course, Windows allows you to easily run with lowered privileges. In Vista, IE will run this way automatically, but you can easily do this in XP as well. Just create a shortcut and click "Run with different credentials" on the Advanced dialog. Then when you run the shortcut you have the option of either running with a restricted token (limited filesystem access, read-only registry access, no privileges) or as another user. If you wish to run as another user, you have to enter the password so that attacks cannot be automated. A program called DropMyRights is especially good for this. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/security/securecode/colu mns/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dncode/html/s ecure11152004.asp for source code and executable.

It turns out that Windows has excellent security facilities, just very few programs use them, and many fail outright if they're used.

Ultimately, the only thing you can really do to keep yourself safe is simply to exercise caution with what you download. I don't download suspicious programs or visit suspicious web sites, so I am fairly secure.

dom

I logged into my "Root" account, and installed Chessmaster 9000. When I logged back into my regular user account, the game wouldn't start. After a while, it dawned on me that Chessmaster installs the bulk of the data in your My Documents folder. So I uninstalled it, then tried to install it under my user's account.