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the same kind of deal where your neighborhood maffia "offers" you protection against potential damages that might be incurred if you don't pay them.

There's a very good reason Microsoft didn't make it easy. They wanted you to wait so they could sell you their next big thing.

Microsoft Windows products come with an excelent website for support. Their technical team is always there for you and will help you solve all your problems with their product. However, if you still have unsolved problems, please try Windows Live OneCare.

...we are forgetting Microsoft has it's own anti-virus software. I'm not saying MS is trying to shut out competition, but that MS wouldn't do this if it would break their own software. They probably have OneCare doing things the "correct" way.

Do you have anything to actually back this up, or is this just your speculation??

Windows Live OneCare service?

I was not claiming that OpenBSD is the equivalent of Microsoft Windows XP. I was only claiming that it is easily possible to create extremely complicated software that has very, very, very few vulnerabilities. That, to me, indicates that Microsoft doesn't want few vulnerabilities.

Already Microsoft Vista is being sold as the secure Windows, and Microsoft Windows OneCare is a profit center for Microsoft to protect you from problems Microsoft made. See the article, A Microsoft Safety Package. Grit Your Teeth.

"Antivirus - we'll keep the current ecosystem status quo. Viruses will be allowed to run rampant as soon as users click the 5 dialog boxes that will allow the virus to install itself as a service. OneCare will remove the threat for you.

Antispyware - means that we won't fix our OS and will allow 3rd parties to install key logging software on your system. With our OneCare package, you will be protected."

It doesn't mean that at all. Vista is the "fix" in that the default account will be non-admin. Hell, IE will run with even less priveleges and malware attacking IE can only do damage to a temp directory, as it won't be allowed access to any files outside of that directory without explicit user consent. What else do you want? A better question, what does Linux to better in this regard?

"Firewall - if you have to remotely connect to OneCare, then the firewall isn't working is it? (Unless you have a rule setup)"

Windows already has a Firewall. The OneCare version improves on it by protecting outgoing connections (as well as incoming). And no, you don't need to connect to OneCare to get the Firewall to work. Don't be silly.

"Performance tune-up - with NTFS?, ha. The page file will be bloated being that you'll need 1 gig to run the OS (512 is the minimum as we know how that goes). I read that as "let me check to see if your installed software meets our license requirements." How much you want to bet that defrag isn't included in the tune-up? Dies Windows still require defragging?"

You continue do show your ignornace. Defragging is part of the tune-up. The rest of your comment is just typical anti-MS slashdot drivel.

"Data backup and restore - where is it going to backup to? Are there going to be systems uploading gigs of videos, pictures, and music to a Microsoft remote location hogging the bandwidth of the internet or will the backup be local so that when the hard drive crashes, the backup protection the customers are paying for doesn't work?"

More ignorance (but at least you somewhat admit it, but in a way that condemns Microsoft out of sheer ignorance). The backup medium is optical discs and external hardrives. If an external harddrive is used, then the backup can be scheduled to run automatically. (Symantec or McAfee (I forget which) is going to also offer backups, including the ability to backup 1GB of data to an online location.)

If you really care about what OneCare does (you ostensibly do by posing your questions, but you likely don't and were posing them just to bash) see http://www.windowsonecare.com/.

As you can see from the site http://www.windowsonecare.com/ they are offering antivirus, antispyware, firewall, performance tune-ups, and data backup and restore. At least 3 of those are dependant on their windows OS deficiencies.

It's obvious that they wouldn't be launching this service now if it won't also be needed for Vista. This was basically the last reason i needed to switch over to a Mac.

IIRC, MS isn't planning to bundle anti-virus software with Vista. Their own package, Windows Live Onecare, is a yearly subscription service which itself bundles spyware and virus protection, as well as general system maintenance tools. A challenge to Symantec, but not the bundled threat other MS products have been. Windows Defender, their anti-spyware product, is available as a free download (and I think it will be bundled with Vista), and all of the maintenance tools with Onecare are pretty much already possible with tools built into Windows, but MS's anti-virus software is not freely available, and the Onecare bundle is an attempt to make all of the tools a bit simpler and more straightforward.

Myself, I've been using Onecare for a few months now after having used Norton products for several years. I'm pleased with Onecare and will likely continue to use it under my Windows install. I can't say just how good its protection is, being a Smart Internet User, I very very rarely come across anything that requires protection. But from what I can see Onecare is nice, and I do like handling a number system maintenance issues in one place.

"A Mac-user with common sense!"

It's not common sense. It's wrong.

Microsoft is in a unique position. Because it has a virtual monopoly, Microsoft makes more money when its software has a lot of security vulnerabilities. For those who are ruled by money, morality has no force; "Maximizing Shareholder Value" is the way they live their lives.

Microsoft makes more money if it pressures its programmers to work too fast, so that they are sloppy, and then releases buggy software. Many people are fascinated by computers, and easily accept the world that Microsoft has created for them.

Here's a story about a Microsoft VP saying, "Oh, the next Windows operating system will be secure": "Safety and security is the overriding feature that most people will want to have Windows Vista for" .

So, Microsoft is once again telling us "The next version of Windows will be the good one." Before, Microsoft said Windows XP was "Built to be Dependable".

However, Vista will NOT include virus protection. Jim Allchin, co-president of Microsoft's platform products and services division told CRN, an industry magazine this:

CRN: In terms of security, how do you compare security in Vista vs. security in Windows XP SP2?

Allchin: SP2 was a very good system but compared to Vista, it's night and day.

CRN: Is there going to be antivirus in Vista?

Allchin: No, there is not.

CRN: Why?

Allchin: It's a complicated answer as to why not.

CRN: Was the decision based on technical concerns?

Allchin: It wasn't technical.

CRN: Will Vista resolve security problems once and for all?

Allchin: I'm not going to claim perfection or near perfection, but I think we're unrivaled in the work we've done. I believe security will be a huge problem for the industry for years and years and years but this will change the landscape in a fairly dramatic way.

Once again, Microsoft is taking advantage of the fact that most of its customers have little technical knowledge. Mr. Allchin said that "security will be a huge problem for the industry for years and years and years".

Microsoft charges for OneCare Live. That's another way to make money. Make sloppy software, and then sell protection against the sloppiness.

Note the emphasis on "beta testing" in Mr. Allchin's statements in the CRN interview. Someone said that Microsoft's motto is "The whole world is our beta tester."

--
Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits and paid part to kill Iraqis. Now a few Americans get Iraq oil profits, and American citizens pay to kill Iraqis. Improvement?

1. Microsoft releases sloppy software, as usual, with an amazing number of extremely severe vulnerabilities.
   
   (Compare Microsoft Windows XP with OpenBSD, which is equally complicated. Quote from OpenBSD: "Code often gets audited multiple times, and by multiple people with different auditing skills." The OpenBSD team is number one because they want to be.)
   
   
2. Microsoft refuses to fix vulnerabilities, as usual.
   
   
3. Microsoft sells protection called OneCare Live.
   
   
4. Accidentally, or not, Microsoft protection software sometimes disables the software of other companies, demonstrating that customers cannot depend on other companies for protection. So, everyone must buy their protection from Microsoft.
   
   
5. Profit Before: Microsoft now sells a new copy of its operating system software to everyone who buys a new computer, even if the customer stopped using the old computer and bought a new one because the old one was too infected, and thus already owns a license.
   
   Profit Now: A protection racket would be even more profitable. Microsoft would collect money every year for a subscription to its protection updates.

Both the company's free online security service, Windows Live Safety, and its in-beta OneCare Live software, however, will disinfect compromised computers, Microsoft said.

Actually, I just checked out the OneCare info page, and I don't see anything about online back-up. Just automatically backs up to CD or DVD, and lauches a virus scan. But I imagane if you can't schedule a virus check with any of the popular antivirus apps, you won't figure out OneCare either.

Looks like there's a beta available: http://www.windowsonecare.com/

Is MS planning on becoming a service organization?

Yup.

Managed services (read: recurring revenue) is all the rage now. OneCare is only for consumers currently, but don't be surprised if once they get it rolling they whip up a plan for companies as well.

Dell is doing managed services as well, and has frightened my company into no longer selling Dell equipment. We're afraid they're going to try to poach our customers (whose contact info they already have due to the previous equipment sales).

according to Microsoft

If you are a Windows OneCare user and your current status is green, you are already protected from known malware that tries to attack this possible vulnerability.

Otherwise, this statement doesn't make sense :

Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take appropriate action to help protect our customers. This will include providing a security update through our monthly release process or providing an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.

Written from the sublime security of Fedora Core, thanks.

So when the next exploit is found in a common Linux library - and it will be found - the situation will be just as embarassing.

Most embarassing is that while users wait for a patch, MS doesn't even suggest useful workarounds.. see the KB article "Suggested Actions" section, which says "exercise caution when opening email"? huh?

Of course, if you have Microsoft Onecare, you may already have a fix. I've never even heard of Onecare until today.

I think Microsoft has fallen down by focusing too much on corporate America.

Corps and individuals want different things from their apps, and they even want different apps in many cases. Corps want everything to be centrally installable, configurable, and controllable by their IT dept to conform to company policy. In the individual case, the only centrally controlled PCs are the 0wned ones hacked by some eastern European crime cartel.

Look at it through the lens of a corp-focused company, though, and there is an opportunity. Many individuals want their PCs to be managed by someone else, either to save the hassle or because they don't know what they're doing. What if Microsoft was the central manager? You'd have to feed them a LOT of data about what was going on in your PC, just like IT management. And you'd have to pay them a maintenance fee. Basically that's what is going on with Windows OneCare.