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NTBUGTRAQ Bashes Windows Update
BigBadBri writes "Russ Cooper, keeper of the NTBUGTRAQ list, has a few concerns (to put it mildly) with the trustworthiness of Microsoft's Windows Update."
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This shouldn't surprise anyone at all. Anyone involved in computer security or stability is going to have doubts about any sort of update technology, especially if it's from Microsoft. All it takes is a 'minor' 'bug', like the one in the article, and we could be facing a much lerger numbers of CodeRed targets, or zombie machines, or who knows what else.
Oh, by the way, youre car is just fine. No, no recalls at all for it. Well, one, but it's only important if you actually drive, so you're fine, I'm sure...
It's been proven time and time again that people don't patch their systems by hand. Windows Update is at least a step in the right direction, even if it does have some flaws. I can only imagine the outcry if M$ DIDN'T have a Windows Update. It would be an evil scheme or something.
--- Don't be a player hater: I meta-mod ALL negative mods as Unfair.
True that... with each newer operating system and update I see more and more 'report blah blah to Microsoft to improve quality'. It happens in Windows Media Player, whenever a process crashes, and probably other places as well.
How soon until they don't tell you that and just start reporting your web browsing favorites and selling that information to others?
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Free your mind.
I'll voice an opinion that'll surely prove to be unpopular around these parts: I like Windows Update.
Sure, like any given piece of software, you may run into glitches and bugs at some point. But, overall, Windows Update has provided me with an extremely easy and painless way to keep my systems updated.
Even my Mom can use it, which says a lot. It's better than any alternatives I've seen which require too much geek knowledge to operate. (Admittedly I've never seen how MacOS X handles updates.)
-Teckla
I have had windows update tell me that i'm clean, when i've only just done a fresh install, but i don't take it personally, you'd only complain if it examined every bit of your disk to ensure that it got it right... make your minds up people!!
Actually, it has to be the only source of update because only Microsoft can do something about problems within their source code, therefore, they are the sole providers of patches for Windows.
Please direct all bug reports to
BS BS BS BS BS BS BS
BS BS BS BS BS BS BS
Yes, their patches do on occasions break things. Not defending that, they need to be more careful sometimes...
But "MORE OFTEN THAN NOT" is FAR from the truth, and I am sure you know this. But, with your M$ $ucks patch sewn directly on your forehead, you kinda hafta make remarks like this, right?
On the few occasions things break they are rarely of the "blow up the server" variety, and MORE OFTEN THAN NOT *grin* they are of the "when the stars align" kind that you HEAR about in bug reports but don't experience first hand.
---"What did I say that sounded like 'Tell me about your day?'"---
Is it better? Here's a quote from the article:
Let me put it this way. Since the inception of Windows Update millions of computers have been infected with Trojan's that are today allowing individuals to conduct en-masse DDoS attacks. Read that how you want, but its a fact. Here's another. Since the inception of Windows Update Microsoft has gone to producing patches almost every week. Few if any business' have found Microsoft trustworthy enough to permit automatic updates
Many people will also tell you that a false positive is far worse than a false negative. For example, if Windows Update is misconfigured and tells you that you're up to date when you're really not, that's arguably worse than not being up to date and knowing that you're not up to date. (Because in the latter situation at least you can do something about it)
Even if technically windows update is better than nothing, it's utterly pathetic that this is the best one of the richest and most powerful corporations on the planet can do for their customers.
-- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
Isn't the security aspect, its the fact that MS hasn't gotten patching down yet. Patches from Microsoft CONSTANTLY slow down and screw up peoples computers. Every time you download a patch its like playing russian roulette.
I just experienced this two days ago. My friend had me reinstall XP on his laptop so I started with a disc that had XP SP1 included. Now considering the huge list of known problems SP1 causes both he and myself were happy with how the system preformed after install. It seemed snappy and worked well. But then after I ran windows update and pulled down like 15 security updates, boom instant slowdown. I'd say its about 15-20% slower now. I might as well have pulled out his PIII900 and dropped in a PIII600. (And yes I specifically avoided 811493)
When will MS stop having to reissue patches and stop slowing down and screwing up systems because they can't figure out how to make software with some decent security built in? I mean screw the security track record of other OS's, Microsoft is the one with 40 billion in the bank. They are also the ones who still don't get it and are just now telling their programmers that security needs to be considered when designing software. For about the fact that OSS exists, I still can't believe people can people can have faith in a company like that.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
Providing the solution is not his job. In a more general sense, the people who are best suited to notice and complain about problems are by definition not the people who are best suited to fix them. This is why programmers don't do all of their own QA. "This is broken" is a completely legitimate thing to say, even if you're not going to be the one to fix it.
Heh, same goes for you. Please explain how do you think he could give a solution to that. I mean, this isn't Open Source. He can't just download the tar.gz and make a patch for it. All he could do is perhaps call MS, *paying for the call*, and hope that somebody there fixes the problem.
In Open Source, complaining like this might be frowned upon sometimes. After all, we understand that not every OSS developer works for IBM, and has time and resources to fix every bug.
However, this is commercial software, and closed source to boot. Why should anybody solve Microsoft's problems? Isn't that why people pay for work being done for them in the first place? I think he's doing pretty much the best thing he can do, complaining in public. That's the one thing that seems to work pretty well to get the attention of large companies.
I never trust anyone who says "Trust me".
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.