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Gates on Winsecurity
xandroid writes "Just a couple days after talking about free hardware, Bill Gates has sent an email to customers saying that Microsoft will continue to focus on security, titled 'A Microsoft Progress Report: Security' (MSNBC story, PC Magazine story, Google News' related stories). The email mentions that fast-spreading and destructive viruses and worms are 'threatening the potential of technology to advance business productivity, commerce and communication', but says that to counter the threats, Microsoft will make 'major investments in customer education and partnerships that will help make the computing environment safer and more secure'. He also talks about the XP Service Pack 2, and says that Microsoft is 'working with microprocessor companies, including Intel and AMD, to help Windows...support hardware-enforced data execute protection (also known as NX, or no execute)'." Reader Zephyr_in writes "Macworld reports that the beta-release of Longhorn is likely to be postponed to early 2005 because Microsoft is concentrating first on a security-focused update (SP2) to Windows XP. Earlier this week Gates said Longhorn is 'not a date-driven release.' and said the speculation that the operating system will come out in 2006 is 'probably valid.'"
Which is 90% of us, so get over yourself. OS snobbery is obnoxious.
So, get a clue dude. It's pretty simple actually. Why do you insist on supporting an OS from Microsoft that is causing so many problems? You are part of the problem.
Twisted uninformed logic that could only come from a partisan. Lets have OS X (or any other OS) occupy 98% market share and we'll see how much attention it gets from virus authors.
Lots of attention, yes. Lots of successful attacks, not likely.
Mail.app in OS X doesn't run attachments automaticially like Outlook Express does. Safari doesn't bombard users with install prompts for some virus hiding as an ActiveX plugin. And if something does get in and try to modify system files, I get a password prompt, instead of the virus trampeling all over kernel space on it's own. Why? Well, OS X does the proper thing and doesn't trust me to be logged in with full control. Where as on Windows, any user who bought a system from Best Buy is logged in as an administrator.
The best though is Windows Server 2003. It opens up enough of the components during setup that it can be infected by some RPC vunerability even before you can finish the install. This in a server OS MS touted as their first major attempt at security. I can't wait to see Windows XP SP2 do noting to stop all the crap flying around.
Also, see argument above about Code Red/Nimda, the most disruptive virus I have seen in a while. Coded for a product that holds 25% of the market, while the leader sits at 65%.
MS keeps choosing to make their own mistakes and repeat the history of Unix, where as Apple decided to help make the existing technology better. Konquer is now a better browser because of Safari, Apache has support for zero-conf now, and other improvemenet.