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Microsoft Will Pay If Its Bugs Damage Your Data
RMX writes "CNet is reporting on
a new Microsoft policy where
they will pay if their software damages your data
. There's a pretty low limit on what they will cover and "it also applies even if Microsoft knew or should have known about the possibility of the damages" but at least it's nice that they're specifying exactly to what length they'll go to cover their customers. Is this the "support" from proprietary vendors that corporations like so much?"
"Microsoft will reimburse direct damages up to $5 for problems associated with the new downloadable tool that wards off spyware, adware and any other "potentially unwanted software."
That is a very low price for data.
I don't think that corporations would care about this.
It could be worse, it could be Monday.
That's a nice get-out clause they've left themselves with there in case anybody suggests their software sucks.
There are 2 types of people in the world, those who find that stupid binary joke funny, and those who don't.
Five whole dollars???
Why would anyone migrate away from Microsoft products now?
P.S. On a serious note, doesn't this potentially open them up to being sued for damages? I know they're claiming otherwise in the EULA, but once the door is open...
Microsoft certainly will PAY if they damage my data.
1. Buy XP and install.
2. Start building up data on your computer.
3. Have it all damaged by XP.
4. ????
5. Profit!
Great business model, gonna write this up and submit it to my bank for a business loan!
Me rich...me REALLY rich!!!
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
I swear, if i had a buck for each time a Microsoft product damaged my dat...
Oh... wait...
According to the AntiSpyware Beta end-user license agreement (EULA), Microsoft will reimburse direct damages up to $5 for problems associated with the new downloadable tool that wards off spyware, adware and any other "potentially unwanted software."
Is everyone looking for cash in EULA's nowadays?
Pretty low indeed, 5 bucks is hardly suitable respite if your hard drive is completely deluged with spyware, malware and the like. From this consumers point of view, this seems more of a public relations appeal than a strict financial policy for Microsoft.
Dammit .. I was hopeing that this would mean I could sue them every time installig one of their brain-dead OS's into an empty partition destroyed the data in the MBR, thus making the system unusbale , and a PITA to fix.
.. oh well.
Then I remembered I've never even attempted to run it on my machines for five years+
See, *this* is the kind of added value that could make commercial software
really worth the money, at least potentially. (I'm assuming here that the
blurb accurately reflects what's actually being done... which is probably
assuming too much, but there's always that, isn't there?) This is the sort
of thing Microsoft should be talking about when they talk about the value
they can provide. Assuming they're willing to actually do it.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
that money stinks if they offered to me I will not touch it my 2 cent
I just installed the latest update on my grandparents' windows box and it won't even boot now. How much do you think I could get for that?
The preceding message was based on actual events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed.
How do I make a claim? I should be getting 76 of these checks.
- Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
"Microsoft offers $5 windfall for errant software"
Did anyone else find it extremely funny to see such flagrant sarcasm in this news.com.com headline?
I'm a big tall mofo.
$5 is nothing, probably doesn't even cover cost of applying for it. so why bother?
advertising scam about "financially backing" their software as opposed to OSS?
tax scam?
stock scam?
come on, it's got to be some sort of scam.
even if Microsoft knew or should have known about the possibility of the damage
This is the part that covers them for deleteing gigs worth of MP3s because the MP3s didn't have Windows Media(WMA) Digital Rights Management(DRM) signatures.
Oops. Our bad.
Have a nice day.
This seems like a weak, thinly veiled stab at open source.
E.g., Microsoft: "You run Debian? Great! But who'll pay if your data gets damaged?"
To which the obvious reply is: well, gee, my operating system hasn't ever really damaged my data -- as a matter of fact, last time my hard drive went bad, I was able to recover most of my data. Thanks anyway, though!
Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
What they really imply to me is that the value of Microsoft's software is actually just $5.00. That's almost about actually right, though the pushcart vendor in Prague can do a bit better.
Anyways by that time I will also have restored the data from a backup. You DO have a backup strategy ... don't you?!?! ...
From memory...
Azh nazg durbataluk, azh nazg gimbatul, Azh nazg thrakataluk agh burzum ishi krimpatul! This sig blocked by Slashdot.
Somebody should sue them for offering such crappy reward.
Menos mal que hay papas fritas...
...or buy some lotto tickets ...or ammo.
Just enough money to eat at Mickey D's...
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
If you have only 20,000 employees your $5,000,000 loss of productivty will net you a whopping $100,000 from Microsoft! Why that's a whole 2% of the money your business lost. That should be just enough money to add a "free tuition at Yale for 3 years" deal for the CEO's kid as part of the CEO's golden parachute when the company goes under after losing all of its data!
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
is this deal being offered to users of pirated copies of windows or just genuine copies?
I believe that commercial software is, and should be treated as, an engineering discipline. Similarly, I think we need to accumulate some "best practices" that require commercial software to meet standards of robustness, stability, and functionality. We then need to crush, kill, and destroy anyone who fails to meet those standards.
Software's not a game teenagers play in their basements anymore; it's used on airliners, in cars, in hospitals, and all sorts of other places where a system crash is Not Acceptable. While you can find rare examples of folks who are willing to stick their companies on the line when it comes to the stability of their software, this is the exception, not the rule. Accepting financial liability for bugs in software is a good start. It's also, interestingly, something that only a commercial entity can do.
Acius the unfamous
Please send in your request along with $4.99 for shipping/handling...
A corporation actually taking responsiblity for it's actions? What is next? Dell hire reliable on-site technicians?
Why am I left with the unmistakeable feeling that the real purpose of this is to set a 'value' on the occurance of a data loss incident. Thereby giving MS an out (perhaps in court) should someone actually loose data and attempt to sue. Perhaps I'm being a mite paranoid, but then....
This msg is brought to you by the letter 'W'.. for Worthless Wuss
I always understood the standart "if something bad happens to your PC while using our software it will always be your fault and not ours" clauses.
The companies honestly didn't care about you. Go call their support hotline, if they can help you, fine, if not, tough luck.
But Microsoft's 5$ offer kinda gives me the feeling they are mocking us.
"Sorry our tool mis-identifed your tax data as spyware and deleted it. Here are 5 bucks. Enough to drown you in 2 bottles of cheap booze till IRS arrives."
+++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out of Cheese Error +++ redo from start +++
..this is another instance of big organizations only really hurting themselves. Five bucks won't do much to help most people, but multiply $5 by several thousand unsatisfied customers and you've got the potential to do much pain to Bill Gates and Co.
Really, the only way any software could damage data would be a) if it deleted it, b) if it took a data file, mangled it, and wrote over the original, or c) did something wacky to the hardware to cause drive/media damage. I truly cannot recall having data ever mangled by a bad piece of software. MS stuff is also pretty good about making backup copies of whatever, prompting the user for saving, deleting, etc.
I think this is a pretty safe bet on their part. So much so that they'd probably be safe upping the ante to like $50 or $100 or more.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
Do we need a drm liscence to spend it?
Your skill in reading has increased by one point!
I was serious when I said you couldn't pay me to use Windows.
They offer a ridiculously small amount of cash for a narrowly defined kind of damage where no one will ever see the offer. Then they can turn around and say "Who will pay if Linux damages your data? No one, that's who!"
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
If I post a file on my FTP site, that, say, 50,000 people all want to download. And my box blue-screens, and the file is gone. Can each of the 50k people get $5 from Microsoft? Probably not, but it'd be nice.
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
$5
Notice how this 'concession' came after Bush got Class Action lawsuits neutered.
Its not like that Knuth is giving out money for finding errors in his book. No one cashes those checks anyway.
It's easy for all you Linux admins who cost so much to scoff at 5 bucks, but for the average windows professional, it's a lot of money!
I'm not sure about any other states, but here in Texas if you agree to any settlement then you cannot go back and sue regarding the same issue. For example, lets say you request the 5 dollars and find out later it costed you 5 million in damages. Too bad sucka, you settled for the orignal 5 bucks.
Very sneaky of MS. I gotta hand it to them for that.
Life is not for the lazy.
Wow it's amusing to see all the people praising microsoft for taking responsibility. I can't tell if they're clueless and didn't RTFA; or if they all share the excellent sarcasm shown by Stefanie Olsen the CNET journalist who wrote this.
At least that's the position they take. In interviews Bill Gates usually says all the problems are due to misuse of the software, rather than bugs in it. Maybe it's not meant to be executed?
..but it costs more than this.
let's just say the fact they are considering 'possible loss' in anticipation of bugs is reason enough to be concerned.
what a waste of sleep this M$ rubbish is.
Do I get five dollars for every time IE incorrectly renders a standards compliant web page I write, thereby damaging the data by mangling it?
Audioscrobbler
This is a great opportunity for OSS advocates to shove MS BS about "accountability" right down their throats. As long as their accountability was just a vague PR statement in their Linux FUD, they couldn't look anything but good, even though the reality is that no one can get the $40B giant to do anything it doesn't want. But now that they've quantified their accountability as the ludicrious $5, that number can haunt their PR flacks forever.
--
make install -not war
For all the data you have lost me you owe me around $10,000 dollars.
Why do people insist on writing "dollars" after putting a dollar sign before the number? Should that be pronounced "Ten thousand dollars dollars"? I'd bet that at least fifty 50% percent of people who aren't worth dollar $0.25 twenty-five cents dollars do this. To quote P.T. Barnum, quote "A sucker is born every day." period quote. period.
what about the WhINErs?
.NET runtimes?
what about VMWare installs etc, I sit on ESX for my windows installs. Does this also work for OS X applications? What about MS software running on top of OTHER
Microsoft already accept liability on DataCenter, few others do on other platofrms, IBM dont accept liability on Linux platorms as they did on AIX.
According to the AntiSpyware Beta end-user license agreement (EULA), Microsoft will reimburse direct damages up to $5 for problems associated with the new downloadable tool that wards off spyware, adware and any other "potentially unwanted software."
/. post seems to make it look like it's MS software in general. Sorry, you only get money if the Anit-Spyware program screws up your stuff.
They are talking only about the Beta for the MS Anti-Spyware. Everything in this
Gee... I wonder why this never appeared in the EULA's for their on the fly compression utilities.
Hmmmmm.....
you get em, tiger.
See? Microsoft pays YOU for bugs. Open Source leaves you high and dry.
That's the Microsoft(tm) difference!
It's the only thing that makes sense. Why start paying for bugs now? It's also interesting in that I think this is finally acknowledgement that their monopoly on the computing industry is in jeopardy.
A whole $5? well woop-de-doo.
That will just abot cover the cost of the phone call and stamps to write to them to claim the rebate...
Surgeon General's Warning: Form-filling experience may cause nausea, severe headaches, or aneurysms. Reimbursment for health insurance is available. See finest print for details.
It's really no different than book publishers paying a couple of bucks for a fact correction or a few dimes for spotting a typo.
Definitely they should pay companies for their endless vulnerabilities.
Can you say class action law-suit?
"But that's 5 more dollars than Linux..."
Rather than Microsoft Will Pay If Its Bugs Damage Your Data, the headline should have read Microsoft Says Your Data Is Only Worth $5 .
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
I'm a millionaire!
I've seen that $5 liability limit before in other Microsoft EULAs. It's nothing new -- been there for years. I wonder why CNet is only now mentioning it???
Yeah, but
A. Will m$ ever admit they cause loss of data w/out blaming 3rd party software?
B. Can you prove that windows caused it? "Yeah, it was this line of code in your source, right here"...
It's not a bug, it's a feature!
I presume that will be microsoft's response when you ask them to pay up.
If you don't want someone to copy something, don't give it to anyone.
Yes, it just could be step 3!!!
all the best,
drew
FreeMusicPush If you want to see more Free Music made, listen to Free
I think this is more to cover Microsoft's own rear-end than it is to make us feel warm and fuzzy.
I just went through helping a company incorporate as a Limited Liability organizationin the UK last fall, and included in the articles of incorporation is a section that states that each member is only liable for 1 UK Pound. I think This is similar, If Microsoft states that they WILL cover up to $5 for data loss, they can't be sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars instead.
If an Open Source product damages your data, you will recieve the right to download a free copy of the updated software every day for the rest of your life.
MOVE AWAY FROM WINDOWS NOW!!!!
Although this is perfectly understandable and mainly intended to give Microsoft substance to their "We stand behind our OS" comments. Unfortunately, this will have an unintended consequence of encouraging angry script kiddies to be destructive with their viruses since their actions might directly monetarily "hurt" the "evil empire" in the eyes of some of these seeking recognition or to "get back at the man."
Of course, to claim your 5 dollars, you'll probably have to call MS's support line which will charge you 35 dollars per incident unless you have some sort of support contract (which you probably paid too much for in the first place).
I was writing a paper... on a lined notepad ... and then these termites came along, and it was like MunchMunchMunchMunchMunchMunch... And then... like... half of my paper was gone. And I was like... nnngh? It devoured... my paper. It was a really good paper. And then I had to write it again and I had to do it fast so it wasn't as good. It's kind of... .... a bummer.
... and then they built the supercollider.
This applies to the Microsoft AntiSpyware BETA software... most vendors won't provide ANYTHING for using software not yet known to be stable. Quit letting your hatred for Microsoft cloud up reality.
and just send $5 to every registered Windows user.
no message
Is it untrue? (I hope so since I use firefox and love the product) If it is true, are these things not really anything to be concerned about?
I am honestly just curious since, as I said, I am a non-techie.
Armchairgenius.com - Where everyone is a genius.
for(int i=0;i>-1;i++)
free(i);
So the rule is: Always turn down the $5. Why? Well, it keeps your options open, and it's not like $5 is so much money...
Unfortunately, to win the court case, you not only have to not take the $5, you also have to render the EULA legally null and void...
So every time something seems to go wrong, you pay a consultant who is able to find the source of the problem, and if he can prove it's Microsoft's fault, they pay for your data? And who pays the consultant's time?
Reminds me of my experience with hard disk warranties. Sure these 10 GB disks are still under warranty. But you have to
- take it out of the computer to see it's brand, model and serial number.
- find the manufacturer's website, and their RMA form.
- Download their DOS program to check the disk
- Put the damaged HD back into the computer
- Make a floppy, and boot from it
- Run the software and write down the error code it gives you
- Go back to the website and fill in the RMA form
- Take the HD out again and pack it for shiping
- In Europe, ship to some other country which is not only expensive, but also requires filling in forms at the post office for customs.
- When the drive comes back, you are somehow charged customs, VAT, and whatever else.
In the end, you lost a couple of hours and you paid, for that 10 GB drive under warranty, at least half the price or more of a new 80 GB drirve.
Conclusion: whatever it says on the package, there is NO (meaningful) WARRANTY on hard drives, nor on anything else worth less than several hundred dollars.
It's the same with this data loss "warranty".
A New Cyber-Security Breach Bank of America says at least 1.2 million federal employee credit card accounts may be exposed to theft or hacking
I don't know if Microsoft software and the associated security holes are behind any of these very serious hacks, but if they are, what about that new Microsoft policy? They do have buckets of cash after all.
Funny, maybe. But the only funny part is that at least two other non-readers modded it "Insightful".
Before I file a claim, i just want to know how much money my data is worth. I mean, 200gb drives full of she-male pr0n dosen't grow on trees you know...
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
I have a few hundred reinstalls Microsoft are completely responsible for. At $5 per time I think they owe me at least enough for a copy of XP.
just a little thing msft thinks linux companies can't do... BIG SURPRISE they can do it too! lol
don't allow them to steal your freedom and security with fucking subective parameters or manipulation of your emotions
Don't worry - it's been moderated correctly. First of all, all the links all go to www.getfirefox.com, a Firefox advocacy website with no details of 'security holes' supposedly rife.
"Installing Firefox requires downloading an unsigned binary from a random web server" - unsigned binary, true, but you can check MD5 hashes if you want confirmation that you've downloaded the right file. The 'random web servers' are all known mirrors.
"Installing unsigned extensions is the default action in the Extensions dialog" - Let's try installing a random extension from Mozilla Update. If this site wasn't explicitly whitelisted, I wouldn't be able to download an extension at all - and despite being whitelisted, I still get a warning dialogue popped up - with "Install Now" unselectable for three seconds, and warnings that this is an unsigned extension.
"There is no way to check the signature on downloaded program files" - Internet Explorer certainly doesn't, either.
"There is no obvious way to turn off plug-ins once they are installed" - Go to Tools, Extensions. You can remove them from here, or alter preferences if there are any to be changed.
"There is an easy way to bypass the "This might be a virus" dialog" - This requires the user to have actually downloaded an executable, tried to run it, been warned, and explicitly asked not to be told again.
"Firefox has also killed Linux" - Linux goes from strength to strength. A good, open-source web browser is one thing, but is no substitute for running the same browser on a better operating system - be that Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, or whatever else constitutes 'better', even Windows.
And tomorrow the stock exchange will be the human race
Yeah, but when they do their TCO calulations, they can multiply $5 by all the bugs they have....
:D
WHATS THAT? Windows Server pays you to run it?
...It was like, beep, beep, beep, and my report was all gone. Now you mean to tell me that you're willing to give me five dollars for that lost report?
Thank you for posting your response, it was very informative (hint, hint to other moderators out there).
Armchairgenius.com - Where everyone is a genius.
Does installing Windows over my Linux partition count?
Tell you wha - buy a copy of Linux off of me for the same price as XP. If it damages your daa, I'll pay yuo twice what Microsoft is offering - $10.00. Satisfied?
Due to microsoft's faulty software, I lost over 500 gigs of porn and warez!
Argghh
oh, yeah. Because criticizing the moderators is such a horrible thing to do.
By the way, saying "internet explorer does this too" is hardly backing up claims of superior security.
Dear United States Navy. We're sorry about causing your ship to lose propulsion due to a buffer overrun in our OS. We have pre-emptively decided to reimburse your $5 for your troubles. *oops* Hey, you can always as the Swedish navy about their experiences. ;-)
Dear "victims of the Blackout of 2003". Sorry about our software trusting everything it saw back in 2003. Boy, have we learned our lesson since then. Unfortunately, the several millions of you can just suck it. :-D
"$5 should be enough for anybody."
Or was that 640k? I can't remember.
FLR
In both you find an issue with software.
In both you contact a party about the issue.
In Open Source you have the option to fix it yourself.
In the Microsoft case you can fill out paper work to get $5 (I'll assume you spend it on beer to forget you had the problem in the first place).
So it boils down to the fact, you can have working software, or a beer to forget you have broken software. You choose.
mnewberg.com
The parent was modded flamebait...what's wrong with the idea that commercial software vendors are forced to be accountable for quality, for heaven's sake? The standard that the goods be of merchantable quality and perform the tasks advertised is normal for any transaction, it's sorely lacking when it comes to software.
And as the parent pointed out, it would only apply to commercial transactions: software offered for free would be exempt, since no contract exists. It would affect commercial linux distros, but they make money through service anyway, so it's really just codifying their business model. Plus, it would force prominent disclosure of nasties like spyware in bundles.
I don't see ads for Windows saying "Own your very own spambot", "Let the world know what nasty sites you visit" or "More buffer overflow exploits than any other OS"; quite the opposite, in fact. The only reason MS gets away with this is because software is not held to the same standards as other products. Seems to me that in an ever more computer dependant society, this is suicidal insanity.
Blank until
XP only has to corrupt my disk 40 times before it pays for itself!
"My wallet is in my vest pocket" - Monty Burns
Blank until
they cover? Worse, it appears that they only value customer data at USD$5.00. What a deal.
Now, if they would offer as much coverage on theft of data caused by MS's screw up, I would be impressed.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Because it's 100% pure idiocy. If anything is full of security holes (that are actually abused millions of times a day too), it's IE, not firefox. Another 10 IQ points and this guy could bark.
Can someone tell me WHY Microsoft is -advertising on Slashdot?-
This is like.. some kind of mortal sin. I say we find the heretic who agreed to this deal and burn him at the stake after we find out that he weighs the same as a duck.
Lost your data? Use that $5 for five double cheeseburgers from McDonalds, perhaps that will make you feel better!
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
..Microsoft has just declared bankruptcy.
Ok, so I install their spyware removal software, it corrupts my hard drive and causes me to lose 2 days of coding... so figuring I make $150/hr, 16 hours... that's $2400 in direct losses, and MS is gonna give me $5? and I'm supposed to be impressed??!
How about the really pony up and say they'll cover all direct costs because of virus infections on their platform. That would be extremely impressive, but will never happen cause MS would go bankrupt if all the businesses I contract for sent all my bills for spyware/virus/etc problems straight to MS...
Anyway, in the end, they are offering $5 on a beta product if it damages data that could be worth a whole lot more
Although it is mostly a gimmick, OSS should perhaps do something to counter, like promising a CD full of OSS software that *would* be worth $50,000 if it was commercial software. Then claim "reimbursement worth $50,000". Play their game, man.
Table-ized A.I.
My guess is that this is Microsoft's way of saying they don't think your data is worth anything.
$5? That doesn't pay for a case of soft drinks these days.
They seem to be saying that even if everything is wiped out, they only owe you $5. What's more now that you know this, you legally acknowledge this is all the liability MS has.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
does that count if they damage my stylesheets (ive spent a week trying to work around ie's crappy css implementation)
if so, i'l be rich!
Will Linux distros pay if bugs cause you to lose your data?
Well, this only applies to data loss caused by the beta version of MicroSoft's anti-spyware. Guess how hard it's going to be to prove which element of the system actually caused the data loss, then estimate how many rebates they'll pay...I predict none. This is simply more weasle-work from the PR hacks.
OH WAIT it's open source so there's no accountability!
As it stands, nobody is truly accountable for anything, and look at the quality work that's inspired in so far Redmond. But, IMO, if Red Hat (for example) sells you a distro with known flaws, then they should be accountable because they're the one offering you a product not of merchantable quality but taking your money (the fact they didn't write the software is irrelevant; consumers shouldn't pay for mistakes that aren't their fault). But if you aren't paying, the merchant/customer contractual relationship isn't invoked; there is no implicit obligation on the part of the supplier to provide anything for free, let alone anything that works.
Nice FUD...now if you can just explain to me what kind of data loss I can suffer that would only represent $5 worth of time and why I should consider this offer anything more than an insult, I'll switch to Windows.
Blank until
And my $16,500 p/a tier-one support role has just been outsourced. :-(
The article jumps to the conclusion that this warranty covers lost data. That's not what it says. It says "DIRECT" damages, up to a $5.00 cap - Someone in a stingy mood might argue that this covers the replacement cost for the defective software, and that any "data loss" would be INDIRECT (and not covered). Take film as an example - the mfgr will cover you for the cost of new film, not for the value of your lost wedding pictures.
Instead of $5 they should give you 5 song credits on iTunes. Waive the white flag now, MS... the end is near.
If it is gone without a trace, then you can't prove that it ever existed. Wanna bet $5 that Microsoft demands a bunch of compelling evidence of the problem, before the shell out on it?
The Wiley CyberKitty
This would be smart for Microsoft if they were afraid of getting sued. If you accepted the money, it would legally constitute a settlement.
I wonder if Microsoft is afraid of somthing?
5 dollars just seems an odd price to offer. I can't imagine that it'd be worth that much to even apply for the money.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
Next MS will offer your boss to outsource your work to Inda for $5. This proposal will help your company because the MS crew in India nave never lost any data.
Your Average Joe
I wouldn't count on that happening any time soon. In my experience, companies don't hire for competence...they seem to want to hire employees that all get along fabulously as they run the company right into the ground.
Look at the rejection letter I posted in my journal for an example of what I'm talking about.
"Once we've identified and embraced our sickness, we'll have strength...and that's when we get dangerous." - John Waters
Can't we just say that Micro$hit sucks and get on with our lives?
Oh, you must have missed the memo; we all agreed to say that Dubya is the antichrist and this, well, this is us getting on with our lives.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
The Anti-Spyware, that is. It is spyware itself, of course, but it is still an awfully nice piece of software. I have been cleaning my one remaining Windows machine manually - this found a lot of crap I had not caught. Sure feels good to stamp this stuff out. People ought to stop whining and try this one. To be sure, this is MS covering its tail, because I think there is a lot of potential liability for them to do nothing about Spyware. Since they are ultimately doing this for their protection (not yours), they do a pretty good job of it. Well worth downloading, I say.
don't worry - it's just a lame attempt to get http://www.getfirefox.net/ in the google listing when you search for "security flaw" or similar.
see the article here for more information - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb
So now MS is paying us for its "features". Sweet.
When you look at the state of the world, how can you not become a radical, liberal anarchist?
Given that fact that the Windows operating system is nothing but a collection of crap, M$ is going to go broke.
Heh, finally, the end of M$ - the company that continues to shoot itself in the foot.
hahahahahaha...
How did they ever think $5 covers anything more than a missed comma in a Word doc?
Assholes! Fuck 'em, just fuck 'em!
...this is my tickets to millions!! Oh wait. 5 bucks. Ain't worth the mouse move.
paying for all the damages that their security holes caused to any casual users?
Hmmm? That includes damages caused by identity theft, making a fast machine seem like it is 5 years old AND the time/money spent cleaning it! When they do that, then I will think they are serious about reimbursing people!
$5 indeed! This doesn't even cover the cost of reporting the problem to Microsoft!
If that's so, then if 1000 of your computers get infected, then that $50,000. So for us small guys, it's nothing, but for the big guys, they can atleast hire more admins just to handle the fucking spyware crap.
...they'll ask us to read their EULA's in order to qualify for the program.
Get real. As far as data loss, $5 might as well be $0. Linux users are also far more likely to have their systems backed up anyway.
$5. Oh joy. I can go get me a Big Mac meal. Wait, I dunno, with the cost of gas that lunch might just cost me more than $5 all told... and this is all that my data is worth? I think not, therefore I keep backups.
That's been in their EULA's for years now. It's good to hear that I'm not the only one reading them.
Wouldn't you have to provide SOME sort of "proof" that the Beta software did the damage and NOT something YOU did, or...some "other" program did?
What was the Gas Company (AMOCO?) that offered some sort of amazing guarantee that if THEIR gas ever damaged YOUR Engine, THEY would pay for the damages!
I wonder how many people collected on that guarantee?
They would have had to jump through some serious hoops to do so, have meticulously detailed accounting that they ONLY purchased Amoco gasoline for the life of the engine, had all the proper servicing done according to schedule, etc etc etc.
The previous post about the Boss choosing MS over Apple because "they pay if they damage the data" is right on though...unfortunately
I like microcars
in depth error reports.
Do they specify the amount of data loss? Maybe one could beat them in the legalese department and charge them $5 for each byte lost...
Id love to see that.
Bill is about money and nothing else.
$5? That would just about cover the time it took you to tear your hair when their stupid software trashed your Great American Novel called "Viruses I Have Known and Loved"...
This is nothing but a cheap promo stunt thought up by some Microsoft idiot. Even Bill probably laughed at this one..
Oh, wait, Bill never laughs...
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Based on their track record with releasing quality software, I don't blame them that the limit is only 5 dollars. They would be broke in no time if it was any higher.
No sig for you!!
The Best thing about Microsoft/Love is never having to say your'e sorry :^)
My digital rights don't need management.
Microsoft Office 2003 Professional: $424.99
Microsoft Windows XP Professional: $299.99
Microsoft Stock: $25.31 per share
Microsoft's commitment to improve product quality: $5.00
Expression on your face after receiving your very first $5 coupon from Microsoft: Priceless
Maybe they pay $5 for each time a virus is able to get on your PC because of some security hole in MS software. Let me read that XP EULA.
42 + 1 = 42
Well, now we can ensure that Microsoft will be favorite between consultants. "No, no, I'm fully competent and adequate, see, Microsoft admits IT could do it and they even offer a compensation for that."
You write in your sig, "Remember the Nigerian yellowcake?"
As a matter of fact, I don't. If, as seems likely, you are talking about the yellowcake uranium ore that Iraq was alleged to have attempted to obtain, then the country in question is Niger, not Nigeria.
The two countries' respective adjective forms are:
Nigeria => Nigerian
Niger => Nigerien
Now, I know that the names look similar (although the pronunciation is different), the countries are neighbours, and they are named after the same river, but it's an important factual distinction.
If your comment title says 'Re: Foo', I'm not likely to read it.
Might consider just plain insurance.
Interesting tactic
A blog I run for the wealth
While you would appear to be correct in your
assumption that MSFT has finally admitted
responsibility for possible data loss, its only
500 pennies worth of liability.
It is interesting to note that nary a single
MSFT EULA admits to any responsibility for
bugs, lost data, etc. While the Terms and
Conditions of EULAs have been ruled to be illegal
and non-binding in several states, please pay
attention to other (perhaps related?) news -
the Tort Reform Act of 2005 moves virtually ALL
class action lawsuits into Federal courts, AND
places strict limits on any damages awarded.
Do not forget that the Federal government, and
especially that government as ruled by the CRIP
(current regime in power), favors large corporate
interests, not the consumer.
So, MSFT lost all my data, and all they are
willing to do is buy me a golden arches "happy
meal"? Oh, gee, thanks Steve & Bill!
Yay open sores!
Best. Post. Ever. I got the joke. I would have modded this post way up the ying-yang
What about if there was a bug in a Microsoft product all allowed a worm to spread which then deleted data from every PC infected after a certain number of days?
Would they be required to pay $5 for everyone that was infected?
I'll probably be modded down for this...
And What if i had 200GB of Porn Picturs of Mr. Bill gates ...
How much thay would pay for them ?
This reminds me. Has anyone received any compensation for the result of the lawsuit whereby Microsoft was supposed to pay back for unlawful Windows prices forced down on PC purchases?
I have yet to receive $35 or something that was supposed to have been distributed two years ago.
Damn. They must be paying that $5 from that pool of money!!! I want my money!
Can I claim 5 dollars for every byte. A byte after all is 8 bits worth of data... Well at least it'd motivate them to slim down their document formats.
You clearly have an axe to grind which is fair enough (maybe you've lost valuble data to ext3 disk corruption?). However corruption can be down to more than the filesystem. If you don't actually know what caused the corruption in the first place it's hard to start doing comparisons - e.g. I've seen ext3 corruption several times over the past few years but it has always been down to disks just about to die completely or unknown corner case motherboard bugs.
I've been told by a kernel dev that reiserfs rarely causes corruption on perfect hardware but is far less tolerant of flakey hardware than ext3. What if those new checks are to try and protect people on failling hardware? Continuing to give right results when you're being given wrong data is hard...
What if the kernel has had a dodgy binary driver stuffed into it and it is corrupting bits of kernel memory thus leading to on disk corruption? The kernel filesystem can try and stop a complete and utter blowout but it can only do so many checks...
The initial state of the system is also important. The only times I've known Windows 2000 to have disk corruption there's always been a partition resizer involved at some point.
Finally 100% bug free software is hard to create and even harder to prove. What works for me could quite well fail for you. Neither Ext3, NTFS nor Reiserfs are magic and sometimes things go wrong. Recovery is almost always possible if you are prepared to forgo access to the data and pay a fiscal price.
(Just for the record didn't MS ship NTFS before Ext3 was released into the major distros? Technically MS got to the widespread atomic filesystem first in comparison to Linux...).
I wish they paid even a buck an hour that's wasted reinstalling their crap. They'd go bankrupt.
'Once scientists, even the dim-witted social scientists, get muzzled, the Western Civilization is finished.' - oldhack
Does MS charge phone support to request $5?
It's actually 8 days, you know...
Your head a splode
Why was this "reported", better yet echoed by slashdot? This has been in the EULA's longer (15+ years) than the existence of slashdot and (online) CNET...?
M$: "We have the largest customer base in the world. If just a tiny percentage of our users were to take us up on this offer, that could mean millions. We're really going out on a limb here. Let's other vendors offer the same thing!" Spin, Baby, spin! Marketing Inferno! Spin, Baby, spin!
Were I work, we have an iPlanet (SunOne) Messaging server with support that costs us $15,000 a year no matter how little or how uch we use it. But, every time I've called, even though we're supposed to have four hour response, it's more like 24 hour response at best and can take up to a week sometimes before getting a response even with repeated calls. Once you finally do get to technical support, most of the time the answer is, "Oh. This is something that hasn't been fixed yet. It should be in a patch at some point in the future". For example, iPlanet Messaging server's web mail feature (Messenger Express) uses Javascript and some temp files in the browser's cache directory to perform certain functions. Well... we now have a problem where all of our Windows XP SP2 clients running IE can't use those functions due to security changes in IE. Sun said that we can override what MS has implemented, but MS's KB says, to NOT disable this feature as it's a pretty big hole. We chose to stay safe and not disable the feature which means our users cannot use certain major feature in web mail. Sun also said that there is a change that we can make to some Messenger code, but they don't recommend it as it will likeyl break our ability to upgrade to the next version of SunOne Messaging server. The final answer? Wait until we have a patch. That is apparently the safest thing to do, so our users are hosed now until that patch comes out. This has been happening since the advent of SP2. Not a patch in sight yet... So you call this good tech support? Because I sure don't. And all the other companies are the same.
Oracle support sucks ass because they make it very hard to set up a SEVERITY 1 issue unless you are on your production box. Well, what if an upgrade you are planning on your production box, relies on the upgrade that you are doing on your test box and it's crunch time? That's what happened to me. I had to open the case as less severe than I wanted. Once I went through a few phone calls and e-mail messages, and showed them that this problem existed on the production box, but relied on the outcome of our upgrade to the test box to resolve they finally upped it to SEVERITY 1. I was supposed to leave work at 5:00PM, but I didn't get a call back so I called repeatedly to find out that US support centers had closed! The support person said, "Yeah they're all closed for the day, wit for the to call you tomorrow". !!! WTF??!!! I lost it and told him that this had been bumped up to SEVERITY 1 and I was assured of a call within 30 minutes. He paused then said, "Oh... yeah. I see it here now. Yeah, someone will be calling you back in another 30 minutes or so". ANOTHER FUCKING 30 MINUTES!!!? I do finally get the call and wind up resolving the problem with tech support after only a 20 minute chat with a support person in Australia. If I would have gotten SEVERITY 1 at 3:00PM when I placed the call, I would have been done no later than 4:30PM. As it was, this "glorious" support with Oracle wound up keeping me at work until 8:00PM. That's not my idea of good support. I hate support which is why I try to avoid proprietary software whenever possible. The level of support I get from our paid contracts is never as good as the level of support I can get for free from the free/open source camp.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
I'm gunna go file some claims on DEL.EXE - it's messing my data every damned time!
cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
5 fscking dollars??? You must be kidding me, how can world survive with clowns of this size!
And no, it's not April 1st yet....
Thanks. Unlike certain politicians, I feel that the facts are important!
The sad thing is that someone wasted a mod point on moderating it down as "offtopic" even though I'd marked it as such in the title.
If your comment title says 'Re: Foo', I'm not likely to read it.
"Giggle giggle, snort. I say Microsoft's bad, do you like me yet?"
"Derp de derp."