Microsoft's Most Successful Failure

m4dm4n writes "As we near the end of mainstream support of Win2k The Register looks back at what it has achieved. What was meant to be Microsoft's most secure OS ever turned into a disaster. Worm after worm changed the face of internet security in Win2k's first 2 years. Five years down the line the battle is far from won, but the improvements are dramatic." From the article: "Things were different in the year 2000. Programmers felt vindicated that the Y2K bug didn't turn out to be that big of a deal. We made it past January 1st, and then it was time to move on. Windows 2000 came out that first quarter, just as security was becoming more interesting to more people -- and Windows was a good place to start. It was also seemed to be the start of a new breed of Windows hackers."

Comments

Re:oldie but a goodie

[Fjornir]

Fucking dumb. No "goodie" about it, that was just stupid.

Windows RG

[alexhs]

Allmost as annoying as Windows Really Good Edition...

http://www.deanliou.com/WinRG/

The Longtooth Posts

[rice_burners_suck]

Ah, the famous "Longtooth Post" is back! This one is a rerun, folks, but keep your eyes peeled, because I'll be releasing Version 3.0, the Next Generation Longtooth Post, within a week or so.

And now, let us commence, the "Longtooth Post", version 2.89:

Sources whom I consider accurate have told me that despite Microsoft's claims that Longtooth will be released by 2006 or 2007, the planned release date is actually late in 2019. Microsoft's secret goals for this version are:

• To reduce the user's perception of the complexity of Windows.
• To gain increased security from emerging threats, such as viruses, worms, spam, spyware, adware, malware, hackers, and phreakers, among others.

Microsoft will accomplish these goals through a variety of changes. First, Longtooth will no longer be based on the Windows NT design philosophy, as were Windows 2000 and XP. Instead, Microsoft will release MS-DOS 9.0 2003, a 64-bit multithreaded DOS written in VisualBASIC.Net, and Windows Longtooth will run on top of that. Also, Longtooth will contain more code changes than any previous version of Windows, both in the number of changed source lines of code (SLOCs) and in the percentage of the total Windows codebase changed. Tremendous numbers of new features are being implemented in completely new code.

More importantly, Microsoft employees are combing through the codebase, in a relentless search for code that is mature, stabilized, and proven. This search has proved difficult, but when found, such code will be marked for reimplementation. I'm told that most of this code will be reimplemented in VisualBASIC.NET, even if the prior version was written in another language, such as C or C++. Programmers making the new VisualBasic.NET code are not allowed to look at the code that already exists, so that fixes to known issues will not be known until well after the software is deployed to millions of users.

The reason for these changes is simple: Study after study conducted by Microsoft has proven that security through obscurity is the only way to go, especially in an operating system deployed to millions of users, with many instances running mission critical applications in finance, industry, government, and other sectors. Microsoft has identified that viruses, worms, spam, spyware, adware, malware, hackers, and phreakers are able to compromise Windows security because vulnerabilities in the code are known. By changing much of the codebase, especially the stablest and most proven parts, Microsoft will thwart the efforts of malicious programmers, as it will take time for them to find the new vulnerabilities in the unknown code.

To meet Microsoft's first goal of reducing the user's perception of the complexity of Windows, Microsoft will integrate a new technology, dubbed Microsoft Windows User Simplicity And Security Manager 2003, into Longtooth. This technology will hide all configuration settings from the user. All settings will be completely automatic, and the user will have no need to know or care what is under the hood. In reality, Longtooth will be the most complex version of Windows yet, with thousands of configuration settings controlling nearly every function of the operating system. The settings will be produced by discovery algorithms designed to automatically set a "sane" configuration. Since there will be no interface to modify any setting, the user will have no choice in his configuration, thus simplifying the user's perception of the system's complexity.

To meet the second goal of increased security, these settings will be scattered throughout the OS, its components, and in other areas of the file system. For example, Microsoft knows that viruses, worms, spam, spyware, adware, malware, hackers, and phreakers are interested in moving the icons on user desktops without the user's permission, so settings controlling the number and size of icons appearing on the desktop will be scattered throughout parts of the registry, batch files, .ini files, web

Re:say what you want...

[AstroDrabb]

but atleast it didn't took me 4 years to get my printer up and running.

But atleast it didn't took you? Did it took you 4 years to pass English 101?

How did it take you "4 years to get your printer up and running"? I installed my HP PSC Scanner/Printer/Copier under Fedora Core Linux in about 15 seconds. It actually took less time under Linux than under MS Windows XP. Under WinXP I had to follow _very_ critical step as to when I plugged in the USB printer. If you plug the USB cable too soon, you would have to download a special remove program from HP and start over. Under Linux, I booted with the HP printer plugged in, and then just picked it from a list and it was installed with support for scanning and printing. Maybe try not to be so theatrical next time?

but why does it always have to be win=bad lin=good everywhere.

I know it is not everywhere. There are plenty of pro-MS sites you can go to that pretty much sound the reverse of /. as in "win=good, lin=bad, mac=bad". Heck, most of the major game sites are all pro-MS. Those game site users don't care about OS features, they only care about being able to play games. Again, most of the pro-gamers out there think "win=good,lin=bad,mac=bad". It all comes down to the audience. Most of the /. users are smart geeks and as such see through the MS marketing crap.