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Symantec Updates Cause Chaos in China
Hello Kitty writes "According to Computerworld, a signature update to Symantec's anti-virus software has knocked out thousands of Chinese PCs. Apparently the latest update for the AV component of the various Norton packages mistook two system files in the Chinese edition of Windows XP SP2 for the 'Backdoor.Haxdoor' trojan. Piracy issues may complicate recovery, since once the updates are installed Symantec says the only hope for reviving an affected system is to re-copy the affected DLLs from the Windows restore disks. Everyone has their official restore disks handy, right?"
Although it seems easy to accuse Symantec of receiving bribes form Microsoft to try to make piracy in China more difficult, this is unlikely to be the case. Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
I'll probably be modded down for this...
So, you have no sympathy for paying customers because many other people in the same country presumably did not pay? I think there are about 1300 million Chineese - you should allow yourself not to judge them all together.
...until some jackass posts a link to the files netapi32.dll and lsasrv.dll under the guise of a fix for these systems, but he has ACTUALLY infected with the backdoor.haxdoor virus?
That makes about as much sense as saying they should nuke all Windows installations because world-wide there's many more pirated ones. And how is that exactly going to do anything:
1. "Damn, my pirated copy stopped working"
"You should have bought a real copy"
"Would that have helped?"
"No."
2. ???
3. Piracy problem solved
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I guess this thread is going to become full of posts in the spirit of "they got what they deserved", as if this was an anti-piracy measure. Of course, piracy of IP is only legitimate when commited within USA, otherwise it is "OMG commies are stealig our moneyz". This was an effing software bug, which casued trouble to everyone, legitimate users too, and I don't see how piracy talk could be relevant. As a side note, having recovery CD's does not have to do anything with piracy. If you pirate Windows, you have all the CD's you need.
Okay, I understand when people say that patches cannot be tested against EVERY software package out there.
But to not test against the core files of the operating system you KNOW they will be installed upon?
And people pay an annual subscription fee for that kind of "service".
> I've got no sympathy for the Chinese.
Expressing as much stupidity in only 8 words certainly is a world record.
What next ? You've got no sympathy for blacks, blonds, left-handed or bue-eyed people ?
Racism at its best !
Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
China is quick to legislate change. I believe after this, all of their social organizations will adopt Linux for the sake of national security.
For years I always installed Symantec products, and before them Central Point and Norton products.
They worked, they worked well, and I could see how they helped me.
Somewhere along the line though they became first large, then irritating, then expensive to keep updated (pay for virus signature updates?), then finally began actually damaging systems.
And somewhere along the line I stopped buying their products, installing their products, and recommending their products.
I've come to view Microsoft the same way. Between excessive DRM, excessive hardware demands, and a generally customer hostile attitude I find it hard to think that I would ever move to a Vista machine. Thus far Windows 2000 still does everything that I need with a lot less hassle.
Someday though I will need to upgrade. The question is what will fill the gap? Linux still isn't there, nor are most Open Source replacements for common Microsoft and Adobe applications.
Is there a company that can step in with a viable replacement for Photoshop or MS Office? Can OpenOffice or GIMP make the final leap to become a reasonable and reliable alternative to those tools? I don't want something that sort of does everything that Photoshop does, I want a professional tool that does everything, and does it equally well.
The door is open, we're just waiting someone to step through.
Three Squirrels
Let's just shorten it to 4 words (including one contraction), and be done with it.
"I've got no sympathy."
See? Even more accurate than before, without the need for any racial discrimination.
Most Windows systems come preinstalled with various backdoors and trojans. All it takes is a little insider knowledge--social connections within the software groups at MS--to know about them, access them, and activate them.
The best part is that it's been going on for 15 years and everyone still acts surprised!
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
Fascinating. So you are floating the possibility that this was PLANNED? And what possible reason could Symantic have for annoying their customers this much?
The "pirates" will have every CD and diskette ever made readily available to them.
The only people who won't have the disks are the home users who have been spending their lives doing things other than storing and tracking everything that ever touched their computer.
But they've been PAYING for the regular updates to PROTECT them from "problems".
Not to mention that many OEM's don't provide the right disks. You get a "recovery" CD which will reformat your box and re-install all the software TO THE CONDITION YOU ORIGINALLY RECEIVED THE BOX.
Too bad about all your files and pictures and such.
Still waiting on the reasons why Symantec would do plan this and test it.
The difference is that when you buy a "real copy" of something, you usually also acquire the privilege to call someone and complain when it doesn't work the way it's supposed to.
In the USA, that's process is called a law suit.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
just another reason symantech is one product that immediately gets deleted from my computer.
Good lord! And how exactly do you manage THAT? The thing is impossible to delete - at least for the layman...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
NOBODY has original install discs anymore. Go buy a PC and see if you get original install discs. You're screwed.
The best you can hope for now is that your machine allowed you to make a set of full system restore discs when you got it. Some of those will allow you to restore individual files, but many of these utilities just re-image your system drive, so you lose everything on there that was installed since the machine was new (at least, anything on the boot partition).
I'd say this is probably MORE destructive to people with legitimate copies, who probably just have such images. The pirates are more likely to have install CDs.
Look people they're just dumb. No company is intentionally going to want to shoot their foot off in China.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
You're ignoring the context in which his words were written. He didn't mean he has no sympathy for Chinese people in any circumstance; if you apply a little common sense it's clear that what he means is that he has no sympathy for the Chinese people pirating Windows who got hosed by this Symantec update. Of course he could have been more specific in his wording, but you are completely disregarding the context. If you take someone's words out of context you can make anyone look like an idiot. Context is everything.
Oh really? And how many Americans have sued MS, despite billions of dollars in damage for lost time and data due to their software not working as advertised over the last 25 years?
The recovery disk shipped with most systems will reset the computer to factory state, deleting all user files. Everybody here does have a recent backup, don't they? And you have all checked recently that it works?
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