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Critical Security Updates Coming To Windows XP, 8, RT & Server
SmartAboutThings writes "On the upcoming Patch Tuesday on July 9, Microsoft is going to bring some notable security updates, that will mostly deal with fixing issues in remote code execution vulnerabilities, which allow attackers to breach in. The security updates will be applied to all Windows versions Microsoft is still supporting (from XP to Windows 8.1)"
I haven't noticed any security problems with Windows. Why do they release this?
That can't be, since Windows has been "completely rewritten" twice between XP and 8.1.
A lot of systems that had to be compromised by the NSA and associates before this patch could finally be released.
...it's a normal Patch Tuesday? How the hell is this news?
My sig can beat up your sig.
I do not have the ability to do so, but could someone that is able to do so please make a close comparison before/after changes?
They might be trying to cover their tracks in terms NSA backdoors--hide the evidence to minimize the coverage--and the changes they make with updates might shed some light on those backdoors.
While I know it wont make me invisible, I voted with my OS and have taken the Linux plunge. I am quite happy and comfortable in Mint. I have found all the tools I need and if nothing else, maybe it will take a few more cycles to keep me under the NSA thumb.
Deleting all those NSA backdoors is a helluva job.
No, No, you don't get it. These are installing the new backdoors.
Doesn't Microsoft patch these kind of security holes every Patch Tuesday? How is this one special?
All joking aside, can any of us trust their patches now that it has been comfirmed that Microsoft is effectively a branch of the NSA? What percentage of these updates were sponsored and ordered by the NSA? Are only 30% of the changes for the benefit of the NSA? 70%? There is no way to know.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
You try skipping releases and suddenly the latest software won't run because it requires kernel X+3 and you have kernel X, it makes it a royal PITA
But there's one big difference. Unlike new major versions of Windows, new versions of Linux, glibc, etc. are available without charge. I didn't have to pay a dime to upgrade Ubuntu from 8.04 through 12.04, apart from the Internet access that I was paying for anyway.
and even if the devs go some way you don't want to go, like the mess that was Pulse Audio or the shit that was early KDE 4 and Gnome 3? Too bad, fuck you
No, fuck Unity. After I failed to get the hang of the Un(usabil)ity that is 11.10's default GUI, I installed Xfce (sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop) and was able to make it mine again.
Most users will not need or ever use the additional advanced features in Windows 8 Pro.
From http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/compare from the Website
1) Provides enhanced data protection with BitLocker and BitLocker To Go to help keep your information secure.
2) Enables you to host a Remote Desktop Connection on your own PC so you can connect to it when you're using a different PC.
3) Connects to your corporate or school network with Domain join.
Linux Users are offered these features in *every* version without the $130 markup.
.How long your computer hasn't rebooted isn't the important bit. What is important, that it will be available when you need it to be and that it won't reboot or crash without your explicit permission. Even though I have set my permissions such that MicroSoft should never ever update without my consent, let alone reboot my machines, it has happened on several occasions that they pushed an update without prior warning and rebooted XP computers.
On any critical infrastructure I'd want to have total control over when something happens and what happens then. Some vendor autonomously deciding to reboot my heart/lung controller during a heart transplant will not do. The same applies to (air) traffic control (ILS in San Francisco anyone?), hight voltage control, nuclear power plants and whatnot. Hell, I don't even want them to reboot my music player if I'm listening to it.
I don't mind having to do regular scheduled maintenance in maintenance windows if I know in advance, during the design phase of the platform. That way, I can decide which exact OS will be the most useful and beneficial for the exact purpose I intend it to have. Any rogue OS that decides to reboot "on it's own" will never ever get a place in any important infrastructure I have, no matter how long uptime some dude on a forum achieves on it.
Any down time outside of service windows is a major issue, regular windows are not only a minor nuisance compared to an incident during production hours, they are also "job security" if you look at it. I don't care how long uptime you get. I just don't want any downtime for myself.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
And as I stated, most users don't care about or even know what those things are.
You don't think users want to BYOD...or not have strangers looking through photos of their children...or help a family member with a technical problem in another state.
I think that covers *all* users. Perhaps instead of stating things you should think them through. these things are available at no cost on linux, and out of the box. Its a shame windows is so far behind.
Except Windows is not *enjoyable*; its universally hated.
Speak for yourself, it's not universally hated. I doubt even the majority hates it, since people keep using it.
All that misses the point which is UNLIKE LINUX with windows....drumroll...the old drivers fucking work! ZOMFG its a miracle,Ballmer must be related to jeebus because i can take this circa 2004 AMD driver disc and IT STILL WORKS even in XP Sp3 with the latest patches! You try getting a nine year old driver, fuck you try getting a 4 year old driver to work in Linux and smell the fail!
That is the ABI difference, and why all OEMs treat Linux like ass cancer, because Windows only changes the driver model when there is a DAMNED good reason to and they try their damnedest NOT to break drivers, the polar opposite of Linux. In windows there is only 2 current driver models, the 2K/XP driver model and the Vista/7/8/8.x driver model...notice something there? Like how 2k and XP (and often even later as i have run XP drivers in Vista/7 for old hardware and had them run fine) can use the SAME DRIVERS and how the same goes for Vista on up?
At the end of the day that is why people would rather steal windows than take Linux for free,because once you get a Windows system running barring user stupidity (why yes i want to win a free iPod, I'll just run Iz_Not_Viruz_is_Entry.exe) or hardware failure that windows system will run, fully supported mind you, for a solid decade without a single driver problem. So AMD dropped support,who gives a fuck? Who is gonna be stupid enough to buy a $400+ card and stick it into an old Pentium 4 running Windows XP? Meanwhile any card that even had just a Vista driver will keep running past the 2020 EOL for Win 7, the 2022 for Win 8, the 2023 for 8.1, so who gives a rat's ass if it ever gets another driver when they have already squeezed as much performance as they can from the hardware?
You see the batshit Linux logic simply doesn't apply to Windows, all Windows users need is a single solid driver and it'll work for the life of the OS, hell just ask my GF, she is running an HD2400XT in windows 7 right now and that is...what? Something like a 6 or 7 year old card? Purrs like a kitten.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
The correct way to say the above is: AMD GPUs are better supported by AMD on Windows than on Linux. It's the manufacturer that usually provides the support and writes the drivers. If Intel integrated graphics were any good I would dump nvidia in a second.
Nooo...the problem is the GPU manufacturers TRIED to work with Linux and got in return rants from kernel devs like the one that is always posted here when you point out lack of ABIs are retarded that says,and I quote, "And I hope we break non free drivers constantly!". This of course shows that FOSS is NOT a philosophy BUT A RELIGION and like religion dogma takes over and removes any chance for common sense.
In reality GPUs have many proprietary pieces that are NOT owned by the GPU manufacturers themselves, such as HDCP (owned by Intel which means AMD and Nvidia have to sign an NDA to use) and support for DVD and H.26x decoding (owned by MPEG-LA) so if you want a 100% functional GPU driver guess what? You can NOT MAKE IT FOSS because you have NO right to give away other people's property!
As for the coward who wants to know why the FOSSies piss me off? I'll tell ya why, because I have blocked ALL Linux articles so those nutballs can have all the circle jerks they want. they want to sit around and whine how nobody will jump through their hoops for their religion? Fine you have your own section, go circle jerk all you want. But that isn't good enough for the FOSSies, they have to come over to the Windows section and whine and try to sell their crazy over here and as a public service I will ALWAYS counter total bullshit with the TRUTH, and the truth is their stupid braindead retarded lack of an ABI driver design DOESN'T FUCKING WORK, it has NEVER FUCKING WORKED and it will NEVER FUCKING WORK, which is why everybody avoids that pile of asscrap!
All you have to do is see where Linux HAS made inroads to see how much their current driver design cripples them. Servers? Companies like HP pay entire dev teams millions of dollars to constantly replace the drivers Linus shits on, embedded? you only need ONE driver because embedded is designed not to be updated...hmmm, neither of those are anything at all like consumer products,are they? hell even Android, current FOSSie darling, imposes VERY strict controls from on high when it comes to drivers and wadda ya know, the fucking drivers work! Praise Jeebus its a miracle!
I am just God damned sick of FOSSies having 20+ years of reality bitchslapping them in the face but like the WBC they hang onto their little Linux bibles and say "La la la, Linus is a God, everyone just can't see his genius, you are all heathens!". That is why I call them FOSSies, because like Moonies they are religious nutballs that hang onto shit that anybody with a functioning brain could tell them will NOT work but because their "dear leader" says it does then it must, because dear leader couldn't possibly be wrong, could he?
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.