First things first. The reason that this is embarrasing for Microsoft is that they've been touting Win2K from the hilltops as being the "Most secure Microsoft offering ever...". So a security hole before the retail date _has_ to hurt!
On a broader note, I see a lot of messages saying that it is the fault of distributions etc that people get bitten by security holes. I disagree. If you have an active system administrator, it's his job to keep up to speed on these things. It's his job to know that he shouldn't run finger and wu-ftpd if the machine is just going to be a mail server. It's his job to evaluate what is on the machine and to run regular penetration tests. Saying it's the distributions fault is wrong. I don't blame car manufacturers because in the default setting the steering will drive me straight into a wall.... I learn to drive rather.
One of the largest problems facing the growing Internet market is that amount of unexperienced sysadmins coming into the game. However, sysadmining is filled with a lot of chicken-and-egg situations. You can't get the experience of how to deal with situations without working, and you're dangerous in a work environment until you have this work experience. Tough one to solve:-) Just thought I'd throw it in...
Whether you agree or not with copyright, you still have to go along with the original author's decision to release their code in the fashion that they choose. Their code == their choice. However, in today's world you don't necesarily need to use that app / solution / whatever.
You have the choice to use free software for most things. I use Linux for everything, and I'm able to read peoples word documents and do everything I used to. And I have the option of contributing back. So I do.
So I guess you show them they're wrong by using an open solution and denying them the profits. If they still want to develop in that style, that's their choice. Their funeral.
I never laugh at clueless users. I laugh at dumb users. A clueless user is a person who doesn't know anything - yet. They may well learn. A dumb user is the guy who assumes he will just be able to operate every aspect of his machine, doesn't read the manual, clicks in places where you haven't told him to, and expects everything to be fed to him with a spoon. For this person, there is no hope. This is the kind of person who when you are walking through something step by step, makes assumptions about what you want him to do next. These assumptions are normally wrong and they waste more of your time trying to get him back to where he started.
Teachers laugh at this kind of student too. Mechanics laugh at this kind of driver. Doctors laugh at this kind of patient. And geeks laugh at this type of luser. If you call a helpdesk, and you co-operate with them and make their lives easier, they won't laugh at you. If you act like a pratt, they will.
And hey, a large portion of the world laughs at the geeks permanently. So what's wrong with us getting a laugh off of their stupidity ?
I think that a goal of 2 million signatures might be slightly ambitious. The last article I read counted Linux users at about 10 million. That would mean that they are asking for about 20% of the entire user base to sign this petition. Even if the numbers are slightly out of wack, I think that the Borland survey got around 100 000 respondents and that was/.'d quite heavily:-)
On a better note, I hope that this does get some things going for Linux in the driver world. I really take my hat off to all the people that keep hammering at companies (Creative labs springs to mind here) to get the specs and then write the drivers so that the same companies who wouldn't help can sell more product. I know Creative have now opened the SBLive driver, but I know a lot of people went through a lot of pain and suffering to get this driver to us.
I believe that one of the main reasons that we have not seen much good financial software for Linux is the commercial cost factor. Traditionally, good financial software cost an arm and a leg, and the companies who developed it made good money out of doing so. I think a lot of these companies have been scared off by the 'Free' aspect of Linux and not wanted to go to all the effort of porting / developing software with no solid financial reward on the table. Another prohibiting factor is the fact that almost all countries that I know of have different tax / accounting laws, meaning that developers have to write multiple versions or you need more developers in more countries working on this. The Gimp works everywhere. Most accounting packages only work in their country of origin.
Many people are talking about moving on and putting this behind you. I think that's exactly what the article on slashdot was about. It is a responsible way to put an ugly situation behind you, and carry on into a future where everyone is treated equally.
Paranoi Aside, because that's the first thing I thought of (amazing how many people saw the potential conspiracy theory huh?:-)) isn't this just more lies from MS?
Straight after the discovery of the ID's Microsoft promised us that they'd erase the databases immediately. If they're able to use these id's it means that they haven't erased the bases. They lied AGAIN....
Slashdot Mirror
First things first. The reason that this is embarrasing for Microsoft is that they've been touting Win2K from the hilltops as being the "Most secure Microsoft offering ever...". So a security hole before the retail date _has_ to hurt!
:-) Just thought I'd throw it in...
On a broader note, I see a lot of messages saying that it is the fault of distributions etc that people get bitten by security holes. I disagree. If you have an active system administrator, it's his job to keep up to speed on these things. It's his job to know that he shouldn't run finger and wu-ftpd if the machine is just going to be a mail server. It's his job to evaluate what is on the machine and to run regular penetration tests. Saying it's the distributions fault is wrong. I don't blame car manufacturers because in the default setting the steering will drive me straight into a wall.... I learn to drive rather.
One of the largest problems facing the growing Internet market is that amount of unexperienced sysadmins coming into the game. However, sysadmining is filled with a lot of chicken-and-egg situations. You can't get the experience of how to deal with situations without working, and you're dangerous in a work environment until you have this work experience. Tough one to solve
Whether you agree or not with copyright, you still have to go along with the original author's decision to release their code in the fashion that they choose. Their code == their choice. However, in today's world you don't necesarily need to use that app / solution / whatever.
You have the choice to use free software for most things. I use Linux for everything, and I'm able to read peoples word documents and do everything I used to. And I have the option of contributing back. So I do.
So I guess you show them they're wrong by using an open solution and denying them the profits. If they still want to develop in that style, that's their choice. Their funeral.
I never laugh at clueless users. I laugh at dumb users. A clueless user is a person who doesn't know anything - yet. They may well learn. A dumb user is the guy who assumes he will just be able to operate every aspect of his machine, doesn't read the manual, clicks in places where you haven't told him to, and expects everything to be fed to him with a spoon. For this person, there is no hope. This is the kind of person who when you are walking through something step by step, makes assumptions about what you want him to do next. These assumptions are normally wrong and they waste more of your time trying to get him back to where he started.
Teachers laugh at this kind of student too. Mechanics laugh at this kind of driver. Doctors laugh at this kind of patient. And geeks laugh at this type of luser. If you call a helpdesk, and you co-operate with them and make their lives easier, they won't laugh at you. If you act like a pratt, they will.
And hey, a large portion of the world laughs at the geeks permanently. So what's wrong with us getting a laugh off of their stupidity ?
I think that a goal of 2 million signatures might be slightly ambitious. The last article I read counted Linux users at about 10 million. That would mean that they are asking for about 20% of the entire user base to sign this petition. Even if the numbers are slightly out of wack, I think that the Borland survey got around 100 000 respondents and that was /.'d quite heavily :-)
On a better note, I hope that this does get some things going for Linux in the driver world. I really take my hat off to all the people that keep hammering at companies (Creative labs springs to mind here) to get the specs and then write the drivers so that the same companies who wouldn't help can sell more product. I know Creative have now opened the SBLive driver, but I know a lot of people went through a lot of pain and suffering to get this driver to us.
Singee number 411
I believe that one of the main reasons that we have not seen much good financial software for Linux is the commercial cost factor. Traditionally, good financial software cost an arm and a leg, and the companies who developed it made good money out of doing so. I think a lot of these companies have been scared off by the 'Free' aspect of Linux and not wanted to go to all the effort of porting / developing software with no solid financial reward on the table. Another prohibiting factor is the fact that almost all countries that I know of have different tax / accounting laws, meaning that developers have to write multiple versions or you need more developers in more countries working on this. The Gimp works everywhere. Most accounting packages only work in their country of origin.
Many people are talking about moving on and putting this behind you. I think that's exactly what the article on slashdot was about. It is a responsible way to put an ugly situation behind you, and carry on into a future where everyone is treated equally.
Paranoi Aside, because that's the first thing I thought of (amazing how many people saw the potential conspiracy theory huh? :-)) isn't this just more lies from MS?
Straight after the discovery of the ID's Microsoft promised us that they'd erase the databases immediately. If they're able to use these id's it means that they haven't erased the bases. They lied AGAIN....