RealSecure Network 7.0, XPU 22.11 and before RealSecure Server Sensor 7.0 XPU 22.11 and before RealSecure Server Sensor 6.5 for Windows SR 3.10 and before Proventia A Series XPU 22.11 and before Proventia G Series XPU 22.11 and before Proventia M Series XPU 1.9 and before RealSecure Desktop 7.0 ebl and before RealSecure Desktop 3.6 ecf and before RealSecure Guard 3.6 ecf and before RealSecure Sentry 3.6 ecf and before BlackICE Agent for Server 3.6 ecf and before BlackICE PC Protection 3.6 ccf and before BlackICE Server Protection 3.6 ccf and before
Assuming this is one vulnerability, I'd have to also assume that these products share some common code or at least a common library with the vulnerability.
I don't see any discussion as to why several different products share the same vulnerability!
That in itself is a discredit to the value of choosing such products. It looks like they rely on some black box code that these companies do not develop themselves and thus doesn't get the type of code review required in a security product.
I did briefly run Black ICE on a machine designated for firewall/gateway several years ago when routers were more expensive than reusing an old PC. I'd likely not do that again, and I'd certainly never recommend using software firewall for protecting the machine running the firewall software.
Re:This is about Server support, not desktop/lapto
on
Dell's New Linux Blog
·
· Score: 1
It is for a University where all full time students, and faculty, get a notebook. About 400 of these are set up to dual boot Linux and Windows XP, and we'd prefer to get one model to provide to all of the 4000+ users. Every couple of years we roll over the hardware and this year is rollover year.
This is about Server support, not desktop/laptop
on
Dell's New Linux Blog
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
As someone who has been working with Dell to evaluate Dell notebooks regarding a possible 4000+ unit purchase, I can tell you that Dell has no official support for Linux, Redhat or otherwise on anything other than Servers.
Our RFQ specified that Linux support on the laptops they provided was required, and yet they provided a model with the Intel 855GM video chip, which is not released as a driver in recent distros such as Suse 9 and Xandros 2. They are following up with a shipment of an alternate model with a Radeon chipset and this should have no problem working. But if Dell were any different than the other guys with regards to Linux support, we would be seeing recognition of the details in our RFQ saying that hardware support under Linux is required. However on quizzing them on which Linux distro they used to verify it worked with Linux, they would not say anything. Dell=HP=Compaq=Gateway, etc., when it comes to their awareness of Linux and hardware support. All of the blah blah blah you read about their support for Linux is only on the server line.
Someone at one of these companies has to get off their ass, call up their hardware vendors and DEMAND that all components provided come with Windows AND Linux driver support. If it doesn't, REJECT the component and switch to another hardware vendor. That is the only way the hardware vendors are going to get the message. It isn't a hard concept. It isn't impossible, it just takes a shift in priorities for the hardware vendor which they will be very happy to do once their bottom line is threatened.
Personally, I let Intel directly know that they could be out of sales of 4000+ of their Centrino chipset if they don't release supported drivers under Linux for our timeline.
Link to news item from December on "crunch"
on
ISS May Have A Leak
·
· Score: 1
Core team of XFree86 separates on David H. Dawes, one the founder of the XFree86-Projekts for the development of a free x-server and present president of the company, which cares for the project, communicated in a Posting on the mailing list XFree86 Developer that the core team of the project will dissolve. Also on the Website from XFree86 meanwhile a short note with the announcement appeared. It is pleased that the majority core of the team its suggestion agreed, writes Dawes. This represents an acknowledgement of the fact that the core team does not represent no more the active, experienced and adept developers. Also it was no more place, at which technical discussions would have taken place. So far there are no further data, who is to resume the tasks, which the core team had actually taken over. In addition above all the supervision belonged over the general development of the project -- which probably the board OF Directors and/or the project responsible persons could carry out with XFree86, Inc.. David Dawes had supplied itself however already lately with some fellow combatants violent arguments, which led also to the door of individual project participants. Thus separated only in October Cygwin/XFree86 von XFree86.org. And Keith luggage pool of broadcasting corporations, over several years member of the XFree86-Kerntruppe, criticized for example already for a long time the development as too slow-acting and too closed -- and in March from the core team was excluded. Luggage pool of broadcasting corporations opened a new branch of development with Freedesktop/X server and supports the project Xouvert, in order to make a faster integration possible of new techniques and advancement (jk/c't)
It appears that Keith Packard is translated into "Keith luggage pool of broadcasting corporations"
In this case, perhaps posting the story is better than no information at all, which was what I experienced when I saw the one line of information on xfree86.org
Not everyone has knowledge of what ever the source is of that email which clarifies it further. If you want to complain about anything, complain about Dawes leaving us in an information vacum!
I suggested this item as well. There is very little imformation about it. If all you read was the one line at xfree86.org, you might wonder what it meant as well:
Core Team Disbands
[30 December 2003]
The XFree86 core team voted to disband itself, effective 31 December 2003.
That is all they wrote!!!!
Putting out this news to get more information is not trolling!!!
Well it is pretty hard to work for Anonymous Coward anyway. Something like Intelligent Gas I would think.
What do you consider sound engineering practise... Staying with 2.0 kernel? Using tube powered computers?
Do you even use the 2.6 Kernel? I'm using 2.6-test11 on an nForce2 based motherboard and I'm getting good results. The only problem so far is that the CD burner software needs to be updated to work with native ATAPI devices rather than SCSI emulation.
If you care to open one of your two shut eyes, you'll notice that in the rest of the computing world, it is quite normal to need new drivers. Do your Windows 98 drivers work in Windows 2000?
One of the successes of Microsoft's hardware compatability is that I can frequently use a driver from Windows 3.1 on my Windows 98 or ME system.
One could also say that 12 year olds can frequently drive a car sucessfully. It doesn't
mean it is a good idea. You'll see Microsoft decided that what you can do in Win 98 is NOT a good idea. That is why Windows 2000 and up have digitally signed drivers that warn if your driver is not known to work. But they still allow you to over ride if you need to, because you do not compile your own drivers and you could be stuck without the "wrong" one. In Linux, you normally compile your own and it isn't an issue.
It isn't Linux that needs to change. It is doing the right thing. It is the hardware vendors. nVidia is nuts about this issue. No one else that I know of releases binary drivers for the sound and ethernet modules, except nVidia.
The cooperation amongst several big players on the Linux Desktop initiative will change this in the next few years. Soon, if you want to supply Compaq, HP, IBM with hardware for their PCs, it will require Linux drivers just as they now require Windows drivers.
Why the ignorant nay-sayers?
on
Xandros version 2
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
First of all, I like gentoo. It suits me fine.
However I'm a techie.
For the rest of the world, computers need to be simple to use. GUIs and friendly interfaces are
a help.
Gentoo has a valid role to play. So does Xandros.
To counter some of the criticisms placed on this site:
It is called Xandros Desktop, not Xandros Server, so no, your SMP machine isn't in the target market. Get over it and find a better suited distro. Even if it did support SMP and
P4 hyperthreading, you would have moved on to
something else.
If a desktop oriented Linux distro comes along
and makes life easy, it doesn't mean it is as
stupid as Microsoft software. That is like saying
all orange colored objects taste like oranges.
Don't knock something you have not tried. I know it is hard for you cynical bastards to hold back, but consider the possibility that you don't have a clue what you are saying!
If you want the number of Linux users in the world to grow, then you should not blindly attack any desktop oriented distro. Or perhaps deep down you want to keep Linux for the elite users.
The Debian under the hood aspect is nice for
those of us who know about this, but it isn't required for the Xandros user to master. Updates
are available through Xandros Network, which
ensures you won't need to learn apt-get or
dselect. However if one needs packages outside of the
few Xandros provides, Debian's set is available.
I've heard that if the right preferences are set
in the apt-sources there will be no danger of upsetting the customized stuff from Xandros (which includes KDE).
Re:It's a Corel system! I know this!
on
Xandros version 2
·
· Score: 1
Many of the people at Xandros were people who had worked at Corel on the previous OS, and were brought in to work on Xandros 2.
So it isn't just the bought code you are getting, but the skill and dedication of the people involved from the previous Corel efforts.
I've used the beta of version 2, and the GUI parts that are included are no joke.
I can set up a samba network printer in Xandros right after install in about 20 seconds. Don't need to read one man page about samba either. I can also set up wireless network NIC with WEP encryption in about 20 seconds. You'd never be able to do the same with any other Linux distribution after a fresh install.
These are things people do now without a lot of options. They also tend to take a full day to get working if you've never dabbled with the likes of CUPS, foomatic, samba and wireless-tools before.
The problem was not specific to IE. I could view the same deceptive link in Mozilla, and using Thunderbird mail didn't provide much more of an alert when hovering over the link (it showed a tiny "..." on the far right bottom of the status line).
I encountered a most devious URL in the spam I
received last weekend. I believe these spams
are timed to launch on the weekend so that law enforcement and banks can't act for 2 days.
If the user name embedded in the URL contains spaces, then the URL can be constructed so that it simply looks like your bank's real domain with no tricks!
Here is the URL I received (in one line):
<a href="http://www.capcity.ab.ca {over 100 spaces which I can't include in a slashdot posting}:UserSession=2f4d0zzz899amaiioiiabv5589955&userrst ste=SecurityUpdate&StateLevel=CameFrom@10-cheapdes ign.com">http://www.capcity.ab.ca/</a>
The 10-cheapdesign.com site is now shut down.
The bad guys somehow have their web server set up to not URL encode the spaces as %20, so you don't see the spaces in your address bar. The real URL you are visiting, is truncated from the view of the browser's address bar. This combined with a well worded email (you can't rely on them making spelling mistakes to catch this), and a complete replica of the website, is a dangerous thing.
On top of that, the warnings in the news and on the bank websites are inaccurate. They say not to send user names and passwords in email. That isn't how the scam works. It appears to be a safe link to your real bank site, unless you check for the presense of spaces in the URL or the SSL certificate on the login page.
Yes, I agree with another poster saying this is way behind the times. Always remember there were times when people questioned the practicality of all technology, even the computer you are using to see this and participate at Slashdot. Cars and traffic control, electric street lights in every town, etc., all had problems and issues and have been handled in some way.
During the last great black out, there was a business that still had power in southern Ontario. Stuart Energy Systems. It was from a hydrogen powered UPS system they develop and sell. Check them out:
http://www.stuartenergy.com
Also check out Ballard Power systems:
http://www.ballard.com
These companies have been around for a number of years now. It is emerging, only on the sense that it is about to become a more consumer level product, but these things have been field tested and there are city buses running on hydrogen fuel cells, etc.
Fuel cells are far more efficient at energy transformation than internal combustion engines. I don't have the exact figures on hand but I believe I've heard that a gasoline engine is about 26% efficient while fuel cell provides about 90% efficiency.
Electricity generation is a different issue. There are many ways to generate it. Hydrogen power is about storing and transporting this energy, not about generating it.
You could argue that we should just use oil and gas, but I happen to have heard there is a finite amount of this.
You guys are missing the whole point. That web space was created *by* the artificial intelligence. It just happens to have a K-TEL sales pitch personality. This was the simpilist AI model to implement for the pilot. The Dan Rather personality upgrade is in the works. Return to the website later to see how the content and web design improves.
I wrote to the TLDP offering my aid to rewrite the Software RAID HOWTO. I also contacted the original maintainer asking whether he was interested in updating it since it was 3 years old at the time and based on 2.2 kernel days. I had a LUG and a professional writer ready to help with the effort and I had just been through the experience of converting drives to RAID 1 and 5.
There were no replies to emails to TLDP or the Software RAID author. I've tried to help. Don't blame people like me for not contributing - it is the system that is fucked (at the present time).
Generally, documentation out there sucks. The only advantage it has over commercial documentation is that the marketing department hasn't replaced all of the identifiers with product monikers that make no sense.
The only way I've found answers is by reading several HOWTOs (one never does it), asking my LUG, friends, and reading O'Reilly books. Oh ya, and banging my head against the wall or giving up works sometimes as well.
What does DVD-RAM do that DVD-RW doesn't?
on
DVD Burner Round-up
·
· Score: 1
I'm buying a model of DVD burner with support for DVD-R/RW and DVD-RAM. I believed the DVD-RW was useful only for movie production and not for backing up PC Data. Other than the physical endurance of DVD-RAM, isn't there another difference in how data can be put on it?
How can police tell if you are pointing the toy version or the deadly version? This is not going to fly, unless in a game arena of some sort, like paint gun wars.
In mentioning that gaming consoles are the exception to the rule, you're on to the critical factors in the differences.
Here are the key aspects that lead to system instability of PCs (Linux or Windows or whatever):
1. Chaos of hardware vendors.
There are thousands of pieces of compatibile hardware for your PC. No one can test all of the combinations and revisions and their various driver and BIOS versions with all of the other hardware and software. If the hardware came from one vendor, or was standardized (which isn't going to happen), then there could be better quality control on the hardware.
When software and hardware are from the same vendor and go through their joint QA, you get better quality and fewer surprises. It isn't perfect, but it is less chaotic. Sun Solaris and Sun hardware is an example of this, and there are many more in the server/mainframe world.
2. Low level of quality control and durability design in hardware engineering and manufacturing
There are more quality checks in how Heinz ketchup is made (tastes the same all over the world with tomatos grown in very different regions) than in how PC components are made.
As a result there are many more DOA hardware, and hardware that behaves flaky.
This is related to keeping prices for the hardware down. Up to now the performance has increased at such a pace no one is complaining if they have to ditch a 2 GB drive and buy a 100 GB drive, or toss out their 486 for a P-III. Contrast that with my Canon AT-1 camera, which is still working fine since 1976 (two minor physical repairs), and my Yahama stereo amp, which is working great since 1989. If computers (and other cheap electronics such as digital cameras) ever reach the point where we expect them to last for 10 years or more, the quality control and durability of the components will have to increase.
3. Chaos of software vendors
Again, there are thousands of software titles and dozens of operating systems and revision/patch levels. It is impossible to test all permutations together. It is usually impossible to test completely all permutations of software options. I was asked to QA a product which had over 8000 different ways the options dialog box could be configured. Of course it wasn't done. We tested only a single option by itself, and not very many combinations were tried before the server product was shipped. I've seen very specific interactions between software products and their DLLs in Windows. This has been mainly fixed by the way Microsoft Windows XP manages DLLs now, but there are still ways that memory and resource leaks can cause one application to poison another. I've also seen Microsoft intentionally leave a poison bug in Internet Explorer to keep a competitor from taking on a role they had planned for IE in the future. They do these things in a very innocent way.
Slashdot Mirror
Assuming this is one vulnerability, I'd have to also assume that these products share some common code or at least a common library with the vulnerability.
I don't see any discussion as to why several different products share the same vulnerability!
That in itself is a discredit to the value of choosing such products. It looks like they rely on some black box code that these companies do not develop themselves and thus doesn't get the type of code review required in a security product.
I did briefly run Black ICE on a machine designated for firewall/gateway several years ago when routers were more expensive than reusing an old PC. I'd likely not do that again, and I'd certainly never recommend using software firewall for protecting the machine running the firewall software.
It is for a University where all full time students, and faculty, get a notebook. About 400 of these are set up to dual boot Linux and Windows XP, and we'd prefer to get one model to provide to all of the 4000+ users. Every couple of years we roll over
the hardware and this year is rollover year.
As someone who has been working with Dell to evaluate Dell notebooks regarding a possible 4000+ unit purchase, I can tell you that Dell has no official support for Linux, Redhat or otherwise on anything other than Servers.
Our RFQ specified that Linux support on the laptops they provided was required, and yet they provided a model with the Intel 855GM video chip, which is not released as a driver in recent distros such as Suse 9 and Xandros 2. They are following up with a shipment of an alternate model with a Radeon chipset and this should have no problem working. But if Dell were any different than the other guys with regards to Linux support, we would be seeing recognition of the details in our RFQ saying that hardware support under Linux is required. However on quizzing them on which Linux distro they used to verify it worked with Linux, they would not say anything. Dell=HP=Compaq=Gateway, etc., when it comes to their awareness of Linux and hardware support.
All of the blah blah blah you read about their support for Linux is only on the server line.
Someone at one of these companies has to get off their ass, call up their hardware vendors and DEMAND that all components provided come with Windows AND Linux driver support. If it doesn't, REJECT the component and switch to another hardware vendor. That is the only way the hardware vendors are going to get the message. It isn't a hard concept. It isn't impossible, it just takes a shift in priorities for the hardware vendor which they will be very happy to do once their bottom line is threatened.
Personally, I let Intel directly know that they could be out of sales of 4000+ of their Centrino chipset if they don't release supported drivers under Linux for our timeline.
http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3660508&p 1=0
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/28/10698 25989738.html?from=storyrhs
You can see more of the original news items with this search:
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF- 8&q=sound+crunch+space+station+international&btnG= Google+Search&meta=
These missions always succeed in bringing more atmosphere to Mars, one air bag at a time.
Whether they burst or deflate normally, the missions have the side effect of bringing a little more gas to the little planet.
by the Google translater: It appears that Keith Packard is translated into "Keith luggage pool of broadcasting corporations"
Not exactly informative. I think we can say Dawes and friends are the real source of "the sky is falling" syndrome, due to the information vacum.
You can't blame people from freaking out when there is a lack of information and context!
In this case, perhaps posting the story is better than no information at all, which was what I experienced when I saw the one line of information on xfree86.org
Not everyone has knowledge of what ever the source is of that email which clarifies it further. If you want to complain about anything, complain about Dawes leaving us in an information vacum!
Putting out this news to get more information is not trolling!!!
BTW, xfree86.org's website is now slashdoted.
Well it is pretty hard to work for Anonymous Coward anyway. Something like Intelligent Gas I would think.
What do you consider sound engineering practise... Staying with 2.0 kernel? Using tube powered computers?
Do you even use the 2.6 Kernel? I'm using 2.6-test11 on an nForce2 based motherboard and I'm getting good results. The only problem so far is that the CD burner software needs to be updated to work with native ATAPI devices rather than SCSI emulation.
If you care to open one of your two shut eyes, you'll notice that in the rest of the computing world, it is quite normal to need new drivers. Do your Windows 98 drivers work in Windows 2000?
Think before you post.
It isn't Linux that needs to change. It is doing the right thing. It is the hardware vendors. nVidia is nuts about this issue. No one else that I know of releases binary drivers for the sound and ethernet modules, except nVidia.
The cooperation amongst several big players on the Linux Desktop initiative will change this in the next few years. Soon, if you want to supply Compaq, HP, IBM with hardware for their PCs, it will require Linux drivers just as they now require Windows drivers.
For the rest of the world, computers need to be simple to use. GUIs and friendly interfaces are a help.
Gentoo has a valid role to play. So does Xandros.
To counter some of the criticisms placed on this site:
It is called Xandros Desktop, not Xandros Server, so no, your SMP machine isn't in the target market. Get over it and find a better suited distro. Even if it did support SMP and P4 hyperthreading, you would have moved on to something else.
If a desktop oriented Linux distro comes along and makes life easy, it doesn't mean it is as stupid as Microsoft software. That is like saying all orange colored objects taste like oranges.
Don't knock something you have not tried. I know it is hard for you cynical bastards to hold back, but consider the possibility that you don't have a clue what you are saying!
If you want the number of Linux users in the world to grow, then you should not blindly attack any desktop oriented distro. Or perhaps deep down you want to keep Linux for the elite users.
The Debian under the hood aspect is nice for those of us who know about this, but it isn't required for the Xandros user to master. Updates are available through Xandros Network, which ensures you won't need to learn apt-get or dselect. However if one needs packages outside of the few Xandros provides, Debian's set is available. I've heard that if the right preferences are set in the apt-sources there will be no danger of upsetting the customized stuff from Xandros (which includes KDE).
Many of the people at Xandros were people who had worked at Corel on the previous OS, and were brought in to work on Xandros 2.
So it isn't just the bought code you are getting, but the skill and dedication of the people involved from the previous Corel efforts.
I've used the beta of version 2, and the GUI parts that are included are no joke.
I can set up a samba network printer in Xandros right after install in about 20 seconds. Don't need to read one man page about samba either. I can also set up wireless network NIC with WEP encryption in about 20 seconds. You'd never be able to do the same with any other Linux distribution after a fresh install.
These are things people do now without a lot of options. They also tend to take a full day to get working if you've never dabbled with the likes of CUPS, foomatic, samba and wireless-tools before.
The problem was not specific to IE. I could view the same deceptive link in Mozilla, and using Thunderbird mail didn't provide much more of an alert when hovering over the link (it showed a tiny "..." on the far right bottom of the status line).
Here is the URL I received (in one line):
The 10-cheapdesign.com site is now shut down.
The bad guys somehow have their web server set up to not URL encode the spaces as %20, so you don't see the spaces in your address bar. The real URL you are visiting, is truncated from the view of the browser's address bar. This combined with a well worded email (you can't rely on them making spelling mistakes to catch this), and a complete replica of the website, is a dangerous thing.
On top of that, the warnings in the news and on the bank websites are inaccurate. They say not to send user names and passwords in email. That isn't how the scam works. It appears to be a safe link to your real bank site, unless you check for the presense of spaces in the URL or the SSL certificate on the login page.
Yes, I agree with another poster saying this is way behind the times. Always remember there were times when people questioned the practicality of all technology, even the computer you are using to see this and participate at Slashdot. Cars and traffic control, electric street lights in every town, etc., all had problems and issues and have been handled in some way.
During the last great black out, there was a business that still had power in southern Ontario. Stuart Energy Systems. It was from a hydrogen powered UPS system they develop and sell. Check them out:
http://www.stuartenergy.com
Also check out Ballard Power systems:
http://www.ballard.com
These companies have been around for a number of years now. It is emerging, only on the sense that it is about to become a more consumer level product, but these things have been field tested and there are city buses running on hydrogen fuel cells, etc.
Fuel cells are far more efficient at energy transformation than internal combustion engines. I don't have the exact figures on hand but I believe I've heard that a gasoline engine is about 26% efficient while fuel cell provides about 90% efficiency.
Electricity generation is a different issue. There are many ways to generate it. Hydrogen power is about storing and transporting this energy, not about generating it.
You could argue that we should just use oil and gas, but I happen to have heard there is a finite amount of this.
Wow, I missed that one at first.
I thought you meant something about "special sauce" and "coming". A burger with the name of
"coming to America" would raise eyebrows.
Oh, well, reading slashdot too early in the morn
You guys are missing the whole point. That web space was created *by* the artificial intelligence. It just happens to have a K-TEL sales pitch personality. This was the simpilist AI model to implement for the pilot. The Dan Rather personality upgrade is in the works. Return to the website later to see how the content and web design improves.
I wrote to the TLDP offering my aid to rewrite the Software RAID HOWTO. I also contacted the original maintainer asking whether he was interested in updating it since it was 3 years old at the time and based on 2.2 kernel days. I had a LUG and a professional writer ready to help with the effort and I had just been through the experience of converting drives to RAID 1 and 5.
There were no replies to emails to TLDP or the Software RAID author. I've tried to help. Don't blame people like me for not contributing - it is the system that is fucked (at the present time).
Generally, documentation out there sucks. The only advantage it has over commercial documentation is that the marketing department hasn't replaced all of the identifiers with product monikers that make no sense.
The only way I've found answers is by reading several HOWTOs (one never does it), asking my LUG, friends, and reading O'Reilly books. Oh ya, and banging my head against the wall or giving up works sometimes as well.
I'm buying a model of DVD burner with support for DVD-R/RW and DVD-RAM. I believed the DVD-RW was useful only for movie production and not for backing up PC Data. Other than the physical endurance of DVD-RAM, isn't there another difference in how data can be put on it?
At Acadia Univerisity, everyone gets a laptop.
If you request it, you can get a Linux/WinXP
dual boot machine. There are network drops
all over the place.
How can police tell if you are pointing the toy version or the deadly version? This is not going to fly, unless in a game arena of some sort, like paint gun wars.
Therefore it doesn't matter whether you own the machine or not, as long as you have access to it.
Enroll in a University that provides notebooks, such as Acadia University in Nova Scotia:
Acadia University
Linux dual boot notebooks available to CS students as well!
In mentioning that gaming consoles are the exception to the rule, you're on to the critical factors in the differences.
Here are the key aspects that lead to system instability of PCs (Linux or Windows or whatever):
1. Chaos of hardware vendors.
There are thousands of pieces of compatibile hardware for your PC. No one can test all of the combinations and revisions and their various driver and BIOS versions with all of the other hardware and software. If the hardware came from one vendor, or was standardized (which isn't going to happen), then there could be better quality control on the hardware.
When software and hardware are from the same vendor and go through their joint QA, you get better quality and fewer surprises. It isn't perfect, but it is less chaotic. Sun Solaris and Sun hardware is an example of this, and there are many more in the server/mainframe world.
2. Low level of quality control and durability design in hardware engineering and manufacturing
There are more quality checks in how Heinz ketchup is made (tastes the same all over the world with tomatos grown in very different regions) than in how PC components are made.
As a result there are many more DOA hardware, and hardware that behaves flaky.
This is related to keeping prices for the hardware down. Up to now the performance has increased at such a pace no one is complaining if they have to ditch a 2 GB drive and buy a 100 GB drive, or toss out their 486 for a P-III. Contrast that with my Canon AT-1 camera, which is still working fine since 1976 (two minor physical repairs), and my Yahama stereo amp, which is working great since 1989. If computers (and other cheap electronics such as digital cameras) ever reach the point where we expect them to last for 10 years or more, the quality control and durability of the components will have to increase.
3. Chaos of software vendors
Again, there are thousands of software titles and dozens of operating systems and revision/patch levels. It is impossible to test all permutations together. It is usually impossible to test completely all permutations of software options. I was asked to QA a product which had over 8000 different ways the options dialog box could be configured. Of course it wasn't done. We tested only a single option by itself, and not very many combinations were tried before the server product was shipped. I've seen very specific interactions between software products and their DLLs in Windows. This has been mainly fixed by the way Microsoft Windows XP manages DLLs now, but there are still ways that memory and resource leaks can cause one application to poison another. I've also seen Microsoft intentionally leave a poison bug in Internet Explorer to keep a competitor from taking on a role they had planned for IE in the future. They do these things in a very innocent way.