If any company really wants to switch to Linux,
even in the threat of some bullshit lawsuit,
they can play the legal corporate entity games
such as holding companies, create a new company
that (at that point) does not have any Windows
licensing stranglehold over them, and transfer
selected assets (sans Windows) to the new company,
and fold the old company. Granted, that costs money.
IMO, the best strategy is to be patient, and
let MS screw themselves up.
You have described how the current situation came to be. Basically, Microsoft should take all of the
blame. They cranked out so many crank MSCEs that
the 'IT' industry became watered down to the point
that hiring decisions based upon keyword searches
no longer paid off. Management, in their infinite
stupidity, justifies to themselves that they no
longer can find affordable productive workers,
so they make the situation worse with the H1B visa.
What will happen is normal 'corporate darwinism',
and these dinosaurs will die off due to the own
short-sightedness.
Unfortunately, under the current administration,
they are being given extended life-support, so
the problem may take many years to balance out.
So, my message is this: replace the dinosaurs,
start your own company and compete with them.
If you don't, you may die before the dinosaurs do.
We must assume that a truly competent attacker already has access to the Windows source code. The Russian and Chinese governments have legitimate access, and therefore their intelligence services have access. A related interesting thought exercise would be how much cost would be required by a criminal organization in an attempt to exfiltrate the latest copy of the source code from Microsoft.
Physical access seems an obvious one, and probably would take only a few-hundred-dollar bribe and a USB key handed to a janitor in order to gain a network toehold. Network attacks also seem a possibility, specifically IE attacks. Corrupt some major banner server and, rather than being indiscriminate, respond with a Trojan only to Microsoft-owned IP addresses. In either case, the risk of capture is reasonably low, the cost in time is measured in man-months or less, and the dollar cost negligible.
Thus, in all cases, the motto is clear: We MUST assume that truly bad guys have the latest Windows source code, if the bad guys think they would benefit from it. Not a happy thought, especially when combined with the observation that Windows is Critical Infrastructure.
I must agree. Last I heard, MS still had their source.
True. It's an interesting trap for MS now.
If the government keeps mentioning network
security, more companies will seriously start
to look for non-MS solutions. MS will of course
continue the FUD to prevent this, and likely
pressure the government to STFU. But, of course
that does not solve anything. The race is on,
and the question is whether or not some large company is going to be burned badly in their MS
environment before MS actually gets their security
act together.
Correct. Hence the MSSE will be a competitor
to Google, and that's a really good thing.
I know, I just found this
article
moments ago just by searching for
competitor to Google.
Man, I love those search engines. You can trust them to bring you the most accurate information ever!
Slashdot Mirror
The Oakland Tribune could just *leak* them again to another paper.
I hope they have not complied with the court order, it is blatantly unconstitutional.
Tic-Tac-Toe IIRC.
What is war?
And if you disagree with what the PTB *say* is "legal" war, does that make you a terrorist?
Note to mods: If you don't get it, don't moderate.
Mickey.
Can you envision a major crisis where IT people have to work more overtime in the near future?
Seems like this is a proactive move to prevent the unionizing of IT people (and the others mentioned).
How about a fresh Diebold story?
Links here
No more than 3 years. A patent should not live any longer than the asset write-off time allowed from a tax perspective.
then
s/SCO/MS/g
See a pattern?
IMO, the best strategy is to be patient, and let MS screw themselves up.
What will happen is normal 'corporate darwinism', and these dinosaurs will die off due to the own short-sightedness.
Unfortunately, under the current administration, they are being given extended life-support, so the problem may take many years to balance out.
So, my message is this: replace the dinosaurs, start your own company and compete with them. If you don't, you may die before the dinosaurs do.
And Nicholas Weaver wrote:
We must assume that a truly competent attacker already has access to the Windows source code. The Russian and Chinese governments have legitimate access, and therefore their intelligence services have access. A related interesting thought exercise would be how much cost would be required by a criminal organization in an attempt to exfiltrate the latest copy of the source code from Microsoft.
Physical access seems an obvious one, and probably would take only a few-hundred-dollar bribe and a USB key handed to a janitor in order to gain a network toehold. Network attacks also seem a possibility, specifically IE attacks. Corrupt some major banner server and, rather than being indiscriminate, respond with a Trojan only to Microsoft-owned IP addresses. In either case, the risk of capture is reasonably low, the cost in time is measured in man-months or less, and the dollar cost negligible.
Thus, in all cases, the motto is clear: We MUST assume that truly bad guys have the latest Windows source code, if the bad guys think they would benefit from it. Not a happy thought, especially when combined with the observation that Windows is Critical Infrastructure.
I must agree. Last I heard, MS still had their source.
For example, I've experienced major stress doing volume testing.
It's now being challenged by PUBPAT.
That's because the German legal system has the will to stand up to SCO.
A large rock.
True. It's an interesting trap for MS now. If the government keeps mentioning network security, more companies will seriously start to look for non-MS solutions. MS will of course continue the FUD to prevent this, and likely pressure the government to STFU. But, of course that does not solve anything. The race is on, and the question is whether or not some large company is going to be burned badly in their MS environment before MS actually gets their security act together.
don't look to SCO for any Open Source Logic Analyzers.
Yes, I prefer my girlfriend that way also.
Your being is an integral part of Google.
Man, I love those search engines. You can trust them to bring you the most accurate information ever!
It's even better than TV!!! Really, dude.
Intel also fell behind because they spent too much time in bed with MS marketing.
So, it's not just a benefit to Intel and AMD, but really to everyone, even those who run Linux on x86, since it helps keep the hardware costs down.
Telnet should *not* be used at all, and ACL-ing by ip is worthless if the environment can be arp poisoned.
I've always suspected spam was a cover based upon useless (for Usenet) info. The TLA agencies should know about this also.