"Exploit yes, root exploit, no, not unless the user is running as an Administrator. IE still runs at the privileges of the logged on user."
the sad truth is that no one I know has folks set up as "Users" or "Limited Accounts" unless its a guest account. Also, any new computers that are purchased end up with XP asking for a person's name to set up an account. This account is always an account in the administrators group. 99% of XP users use this account at their primary, not understanding the difference.
In addition, those that do set up limited accounts many times discover that [insert pre-XP software package here] doesn't work with Limited accounts so they revert back, or they use the Power User account which is almost as bad as administrator.
FTA: ------------------ Poole said Microsoft expects the demand to come from enterprises in developed countries, all sizes of companies in developing markets and from OEMs that tailor Windows for specific markets.
Many industry watchers have talked about the Windows desktop market as being a saturated one, with little potential for the huge unit and revenue growth of the past. But that's not the picture Microsoft's painting.
"PC replacements are at the top of what IT will be spending on this year," Poole predicted. ----------------
I know at work it seems that everyone is getting a laptp in addition to their workstation, and sometimes we are given workstations to take home for "remote office" capability. If this is a widespread business trend, then yeah their perceived OS sales would "double" even though their user base doesn't really.
Aside from this possibility I think the article is just MS wishful thinking. Open Source isn't going away. On the contrary, it will only get better and better. I see MS having blinders on when it comes to OSS. They are in denial, and they are trying to distract everyone from realizing how truly innovative and progressive OSS is.
Once the Linux vendors of the world achieve hardware driver, gaming, and interoperability capability on the order of Windows (and they are VERY close to this) then there will truly be NO reason to buy Microsoft.
Longhorn is MS' next big thing. Linux has an opportunity between now and then to seize the tactical initiative. GO FOR IT!!
"This is a problem that stems from an IDIOTIC approach to security that was motivated by the desire to destroy Netscape as a company."
What I meant was that IE was reaping what it sowed, i.e. they didn't adhere to standards and forced the browser integration which has opened them up to security holes and a permanent bad road that they now must stay on or face giving up their dominance. Its a lose-lose situation for them, even though they perceive it as a win.
You watch - They will continue to repeat their errors. They expressed no interest in adhering to the standards because it means their entire browser strategy is trashed and they would cause a major redesign to the Windows OS. By making the OS/Browser increasingly complex they will leave more and more holes open. It will be a never ending cycle and OpenSourc, standards compliant implementations will continue to gain.
People/businesses/the Press WILL get tired of the treadmill, and they WILL step off.
notice how they kept side-stepping the questions about being W3C compliant!
Obviously if they were 100% compliant then web developers would stick to the standards, and any compliant browser would work and IE would start to lose market share.
Notice that his responses kept repeating the "needing to support current customer configs". What he really means is "ensuring continued customer lock-in to IE and Windows".
I bet they had PR coaches sitting right next to them the whole time the chat was going on.
I don't know about you, but I USED to spend ~$40 month on average on new software. That lasted for about 3 years until I started seeing that:
1) The new software more often then not did not include enough useful features to justify my purchase (i.e. didn't do anything different really, just had new icons) 2) I just got bored with it, and the new version didn't spice up my intrest. 3) I figured out exactly what I wanted to use my computer for and I already had all the software tools to accomplish those tasks (see #1). 4) I realized that I was spending $480 a year on stuff that didn't really enhance my life. Now I put that money towards our investments so I can retire early:-) and sometimes tools for my garage (which by the way will last a lifetime, unlike the software, which dies as soon as the hardware or OS morphs enough). 5) I discovered Open Source. God Bless Open Source.
Marketing folks don't understand that though. To them, faster product cycles = quicker access to profits and market advantage.
To engineering it means rushed deveopment schedules, hurried design, tooling, testing, and release to production.
Its a delicate scale. Push it too far towards marketing and you risk significant quality problems. Push it too far toward engineering and you miss your market window.
I must disagree with your basic argument. Unfortunately this line of thought doesn't help. The truth is that we realy DO want Joe-Sixpack to have an easy install experience. The business users are, in fact, just Joe-Sixpack while at work. If its not easy to install/configure at home, why would we expect that somehow magically that a business folks would enjoy it any more?
In addition, Joe-Sixpack represents a grass-roots level potential for evangalizing and adopting Linux. This will, in turn, blossom into a growing "buzz" that will infiltrate the business place.
I am a home user, albeit a level or above the Joe-Sixpack level, and I have to admit that Linux (Suse is my flavor of choice) is ALMOST good enough for me to port over. It is ONLY the increasing strides in the ease of install and configuration, combined with the increasing improvement in hardware support that keep me clinging to the hope that someday I can be Microsoft free.
It pains me to hear arguments like you mentioned where "uzers don't matter". We do.
FTA >>"For my money, either ZoneAlarm 4.5 or 5.0 Pro or Symantec's Personal Firewall 2004 would be better bets for protecting road warriors out in the wild. On the other hand, Windows Firewall is about to be onboard, and you already paid for it."
This is why Microsoft kills competition with bundling. In this case, though, its damned if you do don't.
There are a number of significant vulnerabilities in technologies relating to the IE domain/zone security model, the DHTML object model, MIME type determination, and ActiveX. It is possible to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities by using a different web browser, especially when browsing untrusted sites. Such a decision may, however, reduce the functionality of sites that require IE-specific features such as DHTML, VBScript, and ActiveX. Note that using a different web browser will not remove IE from a Windows system, and other programs may invoke IE, the WebBrowser ActiveX control, or the HTML rendering engine (MSHTML)."
This is why we must be careful in what functions are imitated in the open source world from the microsoft world. Security and robust design should be first and foremost.
BTW, I installed Suse 9.1 yesterday. I have to say "congratulations" and "excellent work" to all you who contributed your sleepless nights and bandwidth into the continuing Linux effort. You are truly contributing to a cause that is and will change the face of computing for the better.
I would absolutely love to contribute in some fashion to the cause (other than with $$ - I do that already). Unfortunately I am not a programmer, just a lowly project manager with a geek gene. Any suggestions/links??
how loaded your car is, how much you drive up hill, how often you brake or decelerate, now hard you accelerate, which way and how hard the wind is blowing (literally), how bald your tires are and whether they are aligned, is it a hot day, cold day...the list goes on.
seriously there are tons of physical factors that will affect your mileage. The EPA estimates are just that - estimates. Values that are in the ballpark of what you can expect to get.
no one really sees it in the financials, but it detracts from the bottom line none the less.
Options are being abused in my opinion, and requiring them to be expensed is simply a formal way of reporting to investors how the company is spending the profits. If I own stock in a company, I want to know how many options the executives are getting. Its very telling to me.
my cable modem was suffering similar random spurts of connection. For days I called the cable company and each time they tried to tell me my router/drivers/network card was the problem. Finally I got a field tech support guy to come out. The real problem? My neighbor had a bad cable to their house, and a lazy field tech guy had cranked up the signal at the neighborhood cable trunk to try to overcome the problem, which had the effect of overdriving the signal to my cable modem and caused random spurts of disconnection. The new field guy installed a new cable to my neighbor's house and cranked the signal back down to normal at the trunk. Problem solved. Sheesh.
less is more. simplicity is elegance. plugins are good - they let the uses add features if they like, but don't bloat up the host program with unnecessary whiz-bang-nice-to-haves.
If Linux wants to supplant Windows, then you have to cater to the target audiences that comprise the Windows world. Linux can easily target the system admin crowd, as system admins are technically savy enough to deal with its nuances and actually will appreciate its complex beauty.
Linux cannot, today, target the home user or even small business category _effectively_. This is because this market segment demands different (more simplistic) criteria (the pointy-clicky crowd).
So the trick therefore is to retain the technical prowess while providing for the pointy-clicky types. The system admins should be able to command-line to thier hearts content, but the average users should be able to install, use, and upgrade Linux software AND hardware without being attacked by the command line demons. When we have achieved that nirvana then Linux will conquer all.
Until then, its a hobby OS for anyone other than the hardcore non-nOObs.
That said, I am looking forward to the day when I can be Linux only, but for now its to much hastle for the benefit.
I disagree. If North Korea harbored or bred terrorists then yes, you would be correct and we absolutely would have attacked them ultimately.
Barring that, the nuclear issue is extremely scary. Not because they have them, but because of who may be able to purchase the technology from them.
Regardless, one can see in reading about the issue that we (the US) want China, South Korea, etc to confront the situation diplomatically (as apposed to militarily).
And you are incorrect about your last statement. Our best intelligence indicated that Iraq still had WMDs in their possession and plans to develop more. This coupled with the terrorist environment and the threat of something bigger than 9/11 prompted us to take pre-emptive action. Discovering the lack of WMDs once we got in there does not mean we intentionally lied or that we are bullies and thugs - it means we were wrong, which is a different issue.
Now that we made the Iraq mess, we need to see it through - to make it right. Its our responsiblity. A bully would just leave - we won't.
First, conflict is inevitable with evil people in the world. That can't be argued.
Imagine, if in Iraq or Afganistan for example, we did not have laser guided bombs or fancy radar or unmanned drones? Can you imagine the increased civilian and American casualties?
The concept is that if you can quickly and accurately eliminate the enemy you can shorten the conflict and (yes) save (overall) casualties. My statement is, therefore, accurate.
Your are correct in that guerilla warfare is a different animal, and using hospitals, churches, schools, and neighborhoods as attack points is harder to deal with. But that is an entirely different issue. That's where night scopes and fancy sniper rifles come in - again developed with military R&D money.
War is wrong from the standpoint of humanity, but it is a reality. We must be prepared to face it. I do not however believe is war as a default tool, and therefore I have problems with Bush's Iraq mess.
really. Its more of a flamebait in its current form.
- America absolutely does NOT use brute force to solve everything. - The purpose of better weapons is to shorten conflicts and save casualties. - We don't invade every country that looks at us funny. North Korea is a good modern day example. - Many countries do hate Americans, but some of that hate is rooted more in jealously than disgust. By they way, every country is hated by somebody. We have a lot of friends too.
I can't believe someone moded this insightful because its absolutely not.
Slashdot Mirror
so truly they will pay nothing for the judgements that went against them?
the last thing OSS needs is to be associated with virus writers. maybe you were going for a +1 Funny?
"Exploit yes, root exploit, no, not unless the user is running as an Administrator. IE still runs at the privileges of the logged on user."
the sad truth is that no one I know has folks set up as "Users" or "Limited Accounts" unless its a guest account. Also, any new computers that are purchased end up with XP asking for a person's name to set up an account. This account is always an account in the administrators group. 99% of XP users use this account at their primary, not understanding the difference.
In addition, those that do set up limited accounts many times discover that [insert pre-XP software package here] doesn't work with Limited accounts so they revert back, or they use the Power User account which is almost as bad as administrator.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
(a) folks
FTA:
------------------
Poole said Microsoft expects the demand to come from enterprises in developed countries, all sizes of companies in developing markets and from OEMs that tailor Windows for specific markets.
Many industry watchers have talked about the Windows desktop market as being a saturated one, with little potential for the huge unit and revenue growth of the past. But that's not the picture Microsoft's painting.
"PC replacements are at the top of what IT will be spending on this year," Poole predicted.
----------------
I know at work it seems that everyone is getting a laptp in addition to their workstation, and sometimes we are given workstations to take home for "remote office" capability. If this is a widespread business trend, then yeah their perceived OS sales would "double" even though their user base doesn't really.
Aside from this possibility I think the article is just MS wishful thinking. Open Source isn't going away. On the contrary, it will only get better and better. I see MS having blinders on when it comes to OSS. They are in denial, and they are trying to distract everyone from realizing how truly innovative and progressive OSS is.
Once the Linux vendors of the world achieve hardware driver, gaming, and interoperability capability on the order of Windows (and they are VERY close to this) then there will truly be NO reason to buy Microsoft.
Longhorn is MS' next big thing. Linux has an opportunity between now and then to seize the tactical initiative. GO FOR IT!!
"This is a problem that stems from an IDIOTIC approach to security that was motivated by the desire to destroy Netscape as a company."
What I meant was that IE was reaping what it sowed, i.e. they didn't adhere to standards and forced the browser integration which has opened them up to security holes and a permanent bad road that they now must stay on or face giving up their dominance. Its a lose-lose situation for them, even though they perceive it as a win.
You watch - They will continue to repeat their errors. They expressed no interest in adhering to the standards because it means their entire browser strategy is trashed and they would cause a major redesign to the Windows OS. By making the OS/Browser increasingly complex they will leave more and more holes open. It will be a never ending cycle and OpenSourc, standards compliant implementations will continue to gain.
People/businesses/the Press WILL get tired of the treadmill, and they WILL step off.
aint life cool?
notice how they kept side-stepping the questions about being W3C compliant!
Obviously if they were 100% compliant then web developers would stick to the standards, and any compliant browser would work and IE would start to lose market share.
Notice that his responses kept repeating the "needing to support current customer configs". What he really means is "ensuring continued customer lock-in to IE and Windows".
I bet they had PR coaches sitting right next to them the whole time the chat was going on.
Hilarious!
I don't know about you, but I USED to spend ~$40 month on average on new software. That lasted for about 3 years until I started seeing that:
:-) and sometimes tools for my garage (which by the way will last a lifetime, unlike the software, which dies as soon as the hardware or OS morphs enough).
1) The new software more often then not did not include enough useful features to justify my purchase (i.e. didn't do anything different really, just had new icons)
2) I just got bored with it, and the new version didn't spice up my intrest.
3) I figured out exactly what I wanted to use my computer for and I already had all the software tools to accomplish those tasks (see #1).
4) I realized that I was spending $480 a year on stuff that didn't really enhance my life. Now I put that money towards our investments so I can retire early
5) I discovered Open Source. God Bless Open Source.
Marketing folks don't understand that though. To them, faster product cycles = quicker access to profits and market advantage.
To engineering it means rushed deveopment schedules, hurried design, tooling, testing, and release to production.
Its a delicate scale. Push it too far towards marketing and you risk significant quality problems. Push it too far toward engineering and you miss your market window.
I must disagree with your basic argument. Unfortunately this line of thought doesn't help. The truth is that we realy DO want Joe-Sixpack to have an easy install experience. The business users are, in fact, just Joe-Sixpack while at work. If its not easy to install/configure at home, why would we expect that somehow magically that a business folks would enjoy it any more?
In addition, Joe-Sixpack represents a grass-roots level potential for evangalizing and adopting Linux. This will, in turn, blossom into a growing "buzz" that will infiltrate the business place.
I am a home user, albeit a level or above the Joe-Sixpack level, and I have to admit that Linux (Suse is my flavor of choice) is ALMOST good enough for me to port over. It is ONLY the increasing strides in the ease of install and configuration, combined with the increasing improvement in hardware support that keep me clinging to the hope that someday I can be Microsoft free.
It pains me to hear arguments like you mentioned where "uzers don't matter". We do.
FTA >>"For my money, either ZoneAlarm 4.5 or 5.0 Pro or Symantec's Personal Firewall 2004 would be better bets for protecting road warriors out in the wild. On the other hand, Windows Firewall is about to be onboard, and you already paid for it."
This is why Microsoft kills competition with bundling. In this case, though, its damned if you do don't.
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/713878
"Use a different web browser
There are a number of significant vulnerabilities in technologies relating to the IE domain/zone security model, the DHTML object model, MIME type determination, and ActiveX. It is possible to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities by using a different web browser, especially when browsing untrusted sites. Such a decision may, however, reduce the functionality of sites that require IE-specific features such as DHTML, VBScript, and ActiveX. Note that using a different web browser will not remove IE from a Windows system, and other programs may invoke IE, the WebBrowser ActiveX control, or the HTML rendering engine (MSHTML)."
This is why we must be careful in what functions are imitated in the open source world from the microsoft world. Security and robust design should be first and foremost.
BTW, I installed Suse 9.1 yesterday. I have to say "congratulations" and "excellent work" to all you who contributed your sleepless nights and bandwidth into the continuing Linux effort. You are truly contributing to a cause that is and will change the face of computing for the better.
I would absolutely love to contribute in some fashion to the cause (other than with $$ - I do that already). Unfortunately I am not a programmer, just a lowly project manager with a geek gene. Any suggestions/links??
how loaded your car is, how much you drive up hill, how often you brake or decelerate, now hard you accelerate, which way and how hard the wind is blowing (literally), how bald your tires are and whether they are aligned, is it a hot day, cold day...the list goes on.
seriously there are tons of physical factors that will affect your mileage. The EPA estimates are just that - estimates. Values that are in the ballpark of what you can expect to get.
no one really sees it in the financials, but it detracts from the bottom line none the less.
Options are being abused in my opinion, and requiring them to be expensed is simply a formal way of reporting to investors how the company is spending the profits. If I own stock in a company, I want to know how many options the executives are getting. Its very telling to me.
"an excess in freedom of speech and freedom of thought, by means of the dissemination of information." Ummmmkay...
http://www.killdisk.com/eraser.htm
Its worth its weight in gold.
my cable modem was suffering similar random spurts of connection. For days I called the cable company and each time they tried to tell me my router/drivers/network card was the problem. Finally I got a field tech support guy to come out. The real problem? My neighbor had a bad cable to their house, and a lazy field tech guy had cranked up the signal at the neighborhood cable trunk to try to overcome the problem, which had the effect of overdriving the signal to my cable modem and caused random spurts of disconnection. The new field guy installed a new cable to my neighbor's house and cranked the signal back down to normal at the trunk. Problem solved. Sheesh.
less is more. simplicity is elegance. plugins are good - they let the uses add features if they like, but don't bloat up the host program with unnecessary whiz-bang-nice-to-haves.
Firefox with AdBlocker and Thunderbird ROCK.
All this will teach students is how to use tools from the internet to write their "A" papers for them.
*rolls eyes*
If Linux wants to supplant Windows, then you have to cater to the target audiences that comprise the Windows world. Linux can easily target the system admin crowd, as system admins are technically savy enough to deal with its nuances and actually will appreciate its complex beauty.
Linux cannot, today, target the home user or even small business category _effectively_. This is because this market segment demands different (more simplistic) criteria (the pointy-clicky crowd).
So the trick therefore is to retain the technical prowess while providing for the pointy-clicky types. The system admins should be able to command-line to thier hearts content, but the average users should be able to install, use, and upgrade Linux software AND hardware without being attacked by the command line demons. When we have achieved that nirvana then Linux will conquer all.
Until then, its a hobby OS for anyone other than the hardcore non-nOObs.
That said, I am looking forward to the day when I can be Linux only, but for now its to much hastle for the benefit.
Right on the money, though it seems some individuals cannot understand this concept.
Thanks for putting it correctly and technically.
I disagree. If North Korea harbored or bred terrorists then yes, you would be correct and we absolutely would have attacked them ultimately.
Barring that, the nuclear issue is extremely scary. Not because they have them, but because of who may be able to purchase the technology from them.
Regardless, one can see in reading about the issue that we (the US) want China, South Korea, etc to confront the situation diplomatically (as apposed to militarily).
And you are incorrect about your last statement. Our best intelligence indicated that Iraq still had WMDs in their possession and plans to develop more. This coupled with the terrorist environment and the threat of something bigger than 9/11 prompted us to take pre-emptive action. Discovering the lack of WMDs once we got in there does not mean we intentionally lied or that we are bullies and thugs - it means we were wrong, which is a different issue.
Now that we made the Iraq mess, we need to see it through - to make it right. Its our responsiblity. A bully would just leave - we won't.
ok let me explain.
First, conflict is inevitable with evil people in the world. That can't be argued.
Imagine, if in Iraq or Afganistan for example, we did not have laser guided bombs or fancy radar or unmanned drones? Can you imagine the increased civilian and American casualties?
The concept is that if you can quickly and accurately eliminate the enemy you can shorten the conflict and (yes) save (overall) casualties. My statement is, therefore, accurate.
Your are correct in that guerilla warfare is a different animal, and using hospitals, churches, schools, and neighborhoods as attack points is harder to deal with. But that is an entirely different issue. That's where night scopes and fancy sniper rifles come in - again developed with military R&D money.
War is wrong from the standpoint of humanity, but it is a reality. We must be prepared to face it. I do not however believe is war as a default tool, and therefore I have problems with Bush's Iraq mess.
really. Its more of a flamebait in its current form.
- America absolutely does NOT use brute force to solve everything.
- The purpose of better weapons is to shorten conflicts and save casualties.
- We don't invade every country that looks at us funny. North Korea is a good modern day example.
- Many countries do hate Americans, but some of that hate is rooted more in jealously than disgust. By they way, every country is hated by somebody. We have a lot of friends too.
I can't believe someone moded this insightful because its absolutely not.