Actually Windows has had support for multiple desktops since NT4.0 (maybe even 3.51), but they are only used for such things as UAC prompt, winlogon and screensaver. However, there are add-ons that support multiple desktops, including the Destop Manager Powertoy.
My company encourage you to read and learn on your own and do have some flexibility over taking time out to do so, but while this is usually ok for small focussed topics, it doesn't work well for learning any major topic you're completely unfamiliar with. Having proper, structured, training with hands-on labs is much better at getting you started in this situation.
Another thing that formal courses are good for is that you are out of the office and away from your day-to-day work, so can concentrate on the subject at hand rather that squeezing in a chapter here and a chapter there of some new book you're reading. Whenever I've tried to take time to focus totally on learning anything while in the office, it's usually less successful than I'd like due to interuptions.
I tried both Office 2007 and Vista betas this week and thought they were both excellent - much better than I feared they would be.
Admittedly both require a some element of re-learning, but as a tech-oriented person I quite like to play around with things and see how they work. I am sure plenty of people here would happily spend hours struggling with the latest OSS release to make it work, but when some effort is required in an MS product it's automatically bad.
The ribbon idea in Office is actually very easy to use once you get used to a slightly different way of thinking - changing fonts is trivial, it is one of the default options right there on the ribbon. And I was also very impressed with the "diagnostics" in Vista - when I had some trouble setting up the wireless connection I hit the "diagnose" button and the answer it gave was spot on.
I think after all the bad press your average user is going to be pleasantly surprised when they finally have a look at these products.
No, Bill gates is not leaving Microsoft. He is simply shifting his emphasis from full-time at MS and part-time at his foundation, to part-time at MS and full-time at the foundation. He is still going to be working at MS and actually stated on the webcast that he has no plans to ever leave the company.
"Look at the differences between lower and upper level science classes at the university level. The lower level physics classes are designed to teach you to think like a physicist, while the upper level ones require that you throw out the "facts" you've learned previously in favor of learning how to apply physics in the real world rather than a vacuum."
I've heard lots of people say this, but it just isn't true. I learned about such concepts as "conservation of energy", "Newton's laws of motion" and many more well known ideas in HS and was still using them in my final exams for my physics degree years later. At no point did I have to throw these theories away. Just because I learned about more complicated things like quantum theory and non-linear dynamics later on doesn't make these ideas any less valid or useful.
Sure, you do learn as you progress that things in the real world are usually more complicated than you originally thought and you need to learn new techniques to deal with these situations, but they don't invalidate earlier ideas - this is just a consequence of the fact that you need to understand the "basic" stuff first before you tackle the more challenging areas, and also, certainly in physics anyway, because many real problems are actually intractible as they stand and working with simplified models and approximations is the only way to get an answer.
At all levels of scientific investigation it is important to report your findings as accurately as you can, even when these do not agree with your expectation. However, in beginner science classes (e.g. most HS science classes) students should be given a good grounding in the prevailing theories and techniques. (In fact, as I've experienced, being able to perfrom basic arithemtic operations would be a great start is a lot of cases).
While caution and scepticism are important, these need taught at the right time, and not every activity in a science class is appropriate for this. Unrestricted questioning and an "all possibilities are equal" attitude is what leads to teaching "Intelligent Design" - not everything is a valid alternative to the existing theory and if you have no understanding of existing theories and methods then it's difficult to distinguish good ideas from bad.
Take as an example the classic "Double-slit Experiment. This is performed in physics classes around the world and has been repeated and verified many, many, many times over. If a student fails to get a good fringe pattern from their attempt at this, it is overwhelmingly more likely that they did something wrong or the equipment is faulty than that they have refuted the wave theory of light. So, it would be much more instructive for the teacher to send them back to work out where they had gone wrong rather than make them think up a bogus theory that explains their results. They are not investigation new or poorly understood phenomena, but instead learning the already widely accepted body of scientific knowledge.
Sure you can spend time debating the wave-particle nature of light and you can speculate on other possible reasons for the fringes, etc, but get a good understanding of what the vast majority of physicists already agree on first.
Actually, the BSOD used to have some technical stuff on it in the NT4 days, but it was removed since 99% of users had no ides what it meant.
To really resolve system crashes you need to either live debug or look at a crash dump - the BSOD is not going to help in most cases as it often points to some system component that was running at the time, but actually the culptit was a driver that corrupted memory 10 minutes ago and is now off the stack.
If you do have application or system crashes and see the "Would you like to inform Microsoft" dialog afterwards, then agree. This will send the crash info (a mini crash dump) to MS, where they will use it to determine the current biggest causes of crashes, which are assigned to a developer to resolve. If the code is not theirs (say a 3-rd party driver) they will contact the vendor and help them to resolve the problem.
You'll probably be surprised to hear it, but this system really works. Big OEMs like Dell are also involved to ensure that the drivers and apps they ship are up-to-scratch.
There is no need for there to be any real AI in games, only the appearance of intelligence.
When the makers of Halo were testing the original game they discovered that testers consistently rated the AI to be "smarter" if they changed the game such that it took more shots to kill the aliens.
No changes were made to the way the AI engine worked, just that you had to shoot the bad guys an extra couple of times before they fell over - the testers were fooled into thinking the AI was cleverer than it was and they enjoyed the game more.
How much coding do you think MS developers would get done if they had to act like support engineers for Windows, Office, etc?
If it was a simple matter of each guy answering the odd email, then there would be no problem, but it isn't. That is why Microsoft have a huge support infrastructure with staff who's job it is to help with problems - do you think they'd pay for this if they didn't have to?
If you are one of Microsoft's major customers (so called "premier" customers) or partners there are mechanisms in place to quickly involve developers in support incidents, though this is usually not needed as the support staff can resolve most issues before this point.
This won't scale to the consumer space as there are way too many Microsoft customers there and, knowing such "home users", given the chance they would insist that they need to have the DNS developer on the line just because IE has a "DNS Error" message, meanwhile some huge corporation has lost all name resolution and business is down and losing millions, but the dev is too busy to help.
Slashdotted already, so I'll waste some time while I wait by creating the first post...
Re:Isn't that the ideal of OpenBSD
on
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Normal users in Windows can't do the things you say. Granted many Windows users run as Admin, but this is just their stupidity and not a problem with Windows - these same people would run as Root in Linux if given the chance.
Anyway, Windows 2000, 20003 and XP all come with Windows File Protection (WFP), which would prevent tampering with system files being a problem.
Any protected file (such as Explorer.exe) can be deleted assuming the user has correct permissions (which rules out non-admin users) and the file is not currently in use. However, WFP kicks in almost instantly and replaces the file from a cached version (or from original source if needed).
This is on by default and there is no built-in mechanism for permanently turning it off.
Santa Claus actually originated in European folklore (though the modern image of the jolly bearded guy in a red suit did come from America - Coca Cola in fact).
Halloween similarly has it's origins in European (Celtic) mythology, though, again, the modern "trick or treat" version is American.
Having been picky about your choice of examples, I must say I do agree with you. American culture is spreading everywhere, often to the detriment of local custom/culture.
My company recently run through "culture" training aimed at making employees aware of cultural differences when dealing with other nations. Even though I work with people from all over Europe every day and am fully aware of cultural differences I though it might be interesting. It turned out to be just a day of hilarious stereotypes. Needless to say, the training was written by an American!
Windows 2000 and above include "transparent windows" and contains a setting to have "fading menus", which are essentially windows that grow more opaque over time. Admittedly, the fading is very fast, but it is fading and this becomes more apparent when compared with the alternative "scroll" effect.
Similarly, Outlook 2003 has a really cool feature that shows a small pop-up window in the corner of the screen when a new mail arrives. This fades out over time and disappears, unless the user hovers the mouse over it, in which case it becomes opaque and you can click on it to see the mail.
In general you have a point, the Windows kernel is way more stable than stuff like IE, Explorer, Office, etc, but there are still fixes issued for it.
For example, the recent MS04-011 fix which patches the vulnerability exploited by Sasser actually updates the kernel. If you look in the list of updated files you'll see "ntoskrnl.exe", "ntkrnlpa.exe", etc amongst some other critical system files (such as Winlogon.exe, Lsass.exe, etc)
If you bother looking there are many other fixes that update the kernel, though not all are for security holes, but for other non-exploitable bugs that cause poor performance or incorrect behaviour.
Incidentally, the vast majority of kernel problems (i.e. system crashes) are actually due to 3-rd party drivers. Microsoft receive a huge number of crash submissions each year via it's Online Crash Analysis tool and the data from these is collated and passed to the driver vendor for fixing. So, next time your Windows system crashes and asks "do you want to tell Microsoft?" click "yes" - it really does make a difference!
You're spot on with the environmental regulations point, but it's as much the fault of the state/legal system for allowing this to happen.
When I first left school a number of years ago, I had a temp job for a few months in a local paper mill.
The mill sat on the banks of a local estuary where it pumped out tons of effluent every day. This was all perfectly legal as long as they kept the chemicals and impurities they discharged within certain limits.
I was amazed to find that they were never within the limits. They alway exceeded it by a long way and every month when the local water authority inspected the plant they were fined for this.
The authority had the rights to issue instant fines up to 10,000 per-incident, but never gave anything more than a 200 fine. The mill owners loved this as they reckoned that to upgrade the effluent treatment plant would cost over 50,000, so they could keep paying the fines for years and still make a profit!
All the while the estuary was a different colour each day from the dies and stank terribly at low tide, never mind any possible toxins seeping into the surrounding land/water.
Actually MS have a very cool technique they use that sounds very much like what you mention. It is known as "Intra-package Delta Compression" (IPD). Essentially, they compress one file with a 'normal' compression algorithm, then compress evything else by just packaging the difference (or 'delta') with this file.
If you every recieve a hotfix from MS, try opening the package in WinZip or similar and if it is full of ".p" files instead of 'real' files then it is an IPD package. It's mentioned here:
MS also support 'Express Installs' so that the system is smart enough to only download the files you need for to update and not just everything in a particular fix. That is, if you've already got a newer version of a file from elsewhere, then it is not downloaded, even if the fix you're downloading would normally update it.
SP2 is not just another Service Pack. MS are using this as a means to introduce a lot of new stuff. everything from locked-down DCOM settings, to pop-up blockers and a new version of the Windows Installer.
A lot of stuff is going to break, but I think that this is good in a way. MS have finally put security ahead of backward compatibility. Once these changes are in place and apps are working with them, the system is going to be more secure. For once MS should be applauded - yes, you can argue it's a bit late, but at least they're doing it now.
If you want to check out what changes SP2 actually makes, have a read of this white paper:
Do you mean the Virtual Desktop Manager from the XP Power Toys? The same tool that is explicitly marked at 'unsupported' by Microsoft? The same tool that was created as an afterthought by the developers? The same one that ships with other top-end tools as 'TweakUI', Image Resizer' and 'HTML Slide Show Wizard'?
Yeah, I can see how it must be a real surprise to you when it doesn't work too well.
Its interesting where I go to school lots of people are only intersted in useing Microsoft products. Because they believe thats all that used so its the only thing worth using
It is the best bet given that 95% of PCs run MS software. It would be a pretty poor school that taught its pupils to use software that was used by a tiny fraction of the world. Now software who's main use is to teach something else (say learning French) is ok, but if your aim is to teach IT skills, then surely using the most widely-used and widely-available software is best for the student as they will have some useful skills when they leave.
I happen to tell then that Microsoft probably only has the majority share of users in the US
Well, no. They are the global leader in software and as I mention above near every PC runs their software. Just because you see a lot/.'ers from around the world using something different, doesn't mean that they are in any way representative.
I believe in using the app the does the best job
Actually, everything else you say clearly indicates that you don't. What you believe in is using the app you like/approve of/use/wrote, etc to do the job. Microsoft apps often are the best for the job, but with your policy they'd be disregarded just because they aren't OSS.
If you did believe what you say then you wouldn't insist the Government use OSS, Linux, etc and not closed-source (which is largely taken to mean Microsoft, but actually covers many software vendors) - having favourites is not a good way to run a governemnt.
I know it's hard to believe but Microsoft developers (and other staff) are also 'the people the government protects'. MS is a very American company, so your statement is doubly wrong because recommending MS software would protect US interests more than recommending OSS, which could potentialy be written and distributed without any American input at all, or any gain for America(ns) because no money comes into the country.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKVcQnyEIT8&feature=youtu.be
Already been done: How to win the Lottery
Actually Windows has had support for multiple desktops since NT4.0 (maybe even 3.51), but they are only used for such things as UAC prompt, winlogon and screensaver. However, there are add-ons that support multiple desktops, including the Destop Manager Powertoy.
My company encourage you to read and learn on your own and do have some flexibility over taking time out to do so, but while this is usually ok for small focussed topics, it doesn't work well for learning any major topic you're completely unfamiliar with. Having proper, structured, training with hands-on labs is much better at getting you started in this situation.
Another thing that formal courses are good for is that you are out of the office and away from your day-to-day work, so can concentrate on the subject at hand rather that squeezing in a chapter here and a chapter there of some new book you're reading. Whenever I've tried to take time to focus totally on learning anything while in the office, it's usually less successful than I'd like due to interuptions.
I tried both Office 2007 and Vista betas this week and thought they were both excellent - much better than I feared they would be.
Admittedly both require a some element of re-learning, but as a tech-oriented person I quite like to play around with things and see how they work. I am sure plenty of people here would happily spend hours struggling with the latest OSS release to make it work, but when some effort is required in an MS product it's automatically bad.
The ribbon idea in Office is actually very easy to use once you get used to a slightly different way of thinking - changing fonts is trivial, it is one of the default options right there on the ribbon. And I was also very impressed with the "diagnostics" in Vista - when I had some trouble setting up the wireless connection I hit the "diagnose" button and the answer it gave was spot on.
I think after all the bad press your average user is going to be pleasantly surprised when they finally have a look at these products.
No, Bill gates is not leaving Microsoft. He is simply shifting his emphasis from full-time at MS and part-time at his foundation, to part-time at MS and full-time at the foundation. He is still going to be working at MS and actually stated on the webcast that he has no plans to ever leave the company.
the ability to challenge authority
It's my experience that school children do not lack this ability.
"Look at the differences between lower and upper level science classes at the university level. The lower level physics classes are designed to teach you to think like a physicist, while the upper level ones require that you throw out the "facts" you've learned previously in favor of learning how to apply physics in the real world rather than a vacuum."
I've heard lots of people say this, but it just isn't true. I learned about such concepts as "conservation of energy", "Newton's laws of motion" and many more well known ideas in HS and was still using them in my final exams for my physics degree years later. At no point did I have to throw these theories away. Just because I learned about more complicated things like quantum theory and non-linear dynamics later on doesn't make these ideas any less valid or useful.
Sure, you do learn as you progress that things in the real world are usually more complicated than you originally thought and you need to learn new techniques to deal with these situations, but they don't invalidate earlier ideas - this is just a consequence of the fact that you need to understand the "basic" stuff first before you tackle the more challenging areas, and also, certainly in physics anyway, because many real problems are actually intractible as they stand and working with simplified models and approximations is the only way to get an answer.
At all levels of scientific investigation it is important to report your findings as accurately as you can, even when these do not agree with your expectation. However, in beginner science classes (e.g. most HS science classes) students should be given a good grounding in the prevailing theories and techniques. (In fact, as I've experienced, being able to perfrom basic arithemtic operations would be a great start is a lot of cases).
While caution and scepticism are important, these need taught at the right time, and not every activity in a science class is appropriate for this. Unrestricted questioning and an "all possibilities are equal" attitude is what leads to teaching "Intelligent Design" - not everything is a valid alternative to the existing theory and if you have no understanding of existing theories and methods then it's difficult to distinguish good ideas from bad.
Take as an example the classic "Double-slit Experiment. This is performed in physics classes around the world and has been repeated and verified many, many, many times over. If a student fails to get a good fringe pattern from their attempt at this, it is overwhelmingly more likely that they did something wrong or the equipment is faulty than that they have refuted the wave theory of light. So, it would be much more instructive for the teacher to send them back to work out where they had gone wrong rather than make them think up a bogus theory that explains their results. They are not investigation new or poorly understood phenomena, but instead learning the already widely accepted body of scientific knowledge.
Sure you can spend time debating the wave-particle nature of light and you can speculate on other possible reasons for the fringes, etc, but get a good understanding of what the vast majority of physicists already agree on first.
"They also dropped Monad"
Actually "Monad" is alive and well, now renamed to PowerShell.
You can download RC1 here.
Actually, the BSOD used to have some technical stuff on it in the NT4 days, but it was removed since 99% of users had no ides what it meant.
To really resolve system crashes you need to either live debug or look at a crash dump - the BSOD is not going to help in most cases as it often points to some system component that was running at the time, but actually the culptit was a driver that corrupted memory 10 minutes ago and is now off the stack.
If you do have application or system crashes and see the "Would you like to inform Microsoft" dialog afterwards, then agree. This will send the crash info (a mini crash dump) to MS, where they will use it to determine the current biggest causes of crashes, which are assigned to a developer to resolve. If the code is not theirs (say a 3-rd party driver) they will contact the vendor and help them to resolve the problem.
You'll probably be surprised to hear it, but this system really works. Big OEMs like Dell are also involved to ensure that the drivers and apps they ship are up-to-scratch.
Girlfriend? Have you wandered onto slashdot by mistake? This site isn't for you, trust me ...
There is no need for there to be any real AI in games, only the appearance of intelligence.
When the makers of Halo were testing the original game they discovered that testers consistently rated the AI to be "smarter" if they changed the game such that it took more shots to kill the aliens.
No changes were made to the way the AI engine worked, just that you had to shoot the bad guys an extra couple of times before they fell over - the testers were fooled into thinking the AI was cleverer than it was and they enjoyed the game more.
How much coding do you think MS developers would get done if they had to act like support engineers for Windows, Office, etc?
If it was a simple matter of each guy answering the odd email, then there would be no problem, but it isn't. That is why Microsoft have a huge support infrastructure with staff who's job it is to help with problems - do you think they'd pay for this if they didn't have to?
If you are one of Microsoft's major customers (so called "premier" customers) or partners there are mechanisms in place to quickly involve developers in support incidents, though this is usually not needed as the support staff can resolve most issues before this point.
This won't scale to the consumer space as there are way too many Microsoft customers there and, knowing such "home users", given the chance they would insist that they need to have the DNS developer on the line just because IE has a "DNS Error" message, meanwhile some huge corporation has lost all name resolution and business is down and losing millions, but the dev is too busy to help.
Slashdotted already, so I'll waste some time while I wait by creating the first post ...
Normal users in Windows can't do the things you say. Granted many Windows users run as Admin, but this is just their stupidity and not a problem with Windows - these same people would run as Root in Linux if given the chance.
Anyway, Windows 2000, 20003 and XP all come with Windows File Protection (WFP), which would prevent tampering with system files being a problem.
Any protected file (such as Explorer.exe) can be deleted assuming the user has correct permissions (which rules out non-admin users) and the file is not currently in use. However, WFP kicks in almost instantly and replaces the file from a cached version (or from original source if needed).
This is on by default and there is no built-in mechanism for permanently turning it off.
Santa Claus actually originated in European folklore (though the modern image of the jolly bearded guy in a red suit did come from America - Coca Cola in fact).
Halloween similarly has it's origins in European (Celtic) mythology, though, again, the modern "trick or treat" version is American.
Having been picky about your choice of examples, I must say I do agree with you. American culture is spreading everywhere, often to the detriment of local custom/culture.
My company recently run through "culture" training aimed at making employees aware of cultural differences when dealing with other nations. Even though I work with people from all over Europe every day and am fully aware of cultural differences I though it might be interesting. It turned out to be just a day of hilarious stereotypes. Needless to say, the training was written by an American!
Windows 2000 and above include "transparent windows" and contains a setting to have "fading menus", which are essentially windows that grow more opaque over time. Admittedly, the fading is very fast, but it is fading and this becomes more apparent when compared with the alternative "scroll" effect.
Similarly, Outlook 2003 has a really cool feature that shows a small pop-up window in the corner of the screen when a new mail arrives. This fades out over time and disappears, unless the user hovers the mouse over it, in which case it becomes opaque and you can click on it to see the mail.
Seems like prior art to me.
In general you have a point, the Windows kernel is way more stable than stuff like IE, Explorer, Office, etc, but there are still fixes issued for it.
For example, the recent MS04-011 fix which patches the vulnerability exploited by Sasser actually updates the kernel. If you look in the list of updated files you'll see "ntoskrnl.exe", "ntkrnlpa.exe", etc amongst some other critical system files (such as Winlogon.exe, Lsass.exe, etc)
If you bother looking there are many other fixes that update the kernel, though not all are for security holes, but for other non-exploitable bugs that cause poor performance or incorrect behaviour.
Incidentally, the vast majority of kernel problems (i.e. system crashes) are actually due to 3-rd party drivers. Microsoft receive a huge number of crash submissions each year via it's Online Crash Analysis tool and the data from these is collated and passed to the driver vendor for fixing. So, next time your Windows system crashes and asks "do you want to tell Microsoft?" click "yes" - it really does make a difference!
You're spot on with the environmental regulations point, but it's as much the fault of the state/legal system for allowing this to happen.
When I first left school a number of years ago, I had a temp job for a few months in a local paper mill.
The mill sat on the banks of a local estuary where it pumped out tons of effluent every day. This was all perfectly legal as long as they kept the chemicals and impurities they discharged within certain limits.
I was amazed to find that they were never within the limits. They alway exceeded it by a long way and every month when the local water authority inspected the plant they were fined for this.
The authority had the rights to issue instant fines up to 10,000 per-incident, but never gave anything more than a 200 fine. The mill owners loved this as they reckoned that to upgrade the effluent treatment plant would cost over 50,000, so they could keep paying the fines for years and still make a profit!
All the while the estuary was a different colour each day from the dies and stank terribly at low tide, never mind any possible toxins seeping into the surrounding land/water.
Isn't capitalism wonderful?
Actually MS have a very cool technique they use that sounds very much like what you mention. It is known as "Intra-package Delta Compression" (IPD). Essentially, they compress one file with a 'normal' compression algorithm, then compress evything else by just packaging the difference (or 'delta') with this file.
If you every recieve a hotfix from MS, try opening the package in WinZip or similar and if it is full of ".p" files instead of 'real' files then it is an IPD package. It's mentioned here:
You Cannot View or Extract the Updated Files from a Windows Product Update Package
MS also support 'Express Installs' so that the system is smart enough to only download the files you need for to update and not just everything in a particular fix. That is, if you've already got a newer version of a file from elsewhere, then it is not downloaded, even if the fix you're downloading would normally update it.
SP2 is not just another Service Pack. MS are using this as a means to introduce a lot of new stuff. everything from locked-down DCOM settings, to pop-up blockers and a new version of the Windows Installer.
A lot of stuff is going to break, but I think that this is good in a way. MS have finally put security ahead of backward compatibility. Once these changes are in place and apps are working with them, the system is going to be more secure. For once MS should be applauded - yes, you can argue it's a bit late, but at least they're doing it now.
If you want to check out what changes SP2 actually makes, have a read of this white paper:
Changes to Functionality in Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Windows XP
Lengthy, but worth a read, especially if you have apps that you think might be affected.
A downloadable version is available here.
All anyone seems to be pointing to is the source tree listing in a text file. Wow.
Such a listing for XP has been available on the Sysinternals site for years:
XP Source Tree
Do you mean the Virtual Desktop Manager from the XP Power Toys? The same tool that is explicitly marked at 'unsupported' by Microsoft? The same tool that was created as an afterthought by the developers? The same one that ships with other top-end tools as 'TweakUI', Image Resizer' and 'HTML Slide Show Wizard'?
Yeah, I can see how it must be a real surprise to you when it doesn't work too well.
Its interesting where I go to school lots of people are only intersted in useing Microsoft products. Because they believe thats all that used so its the only thing worth using
/.'ers from around the world using something different, doesn't mean that they are in any way representative.
It is the best bet given that 95% of PCs run MS software. It would be a pretty poor school that taught its pupils to use software that was used by a tiny fraction of the world. Now software who's main use is to teach something else (say learning French) is ok, but if your aim is to teach IT skills, then surely using the most widely-used and widely-available software is best for the student as they will have some useful skills when they leave.
I happen to tell then that Microsoft probably only has the majority share of users in the US
Well, no. They are the global leader in software and as I mention above near every PC runs their software. Just because you see a lot
I believe in using the app the does the best job
Actually, everything else you say clearly indicates that you don't. What you believe in is using the app you like/approve of/use/wrote, etc to do the job. Microsoft apps often are the best for the job, but with your policy they'd be disregarded just because they aren't OSS.
If you did believe what you say then you wouldn't insist the Government use OSS, Linux, etc and not closed-source (which is largely taken to mean Microsoft, but actually covers many software vendors) - having favourites is not a good way to run a governemnt.
I know it's hard to believe but Microsoft developers (and other staff) are also 'the people the government protects'. MS is a very American company, so your statement is doubly wrong because recommending MS software would protect US interests more than recommending OSS, which could potentialy be written and distributed without any American input at all, or any gain for America(ns) because no money comes into the country.