I think this case will fail, ultimately, because it is too extreme, it seeks too much, it demands a huge stretch in interpretation of existing case law. But a ruling holding MS liable (and possibly the entire industry) to a REASONABLE standard of quality and care would be a positive change. To use the auto analogy, perhaps something along the lines of lemon laws that force the manufacturer to actually fix problems rather than inconveniencing the consumer with repeated half-assed repairs.
I agree with your main point, however. MS is currently the biggest blip on the radar, but whatever arsenal we develop to take them out will subsequently be used on smaller blips. MS should duck their profit margins long enough to rebuild a more stable base, one of the differences between their OS and others is the others have the luxury of avoiding the mistakes MS has already made. MS is still building on the same buggy platform. The biggest difference, tho, is that MS is the biggest target, the one kriminals are gunning for. Once they're out of the picture, those same miscreants will be focusing on other systems, and they will find holes, and they will exploit them.
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I think this case will fail, ultimately, because it is too extreme, it seeks too much, it demands a huge stretch in interpretation of existing case law. But a ruling holding MS liable (and possibly the entire industry) to a REASONABLE standard of quality and care would be a positive change. To use the auto analogy, perhaps something along the lines of lemon laws that force the manufacturer to actually fix problems rather than inconveniencing the consumer with repeated half-assed repairs.
I agree with your main point, however. MS is currently the biggest blip on the radar, but whatever arsenal we develop to take them out will subsequently be used on smaller blips. MS should duck their profit margins long enough to rebuild a more stable base, one of the differences between their OS and others is the others have the luxury of avoiding the mistakes MS has already made. MS is still building on the same buggy platform. The biggest difference, tho, is that MS is the biggest target, the one kriminals are gunning for. Once they're out of the picture, those same miscreants will be focusing on other systems, and they will find holes, and they will exploit them.
-RI1
And the great part is, all those small pieces of very specific code will do just what the end user wants, without further intervention...