Microsoft 'guarantees' SP2 release

TalkBack 41 of 53:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

Let's have a go at this then

"security-as-feature"

To be honest, this one I'll believe the moment I
see it sustained a while. There seems to be a
biannual push at Microsoft to show it's serious
about security then a 23 month hiatus where they
basically say "we did this and everything is
fine". We've had Trusted Computing, Bill Gates
on his high horse saying how important security
is and on and on. Now we get an 80 meg bit of
bloat. Oh yes, and one of the biggest offenders
in the security area is still there...Active X.

Is it any wonder people are just a touch
skeptical?

You're perfectly right that Microsoft is good at
"building lasting structures". One can argue
the quality of said structure till one is blue
in the face, of course. But that is something
they're adept at.

You hint that they should stick to that and I'd
agree. There's always been a temptation, no
make than an overarching tendency, to try to
make Windows a one-size-fits-all solution to all
computing problems. Of course it isn't but that
doesn't seem to stop Microsoft.

So let's just say that MS makes a nice
framework. There's the spot where the small
vendors can come in and tweak things. This is,
as you hint, a good solution. Many small
businesses have made a ton of money over the
years doing things better than MS can in
specialized areas and it would make sense to
allow that to continue.

Sadly, Microsoft's history is one of uspurping
by any means available the technology that these
small companies come out with. Remember Stac
and Central Point? (Microsoft isn't alone in
this in the sense that they've been egged on by
a computing press, notably ZDNet, that have
lobbied that these features be included in the
OS.)

No, the bazzar on the first couple of floors of
the gigantic Microsoft building isn't going to
happen. It used to be there, pre Win 95 days.
The days before MS decided that it had to
dominate every area of computing. But it's long
gone now.

There is something to be said for overarching
ambition. Most of it isn't good and, inevitably
it doesn't turn out well for anyone.

And, the question still remains, will this fix
anything at all? Angry users will still turn on
the messenger, most will ignore or turn off the
firewall. Most will get into the game of
downloading virus definitions for a while then
stop because it's too much to do. And on and on.

Personally I'll kill the firewall because it's
just a pain in a networked enviornment that's
already heavily protected. AV is done at the
server level. Intrusion detection is done there
too. And, no, the server box doesn't run XP
(you think I'm nuts? )

Still, I do look forward to the day when I sit
down to do something important on XP only to
have Update tell me there's a security package
waiting to be downloaded and then get stopped
dead in my tracks while it all happens for a
couple of hours. Oh, and breaks a few things
along the way.

And then I'll remember Trusted Computing, all
the assertions of the last few years that
Microsoft is taking security seriously, all the
promises that such and such is secure, all the
bluster and all the wind that's come out of
Redmond.

Then I'll open IE, in those rare occasions that
I actually use it, and it will continue to
happily execute VBA code, Office macros, ActiveX
and the rest of the mess.

And I'll watch as Outlook continues to do the
same, continues to issue forth badly written
HTML.

And I'll wonder why I spent all that time on a
security update that I'll strongly suspect
leaves me as open to attack as I was before.

Yeah, I'm skeptical. A 20 year history with
Microsoft as a user gives me that right.

This will be interesting.

ttfn

John

Posted by: TtfnJohn   Posted on: 07/03/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Three Steps You Need to Know to Stop Data Loss Varonis Sensitive data exposed to misuse or loss... it is the stuff of nightmares ... Download Now
• VMware Infrastructure: A Guide to Bottom-Line Benefits VMware Frustrated by the costs of maintain ever larger data centers?or building ... Download Now
• Server Consolidation and Containment With Virtual Infrastructure VMware To meet the constant demand to deploy, maintain and grow a broad array of ... Download Now