Not quite that simple...

Story: Windows security is a 'myth', claims Linux Community MemberTotal Replies: 16
Author Content
dinotrac

Jan 31, 2005
6:30 AM EDT
Paul, Paul, Paul...

Sometimes focus is a good thing and sometimes it's just tunnel-vision.

Which, of course has nothing to do with your premise: Windows security really is a myth.

It's not a matter of closed v. open, however. Many of the most secure systems in the world run proprietary software born of closed development processes. Not Windows, of course...

Microsoft's problem with Windows is a failure to seriously consider security from the get-go and to infuse their own corporate culture with a belief that security is more than a marketing device.

And, of course, it's not all Microsoft's fault. They play to a pretty stupid crowd. Microsoft tools can make $30,000 programmers impressively productive. Some companies have made the foolish leap to conclude that you therefore need nothing but $30,000 programmers.

On my current assignment, I have encountered Microsoft developers on the other end of our pipeline. They have astonished me with their ignorance of what actually happens on their end, a real pain when trouble-shooting. Worse, they seem unable or (more likely) unwilling to look beneath the covers of Visual Studio to discover how to do simple things like control XML namespaces or the ordering of elements.

Sigh. You get what you pay for.













peragrin

Jan 31, 2005
7:48 AM EDT
Wait your saying that Windows wasn't designed from the begining with such things as user permissions? executable and non-executable files? The ability to seperate out users files and system files? The ability to shutdown, update, and restart services and your web browser without rebooting the entire machine?

Your kidding me right?

Damn to think I was fooled all this time.
dinotrac

Jan 31, 2005
8:00 AM EDT
Peragrin -

Sorry to burst your balloon. Look at the bright side: CP/M didn't have all that stuff, either.
peragrin

Jan 31, 2005
9:57 AM EDT
Hey MSFT has made one GUI that has been secure for network based attacks from the very first installation.

Windows 3.1

Of course Windows 3.1 didn't have any networking abilities but that is beside the point.
tuxchick

Jan 31, 2005
10:09 AM EDT
I would have enjoyed this piece, but for one disturbing aspect: Mr Cyde refers to himself in the third person. Other than that, a most enjoyable analysis.
dinotrac

Jan 31, 2005
10:40 AM EDT
tuxchick -

Don't worry about it. Having spent time with Mr. Cyde, I can assure you that he is about one third a person. Remember: Height isn't everything.
PaulFerris

Jan 31, 2005
11:05 AM EDT
> "You get what you pay for"

Dean, as usual, you talk out of both sides of your mouth at the same time. You act like Free Software is better than proprietary -- although you did qualify some instances, the majority of your discourse indicates otherwise. Then you slip in the jedi mind trick at then end. As usual, you're attempts at obfuscating the issue have not slipped by me.

When did you get the job with Waggon-Wheel-Egg-Storm? Oh, wait, I forgot, you've had it all along.

You bifuricating public-relations hackers are all alike. You crouch in the dust of your boardrooms, nothing but the sound of mulit-media presentations and the smell of cigars to guide your way. You think that you can enter onto a public forum and sway the truth all sly-like -- but I'm onto you and your kind. I can see right through the smoke and spot your tracks a mile away -- and they're shaped like the Dinosaur you've become.

My advice is that you work on a new alias, because this one is toast -- maybe mousetrac or weaseltrac -- Then (THEN!) maybe the LXer reading public will not be able to follow your fancy footwork.

Until then, expect hoards of Trac-spotting LXer types like myself to give you the public flogging you deserve.

I'll go take my meds now ...
PaulFerris

Jan 31, 2005
11:06 AM EDT
tuxchick: I was interviewing myself. It's called the "Ranger Rick mocking style".

A couple of bottles of jack, and you can do anything ;) Even sound like a Microsoft Marketing Droid...

Okay, it wasn't Jack... It was cheap wine.
peragrin

Jan 31, 2005
11:13 AM EDT
Paul are you forgetting something?

Dino's are extinct. So is the old way of working. Maybe he just hasn't yet adapted to his new enviroment yet. Of course the smallest always are the last to know when it snows.

:-) There I just insulted both of you in almost as many sentences.
PaulFerris

Jan 31, 2005
11:17 AM EDT
peragrin: I've been working on growing taller, but so far the audio tapes aren't working for that. Maybe I should try platform shoes?
dinotrac

Jan 31, 2005
11:22 AM EDT
How can I possibly respond to so much unwarranted invective and disrespect when I have tried so hard to keep the conversation on a higher plane?

Well, to be honest, when Paul's around, you can't help but be in a higher plane, but it's only because my back doesn't bend down so well in my old age as it once did.

As to free software better than proprietary -- I don't think you can make a blanket statement unless you're on a blanket. I use free software almost exclusively, but I don't I don't have a problem with proprietary stuff -- so long as it doesn't hold a monopoly.

As to peragrin....

Hey!!!! Who said dinos are extinct? They're not very many any more, but they're easy to find. Most of them work in programming for the major broadcast networks.

tuxchick

Jan 31, 2005
11:50 AM EDT
Mr Cyde, please rest assured that we got it the first time, and were amused.
peragrin

Jan 31, 2005
12:26 PM EDT
Paul, Stop drinking Caffine. that is usually the first place to stop. Then go to a good drywall distributor, and buy a set of their stilts.

As for Dino, I figured most of the current republicans in office were the Dino's.

Hmm.

now I go with Linus's theroy on which software to use. Use what ever is best for the application. If you use one peice of software because of ideals then you are missing out on something.

This coming from the guy who uses a Powerbook with OSX, and Fink installed so he can get the good GPL toys(nmap, snort,etc)
dinotrac

Jan 31, 2005
12:43 PM EDT
Speaking of dinos -- Have you seen Ted Kennedy?
tuxchick

Jan 31, 2005
1:57 PM EDT
But you know what really sux- the dirty buggers are still printing money. Microsoft Earnings Surpass Expectations http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1756106,00.asp Proof that natural selection is on holiday. :(
AnonymousCoward

Jan 31, 2005
2:15 PM EDT
Paul: one of the best mockeries of motivational tapes I've ever seen is on a kid's video about Jonah by Big Idea one of the characters is a small-enterprise-crazed half-worm half-caterpillar (pictured at http://www.jonahmovie.com/ ) called Haleel who when introduced is listening to tapes saying stuff like "You are a go-getter".

Soon afterwards, the tape affirms "You are a skilled metalworker" and Haleel says "See? I am a skilled metalworker." Pause. "I never knew that!"

BTW, it's not "short", it's "concentrated". (-:
PaulFerris

Jan 31, 2005
2:47 PM EDT
AC: Concentrated! I like that! I'm also "concentrated" about my waistline. I've got to stop dieting, I'm going the wrong way...

Dean is even more concentrated than I am. See this link right here (That's me on the left):

http://linuxtoday.com/special/lweny2001/lwe-community-pannel...

Ever since the publication of that photo, he's attacked my stature something fierce. It's one of those things that happens when you have an axe to grind (he claimed at the time that the photo was edited, of course).

--FeriCyde

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