I perceive a trend!

Story: Improve Internet Health with a Microsoft Tax? Total Replies: 3
Author Content
phsolide

Mar 03, 2010
10:40 PM EDT
First, Craig Mundie, notorious MSFT VP proposes an "internet driver's license", where your "car must pass a safety inspection". It's pretty obvious that "passing" a "safety inspection" equals "running an MSFT operating system", probably including some no-value-added "anti" virus software.

Now, Scott Charney, notorious MSFT VP proposes that we all pay some kind of tax to clean up the internet of things that are essentially MSFT's making.

I think we're observing the beginnings of a trend, a trend where MSFT blames everyone else for the problems that ActiveX, OLE, WIn32 and other ickky MSFT abominations foist upon everyone. And then after the blame is affixed, MSFT will demand that everyone else pay for the cleanup of the problems.

You can pry Linux from my cold, dead fingers!

This computer insured by Slack and Ware!
phsolide

Mar 04, 2010
12:56 AM EDT
Following myself up, notorious rabble-rousing weblog "TechDirt" has an article covering this: http://techdirt.com/articles/20100302/1304158370.shtml

Go look at the comments, you'll see the usual Special Pleading I mean appeal to market share argument about Linux vs Windows security.

Think about that for a while, then go read this one: http://www.virusbtn.com/virusbulletin/archive/2009/09/vb2009...

Pull quote from the Virus Bulletin article:
Quoting:Even five years ago it would have been unlikely for Win32/Induc.A to have gone unnoticed for such a long period of time. It seems clear that we've reached an era where rare dependencies, such as having a compiler on the system, or logic bombs can thrive,


Wait, an Old School Windows file infector works because even "rare dependencies" are now common in the WIndows-using population, but Linux doesn't have viruses because of Market Share? I feel cognitively dissonant.
Bob_Robertson

Mar 04, 2010
10:28 AM EDT
> You can pry Linux from my cold, dead fingers!

I make no secret of my opinion of bureaucracy and regulation, but Microsoft may very well be acting in a self-preservation mode, even more than usual.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/27/internet_3_dot_0_pol...

"The US government’s policy of leaving the Internet alone is over, according to Obama’s top official at the Department of Commerce."

Which means that by putting themselves onto the "regulation friendly" side, Microsoft is positioning themselves to get certified as the "safe" method of being online, maybe with some mandated service pack "improvements" such as requiring and reporting the "license" number of the person browsing, and where they browsed, back to the regulators.

The DMCA didn't have the overwhelming chilling effect that the regulators wanted. So it's time to ramp up the pressure, and OpenSource is very much not in the interests of either the regulators or Microsoft.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Pay no attention to the backdoor labeled "NSA_KEY".
jdixon

Mar 04, 2010
10:47 AM EDT
> Wait, an Old School Windows file infector works because even "rare dependencies" are now common in the WIndows-using population, but Linux doesn't have viruses because of Market Share? I feel cognitively dissonant.

The same old story. It's just like someone first complaining that Linux didn't have to mainstream software to support your average user, then giving the example that they couldn't use it because it didn't have any good video editing tools (or insert niche market software of your choice here), which I heard several times over the years.

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