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Re: On Linux and Windows Security and FUD

On Monday 13 February 2006 08:22, Erik Funkenbusch stood up and spoke
the following words to the masses in /comp.os.linux.advocacy...:/

> On Mon, 13 Feb 2006 06:09:26 +0000, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> 
>> Most people never accept or even read the EULA. Windows is
>> pre-installed.
> 
> God, Roy, are you EVER right?
> 
> "Pre installed" versions of Windows boot to a EULA on the first boot
> up and require you to accept it.  Now, this doesn't guarantee that
> they read it, but to claim that just because Windows is pre-installed
> means they can't read the EULA is completly bogus.

He may have been a tad overzealous when writing "never accept" but even
I - with my communicative impairment - know what he means.  The bottom
line is that nobody ever reads the EULA, even if only because of the
lawyer-speak of it.

>> Look at some of the recent projects: a clone of Google Maps and
>> Earth, book scanning, and so forth. All are highly controversial, but
>> it was usually Google that got told off by authorities and the
>> public. Microsoft are treading behind doing exactly the same things.
>> So does Gates do as he once preached?
> 
> Actually, Microsoft was doing the whole satellite imagery thing 10
> years ago with their Terraserver.   Google copied MS on this, though
> they certainly enhanced it a great deal.
> 
> This happens a lot, actually.  Many of MS's "inventions" are copied
> and made popular by others.  Things like AJAX, disk indexing tied to
> search, desktop "widgets" (ala Konfabulator or Dashboard), etc...

Except for that Microsoft's "inventions" in themselves are just
Microsoft's own versions of someone else's ideas...

> People laugh when Microsoft talks of innovation, but in reality, it
> happens a lot at Microsoft.  They're often just slow to capitalize on
> it. 

Now that's a nice Microsoft-apologism.  Unfortunately it's far from the
truth. ;-)

>> It already is dead on arrival, prior to its ever-delayed arrival. It
>> is Windows XP with some eye candy while security issues have not been
>> addressed at the core. It will be the same mess all over again and
>> Microsoft will run out of excuses. They already have, in some
>> people's minds.
> 
> This shows you know absolutely *NOTHING* about Vista.  Apart from the
> various new subsystems (Windows Communication Foundation, Presentation
> Foundation, Workflow Foundation, etc..)

It would seem like someone at Microsoft's headquarters got inspired by
Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy.  Flashy words, yes - like anything
Microsoft comes up with - but not exactly so "userfriendly".

Oops, there goes another argument for Windows... ;-)

> it has entirely new driver architecture, 3D compositing,

Has existed in UNIX for years...

> Quick Search,

Commandline users of GNU/Linux have already been familiar with
/(s)locate/ for quite some time.  /Kat/ - although a bore since it hogs
the CPU('s) and slows things down - offers a more extensive KDE version
of that.

> sidebar and gadgets,  

UNIX has had those for years...

> radically redesigned UI,

An unaesthetic rip-off of Apple's brushed metal look in Tiger.  Brushed
metal has existed as a texture for both KDE and Gnome for years.

One possible /redesign/ could be that Vista will have more usefriendly
menu entries now, but knowing Microsoft, I wouldn't bet my money on
that.

> 3D navigation,

Has already existed in UNIX for years.

> comprehensive backup,

Wow, an operating system that offers back-up capabilities.  Yes, that is
so innovative...

> Compound TCP/IP stack, Windows Slideshow, Speech recognition, parental
> controls, Windows Calendar, Windows Photo Gallery, Improved versions
> of Windows Media Player and Movie Maker, Windows Media Center, Windows
> Shared View (Document collaboration), Network Projector (use a
> projector over a network), Windows Fax and Scan, Peernet (P2P), IIS7,
> etc.. etc.. etc...

I see nothing really new there, except maybe that it's new that Windows
comes with that "extended functionality" now without the need for
third-party software - and probably aimed at annihilating such
third-party marketshares.

> And that's just the non-security features.
> 
> On the security front, you've got Low rights IE (runs IE as a chrooted
> user), Massive changes to the way services are configured and
> defaulted (Windows Service Hardening), user mode drivers, Next Gen
> Cryptography, Rights Management Services (not DRM), Egress filtering
> firewall, Standard user tweaking (allows you to easily make even
> determined apps run fine as a standard user), User Account Protection,
> etc.. etc..

And this is /innovation?/

> Anyone that thinks Vista is XP SP3 doesn't have the slightest clue
> what's going on with Vista or what will ship with it.  From a new code
> perspective, Vista will triple the lines of code in XP today.

I sincerely hope /DFS/ is reading this, since he has contested in the
past what I said about the hardware requirements for Vista.  

Yet strangely enough, Microsoft needs to bloat its code whenever it adds
a feature, while all of what you've described is already highly
functional on any not-too-slow Pentium III or Athlon Thunderbird with
256 to 384 MB of RAM, running under GNU/Linux...

> But hey, that's ok, you're used to commenting about things you don't
> have even the slightest clue about.

So are you at times, Erik.  You just happen to be better at cloaking
that... ;-)

-- 
With kind regards,

*Aragorn*
(Registered GNU/Linux user #223157)

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