I am not a MS basher but...

I am not am MS basher. I believe if you don't like the product, use something else and I do with some applications such as firefox. However this rubs me a bit the wrong way. We buy the operating system with beliefs that it will be secure, find out it's far from it, but Microsoft IMO, does try to fix holes as they're discovered. I don't believe we now should pay extra for this service in effect paying MS continually as the operating system matures. In all fairness, I guess they are just doing what other companies such as Symantec and Mcaffee also charge for and I assume it will do more such as protect email. It just rubbed me a bit the wrong way when I first read about it.

What do you think? Please no "I hate Microsoft posts."

Re: I am not am MS basher but...

It looks like they are just selling their own anti-virus software. That's not a big suprise to me.

Yes, the OS itself can and should be made virus proof, but that has a few down-sides for a software vendor. Every version of every major microsoft product has used either "more secure" or "more trouble-free" as a major selling point. They lose that if they make the minor changes to their software to actually make it secure.

It's no suprise that the microsoft security initiatives proposed so far have all revolved around either the concept that Microsoft approved the software (signed) or a concept that makes it easier to enforce copyrights while making it harder to publish non-commercial software.

I'm not bashing MS. They are a business doing what businesses do... make as much money as possible from their customers.

Daniel

Re: I am not am MS basher but...

I would feel better about them if they were more honest about their initiatives and intentions. As it is, they pull all manner of secret cr*p to undermine their competitors, including Linux.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsdown.gif

Re: I am not am MS basher but...

The news release I read indicated a subscription fee of about $80.00 a year. For home users, that would be one of the highest prices I've seen. Assuming that Microsoft will make it one of the most transparent installments and integrated operating, novices might be tempted to go with it, just to be safe. Fleecing of it's users, particularly the novice, is what I'd call it. The other vendors, price wise, shouldn't find a problem competing. $80 subscriptions are absurd.

Re: I am not am MS basher but...

Based on their past history regarding security MS doesn't have much trust built up. The truth won't be known until it's been out for quite a while, after people who are respected in computer security have looked at it and reviewed it.

Really, after all of their talk about improving the security of their OS in the last year, aren't they still shipping XP with just half a firewall -- which they keep calling a firewall? They haven't changed that, have they?

Who knows what they're talking about.

Re: I am not am MS basher but...

I am completely split on this. It's because I think that if MS had good intentions it'd be not a bad deal but a fantastic deal. However, nothing else I've bought from them has left me with a feeling that I've finally gotten the whole enchilada and thank you I can finally stop thinking about computer maintenance and get all my work done. That's without stating comparison to other competitors.

With regard to price, I charge more than that per hour to keep people's PC's maintained, and for each person it's often way, way more than an hour per year of pure maintenance (as opposed to upgrades, for example). If Microsoft thinks that by charging just $80/yr they can keep people's PC's maintained, I say more power to them! If it works I'll be very happy and suggest to everyone I see that they buy into it. I'd much rather spend my time building kick-a$$, stable setups for customers and watch them smile all the time than field S.O.S. calls. Plus, I could grow my business much more if I didn't have to worry about staffing to field SOS calls. Contrary to many customer's suspicions, they're a drag, not a boon to business and I don't see how all those places like Best Buy's Geek Squad expect to make any money at it.

In my experience, though, all that's usually applied by MS is the proverbial bubble-gum in the growing number of holes in the dam. The thing wasn't built strong right in the first place, and pretty soon it's all nothing but bubble-gum. I imagine they think it'll all get taken care of by the Longhorn architecture. Hmmmm.

Re: I am not am MS basher but...

If you fix the email program so that it won't so easily run attachments, then you wouldn't need to scan the email. If you made it harder for code embedded in web pages to do things not related to web browsing and you wouldn't need to scan every packet as it comes into your machine. But these things are hard, and we all know that the rendering engine of IE is so tightly integrated into the system that they can't remove it even with a court order...

So now, instead of fixing the problems that make it possible for windows to be such a cesspit they have an actual financial reason to keep the problems in there! They should be concentrating on putting norton out of business by making them unnecessary. Does this mean that they believe that we are so used to virus/worms/spyware that we no longer believe it's a problem, but just a fact of life? So they don't need to fix it, or it's too hard to fix it, so we'll just keep scanning for it.

I don't like it, but then I'm rather outspoken in my dislike of the thing anyway /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif The fact that you need windows at all at home out of the office is another myth that they convinced you of.

Re: I am not am MS basher but...

If MS is going to add automated maintenance, they will probably add just another vector through which worms and hackers can attack. It's not like they have not tried before with automated updates for corporate clients (SMS). It's not even secure. It's not something that I'd subscribe to if I was using MS on a large scale.

Daniel

Re: I am not am MS basher but...

[ QUOTE ]
...Does this mean that they believe that we are so used to virus/worms/spyware that we no longer believe it's a problem, but just a fact of life?...

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes. For the most part I think you hit it right on the head. There are a whole lot of users out there who have never used an OS that wasn't MS.

It's kind of like if we lived in a world where it was impossible to build a car tire that could go more than 200 miles without blowing out. We'd just have to accept/deal with it. You'd be sure to have coveralls in your car and so would everyone else. When you went on a trip you'd just fill up your back seat with tires. It would be completely swallowed by everyone who had never seen a tire go 200 miles without a flat.

MS probably views the user as being somewhere between the Cargo Cult and the Eloy. They've just sounded the siren and opened the doors to the caverns...again.

Re: I am not am MS basher but...

If the Commodore 64 were web-enabled and had an 80 column screen without add-on cards, I'd have stayed with that rather than run a Windows pee-cee. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif :toliet: /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

Re: I am not am MS basher but...

I still have my C=64. Great little computer. It was the unit thgat really got me into BBS'ing. The one thing I disliked about it was that weird spongy keyboard though.

Re: I am not am MS basher but...

When I upgraded from a C=64 to a C=128, I'd still run it in C=64 mode most of the time. I ran a BBS on it starting in the late-1980s; and eventually moved it to a pee-cee in 1993 or 1994. I learned assembly language on its 6510 CPU (a RISC version of the 6502).

I never found the keyboard on the C=64 to be spongy or unpleasant in any manner. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Re: I am not am MS basher but...

Huh. Maybe there were two different runs of the keyboard. Mine had excessive travel and it got to be fatiguing after awhile.

I tried to teach myself assembly on the C=64 but I mostly managed to give myself severe headaches! I am in awe of anyone who is fluent in assembly.

BTW, I jumped from a C=64 to an Amiga 1000. Then a 2000. Then a Windoze machine.