Bad Windows

Summary: A new push for the Web browser ballot to be deployed on all Windows installers/OEM PCs; other abuses of Microsoft in Europe

ECIS, which shed light on Microsoft’s crimes last year (scroll down to the appendix and also see this summary of crimes against Netscape in another appendix), has just suggested that Microsoft should take its biased ballot [1, 2] to countries outside Europe. Suffice to say, Microsoft boosters including Microsoft Emil and Mary Jo Foley are whining. They are of course hostile towards the idea.

Read more at Boycott Novell

1. In a world without walls and fences – who needs windows and gates?!
2. Computers are like air conditioners, they stop working properly if you open Windows.
3. My SPARCstation has air condition. No need to open windows.
4. Windows 95 Source Code
5. Windows means “Work is never done on Windows systems”
6. Customer: I’m running Windows…
   Helpdesk: Yes…
   Customer: …and now my computer stopped working!
   Helpdesk: Yes, you already said that.
7. Never trust an operating system you don’t have sources for.
8. “Windows for dummies”, another term of “this sentence no verb”
9. Microsoft broke Volkswagen’s world record: Volkswagen only made 22 million bugs!
10. IBM creates Operating Systems – MS-DOSn’t
11. Have you reinstalled your Windows today?
12. How do you fix all Windows bugs at once?
    1. mke2fs /dev/sda1
    2. deltree /y \
13. Windows the most popular virus on the market today.
14. Windows – Plug and pray…
    
15. Windows – The colorful clown suit for DOS
16. Windows – a solitaire game that requires 16 MB and HD
17. Windows – The best $89 solitaire game you can buy
    
18. Windows – so intuitive you only need a meg of help files!
19. If Windows is user-friendly, why do you need a 678-page manual?
20. “Fer sail cheep, Windows spel chekcer, wurks grate”
21. The word “Windows” is a word out of an old dialect of the Apaches. It means: “White man staring through glass-screen onto an hourglass…”
22. Windows =Waste in DOS WorkSpace
23. Bang on the LEFT side of your computer to restart Windows
24. Alt-F4. Just do it.
25. C:\ONGRTLNS.W95
26. Double your drive space: Delete Windows!
27. Microsoft is to Software as McDonalds is to Cuisine
28. Does someone know the cheats for Windows?
29. This is an airconditioned room – Do not open Windows!
30. This virus requires Microsoft Windows 3.x
31. OS/2 VirusScan — “Windows found: Remove it? [Y,Y]“
32. Favorite Windoze game: “Guess what this icon does?”
33. Windows95 – crash compatible on Windows 3.x
34. Windows NT – Nice Try
35. Windows – a virus with mouse support
36. Windows is for fun, OS/2 is for getting things done
37. Windows vs OS/2 = Michael Jackson vs Mike Tyson
38. The nice thing about Windows is – It does not just crash, it displays a dialog box and lets you press ‘OK’ first.
39. Microsoft is not the answer.
    Microsoft is the question.
    “No” is the answer!
40. McAfee-Question: Is Windows a virus?
    

    No, Windows is not a virus. Here’s what viruses do:

    1. They replicate quickly – okay, Windows does that.
    2. Viruses use up valuable system resources, slowing down the system as they do so – okay, Windows does that.
    3. Viruses will, from time to time, trash your hard disk – okay, Windows does that too.
    4. Viruses are usually carried, unknown to the user, along with valuable programs and systems. Sigh… Windows does that, too.
    5. Viruses will occasionally make the user suspect their system is too slow (see 2.) and the user will buy new hardware. Yup, that’s with Windows, too.

    Until now it seems Windows is a virus but there are fundamental differences:
    Viruses are well supported by their authors, are running on most systems, their program code is fast, compact and efficient and they tend to become more sophisticated as they mature.
    So Windows is not a virus. It’s a bug.

41. Last words of a Windows user:
    1. Why does that work now?
    2. Where do I have to click now? – There?
    3. Guess what this icon does…
    4. Message box: “Data not completely delete? Yes – No” — User: “No – ey – Yes”
42. Microsoft gives you Windows… OS/2 gives you the whole house
43. Some windows were made to be broken
44. Turn your 486 into a Gameboy: Type WIN at C:\>
45. Data to Picard: “No, Captain, I do NOT run WINDOWS!”
46. Bugs come in through open Windows
47. Windows ‘97 will also have artificial intelligence, e.g.:
    • Unable to FORMAT A: Having a go at C:
    • Can’t Compress Hard Drive but don’t worry I’ll delete all files over size 50,000 that’ll give you some space.
48. How do you make Windows faster? — Throw it harder!
49. Windows95 is out! (PC Magazine, April 2013)
50. Windows 95: New look, same multicrashing
51. Windows95 will be released as soon as Windows 3.1 finishes loading
52. Windows95 – Every function is a restart function…
53. Windows95 does really have preemptive Multitasking: It can boot and crash at the same time.
54. Windows NT – Insert wallet into Drive A: and press any key to empty
55. Windows NT? New Technology? I don’t think so…
56. Windows – Just another pain in the glass
57. Windows – Turn your Pentium into an XT…
58. Windows – The Gates of hell
59. Windows – From the people who brought you EDLIN!
60. Windows – a XT emulator for an AT
61. If Windows sucked it would be good for something
62. DOS is just an operating system that runs Windows 3.1
63. DOS 6.0 and Windows 3.1 – A turtle and its shell
64. Windows Multitasking – screwing up several things at once
65. Windows found – remove? (Y)es (S)ure (F)ine (O)K
66. Windows has the ability to screw up 2 things at the same time!
67. If I wanted Windows, I’d live in a greenhouse!
68. Microsoft’s marketing: “Windows is SEMI-shareware”
69. Are you using Windows or is that just an XT?
70. Have you crashed your Windows today?
71. Relax… you are entering a windows free zone
72. OS/2… Opens up Windows, shuts up Gates
73. New from McAfee: WinScan – Removes all Windows programs
74. New Windows 4.0: programmed in Turbo Logo++
75. My latest screen saver: Curtains for Windows
76. If Windows 95 doesn’t start shipping soon, it might be Curtains 95.
77. Masochist: Windows programmer with a smile!
78. I’ll never forget the 1st time I ran Windows, but I’m trying…
79. I still miss Windows, but my aim is getting better
80. I can’t wait for EDLIN to be ported for Windows
81. Father, forgive me, I’ve been caught using Windows…
82. Exhibitionists love Windows
83. Despite my car having windows, it still isn’t mouse driven!
84. Breaking Windows isn’t just for kids anymore…
85. Beat me, whip me, make me use Windows!
86. A computer without Windows is like a fish without a bicycle
87. Difference between a virus and windows? Viruses rarely fail.
88. Newsflash: Microsoft announces Visual Edlin for Windows
89. Time on your hands? Get Windows!
90. Hiroshima ‘45 – Tschernobyl ‘86 – Windows ‘95
91. What’s the best of Windows95? The deinstaller!
92. Why is the Pentium 166 so fast? – It’s for booting faster, if Windows crashed again.
93. What is the difference between Jurassic Park and Microsoft? – One is an over-rated high tech theme park based on prehistoric information and populated mostly by dinosaurs, the other is a Steven Spielberg movie.
94. How many Windows PC owners does it take to change a lightbulb? Just one, as long as you explain it’s Plug’n'Play… they get confused if it doesn’t come with a driver disk…
95. How do Microsoft employees exchange a bulb? Not at all… Bill Gates declares darkness as a standard.
96. Help! There are Windows everywhere! In my car, my house
97. Ever noticed how fast Windows runs? Neither did I!
98. Mouse not present – click twice to continue…
99. Who the fuck is General Failure? And why is he reading my harddisk?
100. What’s the difference between windows ‘95 and highly destructive unstoppable virus? About 90 Megs of hard disk space.
101. Coming soon: EDLIN for Windows
102. I’ve got two Windows hardware emulators! Really! They works much more reliable than the original: one for Windows 3.11, one for Windows95.
     Unfortunately they have superscriped the emulator keys wrongly, so that on the Windows 3.11 emulator key “TURBO” and on the Windows 95 emulator is written “RESET”… But doesn’t matter, works great.
103. Windows, it’s not pretty, it’s not ugly, but it’s pretty ugly.

There is power in authority.

Microsoft’s strategy against open source uses authority. It ties up institutions that are authoritative, that have power over professions, creating a benefit for the institution that ties its members to proprietary Microsoft tools.

I have covered this extensively at ZDNet Healthcare regarding products like Amalga and Healthvault, but here is an example that goes beyond medicine and is specifically about open source.

Read more at ZDNet

Summary: Prostitution, orgies, drug use, and other shocking details about life at Microsoft

TWO years ago, Microsoft was visited by the authorities under unusual circumstances:

Microsoft Building Searched By Feds Investigating High-Priced Hookers

[...]

Federal investigators executed a search warrant at Microsoft’s Mountain View, Calif., offices earlier this month as part of an investigation into a high-priced call girl ring similar to the one used by former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Read more at Boycott Novell

Last week, David Coursey reported that Microsoft entertainment and devices boss Robbie Bach made the prediction in an analyst briefing that Linux on mobile will lose. Why? It’s choice is a bad thing for customers and that there is too much Linux in the mobile marketplace

By Bach’s count there are 17 variants of Linux available on mobile phones. He sees this as a bad thing for customers. We, unsurprisingly, see this as a bad thing for Microsoft.

Technology markets are shaped by momentum. When a company bets on a technology, it’s not a one-time decision. They must live with that choice for years. Ecosystems around technology are as important as the technology itself, since you need partners and developers to actually make something of it. This is why I take issue with his pronouncement that Linux will not do as well as Microsoft mobile. He may have a point that individual variants of Linux may come and go. We will likely see moves both up and down for specific versions of a mobile OS using Linux. We’ve seen it in the enterprise distribution market.

Read more at The LInux Foundation

Microsoft isn’t having an easy time of it these days. In addition to the unpatched hole in Internet Explorer, a now published hole in Windows allows users with restricted access to escalate their privileges to system level – and this is believed to be possible on all 32-bit versions of Windows from Windows NT 3.1 up to, and including Windows 7. While the vulnerability is likely to affect home users in only a minor way, the administrators of corporate networks will probably have their hands full this week.

The problem is caused by flaws in the Virtual DOS Machine (VDM) introduced in 1993 to support 16-bit applications (real mode applications for 8086). VDM is based on the Virtual 8086 Mode (VM86) in 80386 processors and, among other things, intercepts hardware routines such as BIOS calls.

Read more at H-Security

Two interesting tidbits of news about Microsoft today. First is that the company is to make it legal to rent both Windows and Office. The second is an analysis on how slates will affect the Redmond giant’s bottom line. Both are interesting reading, but both also are indications of the problems that Microsoft is likely to encounter over the coming years.

See, when zealots debate the old “Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux” argument, it’s a widely held belief within the Mac and Linux camp that it is one of these platforms that represent the greatest threat to Microsoft’s dominance.

Read more at ZDNet