AS WE POINTED OUT on Christmas day, Microsoft left its users/clients vulnerable over the holidays. But there’s actually more than we mentioned at the time. One of our readers points out that new flaws were found — accompanied by exploits — that can hijack Windows Vista and predecessors (Vista was never secure anyway).
During my daily feed-skimming I noticed that the people at ZDNet got their hands on the first (and apparently only) beta of the new Vista savior, Windows 7. The review features screenshots and I must say, even though it has not convinced me, Windows 7 is a step forward from Vista, at least as far as the GUI is concerned. Aside from the removal of some annoying Vista bells and whistles and the new Peek and Snap window-management enhancements, it is difficult not to notice the resemblance between Microsoft’s much-touted revamped Aero and the excellent, now 3-years old, KDE 3.5.x.
Microsoft came clean and admitted its SQL Server database software is vulnerable to code injection attacks. It’s not a new flaw but the same bug in the database software that emerged around the time of Microsoft’s monthly Patch Tuesday update earlier this month. In an advisory, Redmond’s security gnomes confirmed that code has been produced that exploits a security bug affecting Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Windows Internal Database, in certain configurations.
Microsoft has begun to realign its legal department, allowing it to work in collaboration with its engineers so that product teams can have more flexibility with open-source software. The company is evangelizing—internally—that more interoperability can be good for the bottom line. Microsoft’s Sam Ramji, senior director of platform strategy, discussed with SD Times his company’s evolution to a pragmatic viewpoint toward open source, and explained why the company is offering its support to some open-source projects that it feels advances its business and technology goals.
Microsoft just can’t quit you, Windows XP.
The final shipment date of Microsoft’s aged, yet distinctively non-Vista operating system has been extended yet again. System builders can now obtain Windows XP until May 30, 2009.
Windows XP was originally scheduled for OEM extinction on January 31, 2009. That deadline was given once, twice, three times the delay to mid-2010, provided the Windows XP licenses were for netbooks and low-cost PCs that can’t handle Windows Vista – or perhaps more importantly, can and do support Linux.
WE HAVE SEEN a lot of stories just like this over the past few months [1, 2, 3, 4]. Microsoft is watching its back as the temptation to move to Free software grows. In response, Microsoft tries to get people stuck with its own tools. We have 3 new examples today.
First, Microsoft is raising and growing an army of people who will install just Windows on old PCs (that’s what they are trained to do) and not GNU/Linux.
Microsoft ‘loves’ open source. Yes, it really does. This must be the reason why its ‘fronts’ are all responding to the EIF V2.0, which was made available for feedback from the public. They are also taking open source off the table. Microsoft, ACT, CompTIA and even the BSA have all responded. Their interests are not to facilitate fair competition, but to promote further monopolisation by their big funding source.
MATT Asay and the usual trolls from ITWire continue to show their utter contempt for desktop GNU/Linux. It’s the usual suspects and, suffice to say, the latter case is deliberate provocation that had us pondering a ‘link embargo’ on ITWire (or particular writers from there).
Elsewhere on the Web, what seems like Vista ‘advertising’ is almost disguised under the teaser headline “Hasta La Vista, Microsoft Vista.” It tries marketing the unwanted operating system using the “inevitability” tune. This relates to a former Microsoft tune, which goes like: “computers are only desktops, and therefore Linux is not important.”
Saugatuck has just published the results of a study where it analysed the impact of companies (referred to as “vendors”) on open source. Among the findings there are hints about why Microsoft wants authority. It’s all about controlling and taming projects through .NET, patents, Windows and formats like OOXML, then having a band of free labourers. That’s how it views it. This is not open source; it’s just Microsoft’s vision of it, which is self serving.
Lookng out for the gullible ones, Microsoft is trying to sell a familiar storyline. To a degree, Microsoft succeeds now that it sends another hawk, just it did some months ago in order to threaten GNU/Linux with patents. They seem to be pushing out their new people who soon tell a story, a fairy tale. It’s another one of those legends about Microsoft loving and serenading to open source developers, much like that tune about children in Africa, which we wrote about yesterday.