Reasons to Avoid Microsoft

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MS Windows XP

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• TCPA / Palladium Frequently Asked Questions ((FAQ), 2002.Jul.09)
  'So I won't be able to play MP3s on my PC any more?' ... '...doesn't the law give people a right to reverse engineer interfaces for compatibility?' ... 'So a `Trusted Computer' is one that can break my security?' Now you've got it.
  

• MS Palladium Patent (Slashdot, 2002.Jul.07)
  Microsoft's patent for Palladium [includes] ... 'wherein protecting the rights-managed data comprises: refusing to load the untrusted program into memory.'
  

• Microsoft discloses security flaws (Salon.com, 2002.Jun.27)
  [Microsoft] has found three security flaws - one critical - in its popular Internet audio and video software. ... In addition, Microsoft said it has found four security flaws in its e-commerce Web-site building and management software. Two flaws were rated as critical.
  

• MS security hole extravaganza (The Register, 2002.Jun.13)
  MS has been sitting on a number of security holes which it's decided to dump on us all at once. ... MS soft-pedals the severity in classic form, labeling this one "Moderate." But the eEye bulletin rightly points out that a target machine can be owned with a single session if the attacker knows what he's doing. ... Apparently, users had trusted the MS patch to fix their systems properly. Well it didn't... Apparently, the [previously reported Gopher exploit] is a bit worse than MS had originally thought, and affects not [just] IE...
  

• Win-XP Search Assistant silently downloads files (The Register, 2002.Apr.11)
  [The Search Assistant] was establishing a connection with a machine at Microsoft. 'I did not give Microsoft permission to know what files I am searching for on my local hard-drive.' ... [When] I performed an Internet search, the Assistant sent my search terms to the Microsoft site, and also dropped a session cookie on my machine.
  

• XP bandwidth brouhaha (InfoWorld, 2002.Mar.18)
  The newness of Windows XP -- with its sometimes addled approach to license restrictions, copy protection, and security -- lends itself to confusion. [Some] Web sites that claimed XP needlessly consumes 20 percent of your PC's network bandwidth. ... [Microsoft's XP license agreement] means using any software other than Microsoft's to view an XP desktop from Windows 2000 or any other operating system would violate the company's license agreement, in case you care. 'I use VNC extensively to manage several hundred desktops daily ... So for me this is a big deal, and a good reason to stay away from XP until I see significant value added compared to Win 2000. So far I haven't.'
  

• ACPI Forced On & Option Disabled in WinXP-Certified Motherboards (Slashdot, 2002.Mar.06)
  It turns out that because of a deal to get WindowsXP certification, the Dragon-series motherboard ended up having the ability of Enabling/Disabling ACPI in the BIOS disabled.
  

• Removing IE would kill Win2k, WinXP, MS, says Redmond (The Register, 2002.Mar.04)
  Both Windows XP and Windows 2000 will be rendered inoperable, and Microsoft will be unable to develop future new operating systems, if it is forced to separate IE from the operating system, according to court filings the company made on Friday. ... [An] mail from Bill Gates from February 1997 [said] it would be important to leverage the OS to make people use IE instead of Navigator, and there was much else that suggested bolting the two together was a predatory decision, rather than a technical one.
  

• Sharpei virus hits C# note (CNet, 2002.Mar.01)
  ...the worm uses the Outlook address book to send messages--with a copy of the virus attached--to every address in the book. It then deletes the e-mails from the sent folder and removes the copy of itself. On PCs loaded with Windows XP and other .Net-enabled computers, however, Sharpei would additionally infect files in four other folders. If those files were opened, the virus would run again.
  

• Keygen routine producing valid WinXP product keys? (The Register, 2002.Feb.14)
  A cracking system for Windows Product Activation publicised this week may present Microsoft's anti-piracy system with its most serious problem yet. ... whether or not Microsoft has any way to differentiate between generated keys and the ones it has issued itself [is the question]. If not, this generation of WPA is now surely toast.
  

• Check the fine print (Infoworld, 2002.Feb.11)
  Microsoft has found a creative way to obtain authorization from users to access their workstations at will. ... 'The idea that Microsoft can change our software without notifying us is totally unacceptable,' said one corporate IT manager. 'Any alteration to our standard configuration can only be rolled out after careful evaluation and testing. Does Microsoft have no clue?'
  

• Microsoft's Blind Spot (C|Net, 2002.Feb.07)
  ...when the Internet exploded, Microsoft seemed ill-prepared to retrofit adequate security into its shaky software base. ... Section 25 of the C# specification says (I quote verbatim): 'C# provides the ability to write unsafe code.' ... Adding security to an existing, large insecure system will, in my judgment, prove an impossible task.
  

• Microsoft Server Glitch Stalls Security Updates (OS Opinion, 2002.Jan.15)
  The Microsoft erver that handles security updates and patches for the software giant's Windows operating system has apparently experienced problems since last Thursday. The glitch has prevented users from downloading fixes for Windows vulnerabilities from Microsoft's security Web site. ... This reported glitch follows on the heels of a recent warning from the FBI and many security experts that the latest versions of Windows -- XP, 2000, ME, and in rare instances 98 -- could leave machines wide open to hackers.
  

• Automatic Updates Give XP Users New Headaches (eWeek, 2002.Jan.14)
  Microsoft Corp. has been issuing security patches and other updates for Windows XP over the past few weeks-only to have those fixes cause new problems. XP users said the updates cause systems to become unstable and some device drivers to stop working. 'The patches are coming with such unbelievable frequency these days that it's very hard to tell exactly what is being changed and which patch is causing the problems'... after installing the latest batch of XP security patches on four systems running XP Professional, all the systems became unstable.
  

• W32.Donut [First .NET virus] (Symantec, 2002.Jan.09)
  This virus targets EXE files that were created for the Microsoft .NET framework. ... it shows that virus writers are paying close attention to the new .NET architecture and attempting to learn how to exploit it before the Framework will be available on most systems.
  

• FBI, Pentagon Quiz Microsoft on XP (Yahoo! News, 2001.Dec.21)
  The government's ... interest in the problems with Windows XP software, which is expected to be widely adopted by consumers, illustrates U.S. concerns about risks to the Internet.
  

• FBI urges extra caution with XP bug (MSNBC, 2001.Dec.21)
  The FBI ... warned consumers and corporations Friday night to take new steps ... to protect against hackers who might try to attack major flaws discovered in the newest version of Windows software.
  

• Windows Vulnerable to Hack Attacks (Washington Post, 2001.Dec.20)
  Microsoft's [Windows XP], billed as the most secure ever, contains several serious flaws that allow hackers to steal or destroy a victim's data files across the Internet or implant rogue computer software. ... A Microsoft offical acknowledged that the risk to consumers was unprecendented because the glitches allow hackers to seize control of all Windows XP operating system software without requiring a computer user to do anything except connect to the Internet.
  

• Suspect Claims Al Qaeda Hacked Microsoft (Washington Post, 2001.Dec.17)
  A suspected member of the Al Qaeda terrorist network claimed that Islamic militants infiltrated Microsoft and sabotaged the company's Windows XP operating system, according to a source close to Indian police. ... [Claims were made] that a member or members of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, posing as computer programmers, were able to gain employment at Microsoft and attempted to plant 'trojans, trapdoors, and bugs in Windows XP.'
  

• Raw Sockets, Raw Deal (Advisor Magazine, 2001.Oct)
  The Web is already dangerous, but Windows XP's raw sockets could take it down entirely. The [raw sockets] feature adds some oomph to Web site attacks. ... 'Microsoft is essentially making it easier to do...'
  

• Road Runner: We Don't Do Windows XP (Internet.com, 2001.Oct.25)
  Windows XP, the highly anticipated and over-hyped new operating system by Microsoft Corp. released Wednesday, is already off to a bad start with one member of the cable Internet industry. Road Runner, the second-largest cable Internet service provider (ISP) in the nation with more than 1.4 million subscribers, does not support the controversial new operating system for its customers and will not support its use on the cable network.
  

• Shiver me timbers (InfoWorld, 2001.Oct.22)
  [Windows Product Activation] is an irritating control scheme that can ... require you contact Microsoft ... [to activate (unhinder)] XP's operation. Microsoft has promoted this new behavior as a means to reduce mass software piracy ... WPA is dependent on Wpa.dbl, a file stored in XP's System32 folder. This file is so easy for software counterfeiters to reproduce that it poses no barrier to them at all... WPA, in truth, wasn't designed to impede true pirates but to stop novice users from installing a second copy on a laptop or a child's PC.
  

• Consumer groups blast Windows XP in report (CNN, 2001.Sep.28)
  Four consumer advocacy groups say Microsoft's upcoming Windows XP operating system will cause 'significant harm' to consumers. ... Windows XP's integration with other software and its licensing terms 'not only mimic Microsoft's previous violations of antitrust laws, but also significantly add to them,' say [the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, and the US Public Interest Research Group], in [the report 'Windows XP/.Net: Microsoft's Expanding Monopoly']...
  

• Microsoft drops eleventh hour app blocking into WinXP (The Register, 2001.Aug.02)
  'If Microsoft got into the business of deciding which programs you may run on your system, that's a pretty scary thing. Most companies don't have the time or resources to go through the 'Microsoft certification' program.'
  

• The Death of TCP/IP (2001.Aug.02, PBS)
  They don't even have to exploit Windows flaws to be effective. Any Visual BASIC programmer with a good understanding of how Windows works can write a virus. All that is needed is a cleverly titled file attachment payload, and almost anyone can be induced to open it, spreading the contagion. It is too darned easy to create these programs that can do billions in damage. ... Unless [raw socket access] is changed before XP is released, it will mean that millions of new computers will be manufactured as perfect little virus machines. ... in all likelihood, there will be massive data security problems, as well as massive damage to files and property, all as a result of Windows XP.
  

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