[NTLUG:Discuss] How can it be M$'s fault! They put out a patch!

[Daniel Hauck]

Uh... you're missing something fundamental here and that's the market MS
targets.

See, if all drivers on the road were PhD mechanics or something, then maybe
we would have fewer automotive recalls.  The bulk of the people using
WindowsNT and Windows2000 are *NOT* network engineers!!  They are just users
who want to "surf" the web...play music...chat online.  At the moment, *NIX
users are still a somewhat "elite" as a group where far fewer novices are
operating these boxes.  As that changes, RedHat and the like will start
coming under fire for releasing stuff in certain ways as well... (But redhat
now comes with measures against that problem anyway.)

So in short, their behavior is negligent because of the market they are
targeting and selling to.  I know this argument doesn't register quite right
at first glance, but if you think about it, it's not hard to make sense out
of it.  Again, taking into parallel any other product recall situation,
compare what MS does with what other product manufacturers do.  You will
find that they are far less than ethical yet largely up to par.

Maybe it's a bit dramatic to compare an automotive recall where people die
before people will listen to a problem as petty as marketing the equivalent
of an AK47 to people as an "all purpose tool."  While I have to agree with
you that if people were dilligent with keeping their OS's up to date that
there wouldn't be an issue, but where there *IS* an issue that anyone would
have a hard time arguing against is that because of MS's target market,
there is NO reasonable expectation that the customer will maintain his
system as diligently as required!  How can there be when these "servers"
[workstations] are being sold as all purpose tools to "users" [not
administrators] who barely know how to make MS Office format a page without
using a thousand spaces instead of tables!  There is NO reasonable
expectation that their customers are up to the task of protecting themselves
from the product they are using.  How can I be wrong??  Everyone runs MS
oeprating systems and be honest and tell me how many of those are "expert
users" with even a clue about how to keep it up to date?


----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Geoffrion" <richard at rain.lewisville.tx.us>
To: <discuss at ntlug.org>
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2001 9:34 PM
Subject: [NTLUG:Discuss] How can it be M$'s fault! They put out a patch!


> While I think it is technically idiotic to rely on an M$ product for
> business purposes, M$ did after all provide a patch.
>
> Oh sure, they enabled services by default but SO WHAT!
>
> If I run BIND 8.2.2 straight off of the Slack distro CD, I'll get rooted!
> What's the difference!
>
> OH BUT M$ HAS A HISTORY OF RELEASING CRAPPY PRODUCTS!
>
> Well, as I see it so has SENDMAIL and ISC.  Hey, I run the product, I have
> to keep it safe. (or I have to switch products.....just as soon as things
> settle down....it's QMAIL time!)  See!  problem solved.
>
> Maybe M$ can include an automatic manditory patch update feature in the
next
> release of their OS.  Heck, they're already trying to control everything
> else.  They might as well control something that does someone some good!
>
> These jumbled and incoherent thoughts brought to you by a Cisco switch
> upgrade at an Irving based bank.  See what happens when you wake up and
get
> to a customer site before the world wakes up!  It makes one defend the
great
> Satan!
>
>
>
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