I hate Microsoft

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Ok, I know that this is a common sentiment, but I hate MS. Why am I posting this? Well, mostly because I need to vent. Last year when the SQL Slammer worm was slowing down the entire internet my webserver was inaccessible. For those of you who don't know, I'm doing my dissertation on the web-based delivery of psychological treatment. At the time of the Slammer worm, I was working diligently on getting the project off the ground. It made my work screech to a halt because I couldn't do ANYTHING on the server to get it ready.



Then, after finally getting my project off the ground and the recruits trickling in, we get the MyDoom thing. It left me and my server unaffected but my users - well that's another story. My registrants dropped significantly since then, I suspect in response to people just being more cautious about receiving emails. I still haven't recovered. And now: the latest security flaw. If it's like the Slammer of last year, shit.



I hate MS. They're the scourge of the Earth. Even though I use exactly 1 MS product on a semi-regular basis, they still make my life Hell. How is that possible? Now that's power.



-t



mods - please feel free to lock this if you want... I just needed to blow off some steam.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 27
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    Hehe. Get in line pal. I just deleated over 4000 E-mails I got again last weekend. I started getting nasty letters from my domain hosting company and it turns out I was 20MB over my 200MB limit and they were going to shut down my site. I deleted my E-mail (lots and lots of the latest worm) and I have 85 MB free now.
  • Reply 2 of 27
    let's assemble a "coalition" and go kick some MS ass!
  • Reply 3 of 27
    brbr Posts: 8,395member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ipodandimac

    let's assemble a "coalition" and go kick some MS ass!



    Think you could just serve as a proxy for MS for us?
  • Reply 4 of 27
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Ebby

    Hehe. Get in line pal. I just deleated over 4000 E-mails I got again last weekend. I started getting nasty letters from my domain hosting company and it turns out I was 20MB over my 200MB limit and they were going to shut down my site. I deleted my E-mail (lots and lots of the latest worm) and I have 85 MB free now.



    Shit man, I'd trade dissertation data collection problems for deleting 4000 emails ANY DAY OF THE WEEK. Consider yourself lucky.
  • Reply 5 of 27
    This is for a thesis project? How about applying for a grant to get yourself an XServe! Seriously, I wouldn't try to host my homepage on windows, much less a dynamic site for work or school.



    I received a grant for my Fine Art thesis that allowed me to pick up a large format printer and a Nikon slide scanner. Grants and scholarships are out there. It sounds like you've got a good idea. So find someone with some money and do it right!
  • Reply 6 of 27
    Quote:

    Originally posted by torifile

    Shit man, I'd trade dissertation data collection problems for deleting 4000 emails ANY DAY OF THE WEEK. Consider yourself lucky.



    are you saying you get over 4000 emails to delete everyday? if so, i dont see how people get that much spam (assuming, of course, that what youre getting is spam). take advantage of mail.app's rules... i seriously get maybe 1 piece of spam a day, and recently its just been that stupid mydoom crap...
  • Reply 7 of 27
    satchmosatchmo Posts: 2,699member
    No, I don't particularly like Microsoft, but shouldn't the blame in this case lay with those who created the virus?
  • Reply 8 of 27
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Michael Wilkie

    This is for a thesis project? How about applying for a grant to get yourself an XServe! Seriously, I wouldn't try to host my homepage on windows, much less a dynamic site for work or school.



    I received a grant for my Fine Art thesis that allowed me to pick up a large format printer and a Nikon slide scanner. Grants and scholarships are out there. It sounds like you've got a good idea. So find someone with some money and do it right!




    I've got a G5 serving my site. The problem is that my (potential) users are affected by email viruses and worms and the SQL Slammer worm that happened last year slowed down traffic all over the internet. That's why I hate MS. I don't use their products, but they still make my life difficult.
  • Reply 9 of 27
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by satchmo

    No, I don't particularly like Microsoft, but shouldn't the blame in this case lay with those who created the virus?



    Do you blame the gun makers or the shooters? I blame both. Blame is not mutually exclusive. I guess it depends on your perspective.
  • Reply 10 of 27
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ipodandimac

    are you saying you get over 4000 emails to delete everyday? if so, i dont see how people get that much spam (assuming, of course, that what youre getting is spam). take advantage of mail.app's rules... i seriously get maybe 1 piece of spam a day, and recently its just been that stupid mydoom crap...



    No, Ebby was saying he gets that many and I was saying I'd trade my dissertation problems for his problem any day. Not that his situation doesn't suck but.....
  • Reply 11 of 27
    Quote:

    Originally posted by torifile

    No, Ebby was saying he gets that many and I was saying I'd trade my dissertation problems for his problem any day. Not that his situation doesn't suck but.....



    oh ok
  • Reply 12 of 27
    satchmosatchmo Posts: 2,699member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by torifile

    Do you blame the gun makers or the shooters? I blame both. Blame is not mutually exclusive. I guess it depends on your perspective.



    Well, neither a gun or MS on it's own, can do any harm.

    The catalysts such as a shooter and virus are the reasons anything bad happens.

    I mean yes, MS may write some crappy software with security holes...but it still requires someone to exploit it.



    This discussion is probably best left for AppleOutsider, though.

  • Reply 13 of 27
    Quote:

    Originally posted by torifile

    Ok, I know that this is a common sentiment, ...



    well, although it is quite a common sentiment, that doesn't mean it will lose impact. ya know, i can tell you storys over and over, unbelievable, truly unbelievable ...



    ms just gives me the creeps.



    best
  • Reply 14 of 27
    Microsoft does not create spam. Microsoft did not slow your website down. Instead of blaming a company why don't you blame a script kiddie, or a hacker? Why don't you blame filesharing as well? Most people get their problems/viruses from Kazaa. For what its worth Microsoft makes a pretty good OS considering it has to run on thousands of peices of hardware on varying preformance boxes.



    As to your dissertation... if these people won't learn how to use a computer as their tool, how would you expect them to get mental help through it? lol.
  • Reply 15 of 27
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by scavanger

    Microsoft does not create spam. Microsoft did not slow your website down. Instead of blaming a company why don't you blame a script kiddie, or a hacker? Why don't you blame filesharing as well? Most people get their problems/viruses from Kazaa. For what its worth Microsoft makes a pretty good OS considering it has to run on thousands of peices of hardware on varying preformance boxes.



    As to your dissertation... if these people won't learn how to use a computer as their tool, how would you expect them to get mental help through it? lol.




    MS is the reason that viruses and worms can exist and affect all of us. I don't care that they didn't actually write the damn things themselves. I don't think they could - otherwise they'd know better than to release such insecure software. It has nothing to do with running "on thousands of peices [sic] of hardware" and everything to do with the fact that they take shortcuts to make things easier for them and they sacrifice security for performance. That's where they're to blame. And I'll continue to blame them until they stop allowing things like file downloaded off the internet to wreak mass havoc. As tonton said, they are lazy/incompetent/negligent and that leads to the problems we see from them.



    On another note, why doesn't Apache or MySQL suffer from the same security problems as IIS or MSSQL? They run on many more varied platforms and different hardware than MS' offerings. Hmm. Could it be that the software that runs on a computer shouldn't be insecure because the hardware is different? Why does the hardware affect software security anyway? Stop being such an MS apologist.
  • Reply 16 of 27
    Most major Web and SQL servers run behind hardware firewalls for the most part, with very compentent network admins.



    People buy car alarms for their cars, to protect them from theft of vandalism. They've learned how to use alarms on their homes and how to set them so they are on, off, and so forth.



    We have firewalls and virus scanners to do the same thing. People don't want to use or learn how to use them like they did with their car and house alarms. They don't to protect their computer.



    You cannot blame a company who's product is chosen by computer users to use. No one is required to run Microsoft software, they choose too. Just like with gun safety you need to learn how to make it safe, and many people still don't do that as you can see on the news.



    You can't blame the company for making a "bad" product, only the people that buy it.



    BTW most spam isn't from worms, its from people putting their email addresses online, and thats their own fault.



    Also, OSX has had 3 or 4 releases in the same time span as Windows. Costing quite a bit more then windows. Are people expected to pay hunderds of dollars a year to have a more secure OS? I don't want to, and I won't.
  • Reply 17 of 27
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by scavanger

    Most major Web and SQL servers run behind hardware firewalls for the most part, with very compentent network admins.





    And that was an answer to my question why IIS and MSSQL are less secure than their open-source counterparts? You claimed that MS was doing a good job because of the varied hardware their software has to support. I claimed that they support less hardware less well and less securely than alternatives and you retort that there are hardware firewalls to make up for security flaws. So can I suppose you agree with my claim since you didn't address it?



    And I *do* blame MS just like I blame gun makers but to a greater extent because at least gun makers seem to do what they can to make their products secure.



    It's been shown repeatedly that MS has taken shortcuts that are to the detriment of security. I'd go into detail but it's been discussed before by people much more competent than I. The bottom line is that MS makes insecure software. Yes, OS X has been updated repeatedly since XP. And, yes, they cost money. But I'd prefer that to MS' requiring that you agree to changes in DRM conditions in order to update a critical security flaw in WMP. I suppose money is more important than agreeing to being coerced for you.
  • Reply 18 of 27
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by scavanger

    You cannot blame a company who's product is chosen by computer users to use. No one is required to run Microsoft software, they choose too. Just like with gun safety you need to learn how to make it safe, and many people still don't do that as you can see on the news.



    You can't blame the company for making a "bad" product, only the people that buy it.



    ...



    Also, OSX has had 3 or 4 releases in the same time span as Windows. Costing quite a bit more then windows. Are people expected to pay hunderds of dollars a year to have a more secure OS? I don't want to, and I won't.




    Wow. First you present the argument that "MS doesn't make a bad product, people are just lazy about protecting themselves." That seems to make sense, from an objective point of view (we don't know how much OS X would be exploited if it were 90% of the market). But then you say that you wouldn't pay extra for a more secure OS. Also, you seem to think that it would cost "hundreds of dollars a year" to use Mac OS X, when it costs $129 per year.



    Good point in saying that OS X has had 3 or 4 releases in the same time span as Windows. Yes, since Windows XP has come out, OS X has gotten three major updates. So technically, the amount of money you spend over time is greater - given a $200 upgrade to go from a previous version of Windows to XP Pro, that's equivalent to about one and a half Mac OS releases. Of course, the cost per release for OS X is quite a bit less, $129 to buy it outright vs. $300 for XP Pro non-upgraded.
  • Reply 19 of 27
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by scavanger

    Most major Web and SQL servers run behind hardware firewalls for the most part, with very compentent network admins.



    And they still get taken down.



    Quote:

    People buy car alarms for their cars, to protect them from theft of vandalism. They've learned how to use alarms on their homes and how to set them so they are on, off, and so forth.



    Bad analogy. I won't give specifics for obvious reasons, but I know of a neighborhood where none of the houses had alarms. Someone moved in, and installed an alarm in theirs, and put up all the signs saying so. Two weeks later, their house was robbed.



    Fortunately, firewalls are more effective.



    But again, if firewalls and virus scanners are so good, where are they? On OS X, the firewall is configured and enabled by default. On Windows, MS made the specific decision not to. Apple has shown that if you really consider security crucial, you can make it robust, easy or trivial to set up, and pretty much bulletproof. If security is such an essential part of using a computer, why is there so much work involved in locking a Windows computer down? That's lazy and stupid and unethical, and there's no excuse for it.



    60% of all servers on the internet run with the exact configuration they had when they were pulled out of the box. That's reality. So the obligation lies with the supplier to make the system secure out of the box.



    Quote:

    You cannot blame a company who's product is chosen by computer users to use. No one is required to run Microsoft software, they choose too.







    Quote:

    BTW most spam isn't from worms, its from people putting their email addresses online, and thats their own fault.



    Right, because heaven forbid that we use the internet to communicate. Most people trying to reach someone through a web site prefer email addresses overwhelmingly over web forms anyway, and it's not hard to see why.



    Following your own logic, shouldn't it be the fault of the people harvesting the email addresses?



    Quote:

    Also, OSX has had 3 or 4 releases in the same time span as Windows. Costing quite a bit more then windows. Are people expected to pay hunderds of dollars a year to have a more secure OS? I don't want to, and I won't.



    Most Mac users don't: They use the system that came with their Mac. OS X doesn't have to be updated constantly to be more secure than Windows, because it was better designed to begin with. Security updates, by the way, are free. You only pay for features if you want to.
  • Reply 20 of 27
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Wow, three equally hostile posts in the span of a few minutes.



    Now that's what I call...



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