Microsoft at its best

[NeoGen]

It's nice to see that some things never change... like Microsoft producing good quality code...

Microsoft on Tuesday patched at least 34 security holes in a wide range of software, including a bug in its Internet Explorer browser that fetched a researcher $10,000 at a hacker contest in April.
In all, Microsoft released 10 bulletins, three of which were rated “critical” because they allowed attackers to remotely install malware on victim machines. Other affected products include Windows, Office, Internet Information Services, and SharePoint.

Full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06...day_june_2008/

[Brucifer]

M$ might not have such a rough time of it if they didn't keep trying to reinvent the wheel every time they release a new version of windows, and instead just did upgrades and all like linux does. But they are still in the "old" business model where they think that everyone is going to keep spending a small fortune every year on their computer. Just costs too much to keep playing the "upgrade" game anymore. But the bottom line is that people aren't buying computers like they used to. More and more of the discretionary computer dollar is being spend on appliance like stuff instead of the old heavy duty computer. Who needs a 16 core chip on their home computer to do their email, surf the web, write letters, or what have you. Most of the folks out there aren't into running distributed computing farms. And quite a few of the folks that used to run sizeable DC farms have really backed off on it. And M$ is responsible for a lot of the change in purchasing habits too whether or not they care to admit it. Why buy the new windows version when it's just going to have more bugs and security issues, just like the older one, plus having to buy new application software, etc. Just isn't worth it.

[NeoGen]

That's why I don't even bother to try a new Microsoft OS until the first service pack comes out.

I haven't yet tried Windows 7, and right now I think Windows XP and Vista are really good and stable as they should be. Windows XP is to me a great and (somewhat) lightweight OS for DC'ing. Mostly because I can't really work with linux yet. Windows Vista is now to me a good OS to have at home, for anyone to work with, surf the web, and play the latest games, it's much more stable and compatible than when it came out.

Windows 7 is to me still on hold for a while... let's see how long until the first service pack comes out, and then I'll make my evaluation of it.

[Brucifer]

I haven't tried Win7 either, and don't intend to. XP works just fine for me on the DC projects I run and as such I'll run it until there is an overpowering reason to change to something better. Of course we all know that's wh M$ drops support on their older O/S's to force people into buying new stuff. I think this time though it will just force me out of the DC game when it happens. I'm retired now and I don't care to spend more bucks playing the game anymore. If linux won't cut it then, then it's over as there's more important things for me to spend the money on.