Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Microsoft security...oxymoron of the day...


...as last Friday the US Department of Homeland Security, who are usually fighting the war on terror, has urged Windows users to install the latest patches from Microsoft as quickly as possible. In particular it warned about one bug fixed in the latest batch of security updates that, if exploited, could put a PC under the control of an attacker. The bug allows attackers to take over Windows machines. In any other industry a market share of 90% would be considered a monopoly in need of urgent regulatory intervention. Now I know that what I'm saying is not new but I think it's still worth saying. When will the EU bite the bullet and do something about Microsoft's dominance of the operating system market? After all we now have much better open source software such as Linux and Ubuntu. After a week of Windows/Internet Explorer/Dell hell with a computer that crashes on average once an hour I'm quite ready to start saving up for my Apple MacBook. Why is it so difficult to buy a PC without Windows? It should be the law that a customer can demand to buy a PC without having to make an involuntary contribution to Bill Gate's pension fund. I have a friend who works with Ubuntu on her PC and it is fast and never crashes.


Dell is recalling 4.1 million laptop batteries which is why we are reposting the lovely Japanese photo above. That must be the ultimate security flaw. For more Dell hell read buzzmachine. So if there is a reliable laptop manufacturer out there that is prepared to sell it's products with an open source OS such as Linux I would like to hear from you.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Open source is the way to go. The Microsoft monopoly has spoiled people's choice in the whole PC industry.