Posted on 04/16/2018 4:34:58 PM PDT by dayglored
We'll get to the specifics in a moment, but here's the really notable part: To power Azure Sphere, Microsoft has developed its own, custom version of Linux — the free, open source operating system that Microsoft once considered the single biggest threat to the supremacy of its Windows software.
"After 43 years, this is the first day that we are announcing, and will be distributing, a custom Linux kernel," Microsoft President Brad Smith said on stage at an event in San Francisco.
Smith said that by Microsoft's reckoning, the fact that most new gadgetry comes with a processor is cause for concern: In 2016, unsecured cameras and other appliances were harnessed by bad guys to mount a massive cyberattack that took down major websites for hours. Years later, people are still buying smart gadgets, but security hasn't always improved.
[More at the link...]
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I am old enough to remember when Microsoft released a free version of Java that wrote code which only worked on Windows and not on Mac.
Damn near killed off the Mac.
Who wants to bet there is a hidden feature in this Unix that locks everyone into Windows?
You’re correct. Thank you for correcting me on that.
This means it will be Linux but with security holes in it.
Mark
Actually, Novell bought Unix from AT&T. I was a big fan of SCO, back when it was a software company. I worked quite a bit with SCO Xenix, and later, SCO Unix, though both seemed to be more based System III than System V. They were rock solid operating systems, though they weren't exactly "standard."
During Eric Schmidt's rein, Novell (which was also a rock solid NOS from version v2.0 -v6,) bought Unix from AT&T. While that seemed like a pretty good idea at the time - Netware was a fantastic file server, but a very mediocre application server. Unix filled a missing role. Then Novell decided to market Unix as a FILE SERVER, positioning it as competition to it's own flagship product.
Novell's marketing department was the worst. They couldn't sell space heaters to Eskimos! I was convinced that they were actually all on Microsoft's payroll. For goodness sake, there are still some very useful features of Novell's NDS from back in early 2000s that Active Directory still can't do!
Mark
Sun sued Microsoft over that. The courts ruled that since MS changed the Java VM without permission, they could no longer distribute the Microsoft JVM with Windows XP.
This caused all sorts of problems at a client who replaced all their Windows 95/98 systems with XP. Their applications were all web apps written using the Microsoft JVM. The "real" Sun Java wouldn't work, and until I was able to locate an older version of the MS JVM, we had to hook all their old computers back up again!
It took nearly a week for me to find a "pirate" copy of the MS JVM!
Mark
I’m with you all the way on Win 7. Only way to fly Windows. I’ve got all updates turned off on mine. Runs like a top!
Win 10 is too quirky. Mass, unwanted, updates that screw everything up, spying up the wazoo which MSFT scrapes and sells, no thank you.
If I’m ever forced to leave Windows, Linux is my destination.
Did your client sue Microsoft? They should have.
It caused me personally no end of grief because all of my favorite financial sites wrote their web apps using the "polluted" Java from MS and I lost access. Even with the court rinkydinks they weren't about to re-write their apps just to satisfy a "small minority" of computer users.
Yes, and I can tell you one of them. The administrator could grant specific folder perms to a user several levels down, and the user's file explorer would show the user the folder all the way down but not the contents until the authorized folder was reached. (It was very slick, but a bit difficult to audit). What did Microsoft do about that? Their reps lied about it, saying that all the content was visible all the way down and the Active Directory was far more secure as a result. In fact, AD was a mess, and mostly remains that way, with different share and NTFS perms all the way down. Sorry, this is pretty geeky but I was managing both eDirectory and AD at the time.
The point is that people like me who administered both knew it was wrong but the MS guys simply wouldn't be talked out of it, at least in public. It was at that point that I knew MS marketing was in charge. And I'll still take up the sword for eDirectory, RIP.
Satya has really changed the culture in Microsoft for the better
Yes he did.
Good thing, too. Otherwise, under a continued Ballmer regime, Microsoft would have become irrelevant technically in another few years, and their historical huge presence in business would be like a giant beached whale, rotting and stinking, and somebody would come along to blow it up.
I'm very glad that didn't happen. Still, Windows 10 is not the roaring success that they predicted. Microsoft is an incredibly important company in the tech world, and they need to get back, and stay, on track.
I was speaking just of AD, but you're right, NTFS rights, combined with Share rights, make permission management difficult, and auditing next to impossible. I miss being able to click on a directory in a utility (or use a command line utility,) and learn every group or user that had rights to a directory. And with the GUI, you would also see which NDS objects had those rights.
NDS made it possible to almost completely eliminate the need for groups. The last company I worked for had fewer than 5000 users, but nearly 1000 groups (between security and distribution groups.) With NDS I had customers with thousands of users, like school districts, where each student had their own account, and fewer than a dozen groups. Security management was so much easier!
I worked with Novell's products in the field from v2.0a through v6.0, and worked as a Novell instructor as they rolled out NDS (later called eDirectory) and many of their products, like GroupWise (also a fantastic email system, far superior to Exchange/Outlook at the time,) Global MHS, NFS for NetWare, ManageWise, and BorderManager, and installed and supported them in the field. I really miss Novell and especially their technical support! Back in the day, they actually had a DJ that would take requests, and give updates on how many people were waiting in each queue!
Mark
Thanks but no thanks. I'm done with bloatware spyware and monopoly ware.
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