Posted on 09/27/2011 8:25:02 AM PDT by ShadowAce
I’m glad Red Hat is on this.
Microsoft’s tactics are very shady. They deserve to be embarrassed in news reports for what they’re doing.
Even for anybody who is a fanatic of their particular brand of OS and may not be affected by this, everybody should see this for what it is and be outraged by it.
It strikes me that Microsoft is playing a word game typical of progressives.
They’re trying to make it seem as if they mean ‘security’ as in, secure from viruses, or spyware, or pick your security related topic.
What they’re doing though is quite different. They’re making machines specified so that they are “Secured to only boot windows”.
They could easily open source this technology if it wasn’t the case, so as to prove that they aren’t purposely trying to lock out the competition.
I was informed this was bullshit, and that the Linux community would just build their own PC's if it they didn't have old Windows PCs to re-purpose.
That's been their MO since I can remember.
Of course, it helps that they were founded by a couple of huge liberals.
I have very little problems with computers (Microsoft or Linux based) but that is not the case for most operators.
It was especially prevalent with Vista users. (a real dog of an OS)
But then--you were also wrong.
By the time Linus posted his now famous usenet post, 386 PCs were pretty standard, but PCs with Windows pre-installed on them were not. 1991 was still the era of Windows 3.1, and no standard software images were being installed pre-sale. Since he lived in Finland at the time, it's difficult to say with certainty whether he had ever had Windows installed on that machine.
I don’t think the details matter much, as long as I was wrong.
Depending on your age and perspective you might say the real debt was to IBM for the standardization of the platform. Microsoft was a beneficiary of that, as was Linux.
LOL! For the record, I think you were closer to the truth than what you were told.
I agree IBM standardized the platform, but then they turned around and tried to make it proprietary with the PS/2 and MCA.
IMHO, Microsoft writing their OS to be as hardware-agnostic as possible drove the develoment of new hardware on several fronts.
I've seen many people rave about Apple's business model, but I've never been able to get them to say they think that the industry would be better off today if Microsoft and IBM had adopted that same model back in '81.
I’m not sure why this is Microsoft’s fault. This should be a good security measure against rootkits, and the decision to have the option to disable it is entirely up the the hardware manufacturer.
-——————I opined once (on another thread) that the Linux community owed a debt to Microsoft for making PC’s a commodity item-——————
I could go along with that.
Apple’s OSs have typically been much more............. bossy........ than Microsoft’s. Until recently. MS wants to end this before it gets any worse.
Apple computers may have still made computers a commodity, but this sort of strong arm tactic is one that Apple would’ve employed long, long ago. IMHO.
That assumes that microsoft’s motives are actually to defend against root kits.
I have little doubt that this is all about competition. “Securing” their future as a monopolist.
No, it doesn't. Whether it provides protecion against rootkits is a techncal question who's answer has nothing to do with whether that was the intended purpose or not.
We've had quite enough problems with flame wars based on unsubstatiated accusations about motives on these threads, and calls to limit discussion to technical issues and the relative merits based on that criteria.
If you want to start a flame war, go find somebody else to help you start it.
Is this going to be the start of the decline of Microsoft?
That statement is from the perspective of Microsoft single handed direction of the PC development. It did not. I am old enough to remember TRS-DOS, NewDOS, CPM and all the Windows platforms. (and quite a few more)
Microsoft "bought" their first OS, did not write it. They have been excellent marketers, but have a long history of loving monopoly positions. Freedom works, but MS is not about that. Competition works, but MS is not about that.
I am not a MS hater, but I know what they are about. I love technology, but am always wary of motives.
Poor: 3.x, 95, 98, ME, Vista
Solid: NT, 2000, XP, W7/64
IMHO, W8 has all chances to follow along ME and Vista.
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