Microsoft Users Upset with 'security updates'

eWeek Magazine ^ | Dec 23, 2002 | Dennis Fisher

[chilepepper]

A growing number of Microsoft Corp. customers are angry and frustrated with what they say are the company's thinly veiled attempts to use its well-publicized security initiative to get them to upgrade or buy new software.

Users contacted by eWeek last week reported various technical problems with Microsoft's automated services that let customers download and install patches for applications such as Internet Explorer 5.5 or Windows NT 4.0. They also said that when they contacted Microsoft support personnel, they were told that the software they were running was outdated. The solution: Upgrade to a more recent, more secure version.

One user with extensive security training, who asked not to be named, said she recently installed Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, which includes security fixes. The installation destroyed her network connection, forcing her to uninstall the service pack and leaving that machine exposed to the vulnerabilities the update should have fixed.

Others say that the combination of problems with Windows Update and other such services, along with Microsoft's decision to release some of its patches solely through these automated tools, have led them to dispense with installing some fixes altogether.

[weikel]

Well Jack I would say well... well thats a rather odd way of looking at it.

[Bush2000]

Now there's a strange irony ... "Mandrake!"

[Afronaut]

Please
Tell Us some more about the Apple way of life.
We need your guidance.
We know that it is your mission to convert us from Windows
Please tell us again all the same tired things that you tell us in every
Thread on the FR that has nothing to do with Apple.

Blah blah BLAH... my Apple.... Blah Blah

My Dog Can Lick Anyone

[RWG]

once you go mac you never go back

[Space Wrangler]

But if your truck had design flaws, Ford would be obligated to fix it. How would you feel if Ford wrote you a letter saying Dear Customer, your truck is not safe at all. Please go to your dealer and get the $500 safety update......

Ford can't do that, because Chevy or Toyota or Dodge would be the next truck you bought. Windows users don't have that option.

[HairOfTheDog]

Bull! - I don't pay for Windows updates! What are you talking about?

[Space Wrangler]

Really?? My company sure does. They don't call them patches, but that's what they are. Wait until you find yourself at the wrong end of a $2000 MS Liscence scheme to fix what should have been right to start with.

[Bush2000]

once you go mac you never go back

They say the same thing about crack and heroin...

[ThinkDifferent]

Once a PC behaves like a Mac, it will run OS X 10.2.

I don't believe any of the Mac emulators for PCs will run OS X. But please correct me if I'm wrong, that would be interesting to try.

[Bush2000]

Are you sure you're not confusing patches with a MSDN subscription? I've never paid for a patch from MS.

[PatrioticAmerican]

"How are your MSFT stock options doing these days?"

Mine's great. Bought in 1989 for $32 and its has split seven times since. How's Linux? (hehe)

[HairOfTheDog]

Windows patches and security updates are free.

I don't know anything about company licenses and how they pay for the product... But I have been at work and updated along with the automatic update notices sent from Microsoft, without money changing hands, without entering any license information.

I don't think you know what your company is paying for, but it ain't patches. New versions yes!.... But Ford doesn't send out new trucks to the people who bought them last year as a favor either.

[PatrioticAmerican]

Since when does a software malfunction from Microsoft put your life in jeopardy like a seatbelt flaw in a Ford might?

The usual "logic" from the liberal, anti-capitalist crowd.

[chilepepper]

SUN has treated me OK. Bought it at about $14 in 1986 or so and sold late 1999...

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Since it's really NeXTStep I wonder if OS X will run on the old NeXT hardware.

I was one of the few that ran NeXTStep on a WinTel platform. It was on a Canon Workstation that was set up as a dual OS --NeXTStep/Win 3.1. NeXTStep was supposed to be able to write across the partion (Unix magic, I suppose) but every time I tried it kept crashing the DOS partition. (More Unix magic, I suppose)

In the end, I ended up formatting over the NeXTStep partition because I couldn't get any popular software packages for it and I needed the space for my DOS partition.

So, OSX should be able to run on a WinTel platform. Whether Jobs chooses to implement it or not is another matter.

As an aside, I see a lot of NeXTStep in OSX, especially the finder. This was taken almost directly from NeXT.

[Space Wrangler]

It may not put my life in danger, but it puts my income, as well as about 60 others in jeopardy. No matter how you justify it, when something that doesn't work in an MS program that is purported to work, and you have to pay to make the program do what it was originally supposed to do, then it is EXACTLY the same thing as a re-call in the automotive industry. As an example, MS Access 2000 has a memory hole problem where it will never turn loose of the RAM when running VBasic scripts. The solution? Buy Office XP at $2k for the liscensing we need. Very nice.

[Publius6961]

BUMP

[RWG]

Have no idea, never tried, never will although with my Mac I am able to produce spectacular drug prevention multimedia presentations for the substance abuse prevention progam I run at an elementary school in Nebraska.

[PatrioticAmerican]

"and you have to pay to "

Name one security flaw that the fix required payment.

[thisiskubrick]

mac is whack.