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Microsoft makes Outlook Express U-turn
Silicon.com ^ | August 15, 2003

Posted on 08/15/2003 10:30:34 AM PDT by HAL9000

Just days after announcing that it planned to halt development on Outlook Express, Microsoft has been forced to change its position following internal confusion and an outcry from customers.

As reported earlier this week on silicon.com Microsoft had planned to stop product development on Outlook Express, which forms part of the Internet Explorer code bundled with consumer versions of Windows.

At the time Dan Leach, Office product manager, said: "The technology doesn't go away, but no new work is being done."

Under that vision, consumers would have been directed towards the company's MSN software, while businesses would be encouraged to purchase Office, which includes the full Outlook client.

However, Leach has now distanced himself from his original comments, claiming that while Microsoft had originally planned to halt new work on Outlook Express, the situation has since changed.

"I sat down with the Windows team today, and they tell me my comments were inaccurate," Leach said Friday. "Outlook Express was in sustain engineering, but customers asked for continued improvement, and we are doing that. Microsoft will continue its innovation around the email experience in Windows."

Leach blamed communication problems for the confusion.

"The Outlook Express team has been in the process of making this change known inside Microsoft," he said. "They just hadn't reached me before I left for Asia."

The lack of internal communication underlines the growing challenge faced by Microsoft as it attempts to co-ordinate software development activities over an increasingly diverse range of markets.



TOPICS: News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: email; exploit; internet; lookoutexpress; lowqualitycrap; malware; microsoft; outlook; outlookemail; outlookexpress; securityflaw; techindex; windows
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To: Question_Assumptions
...can you tell me who the "best" baseball player is?

Yes. Albert Pujols. :-)

121 posted on 08/18/2003 1:59:50 PM PDT by TheEngineer
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To: TheEngineer
At the very least, I wouldn't make a fool out of myself trying to protect Microsoft from bad press - like you're trying to do for GNU.ORG.

No, you make a fool out of yourself every time you post.

122 posted on 08/18/2003 2:02:15 PM PDT by Knitebane
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To: Question_Assumptions
The quality of computer software is not as one-dimensional as a golf game.

Golf one-dimensional? Get real! :-) It's multi-dimensional aspects are what makes it a great game. That's why you don't see any of the long-drive champions on the PGA Tour. To succeed, no component of a pro's game can be lacking.

123 posted on 08/18/2003 2:05:32 PM PDT by TheEngineer
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To: Knitebane
...you make a fool out of yourself every time you post.

...Said Knitebane while doing the touchdown dance on his own 5 yard line.

Amusing. Pathetic, but amusing.

124 posted on 08/18/2003 2:12:02 PM PDT by TheEngineer
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To: Knitebane
GNU code is not Linux code. Linux distributions usually use GNU code, but Linux isn't the only user of GNU code. FreeBSD used GNU code. Debian, a Linux distribution, has an option to install BSD userspace code instead of GNU code. GNU code, while important, is not Linux.

You're still trying to spin this -- and it's not washing. As TheEngineer correctly points out, GNU GCC is used to build Linux. Whether or not you want to call that "Linux code", it is most certainly critical to compiling Linux; therefore, the difference is really moot. Keep trying, though. It's amusing watching you twist in the wind...
125 posted on 08/18/2003 2:17:06 PM PDT by Bush2000
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To: Knitebane
GNU code is not Linux code. Linux distributions usually use GNU code, but Linux isn't the only user of GNU code. FreeBSD used GNU code. Debian, a Linux distribution, has an option to install BSD userspace code instead of GNU code. GNU code, while important, is not Linux.

You're still trying to spin this -- and it's not washing. As TheEngineer correctly points out, GNU GCC is used to build Linux. Whether or not you want to call that "Linux code", it is most certainly critical to compiling Linux; therefore, the difference is really moot. Keep trying, though. It's amusing watching you twist in the wind...
126 posted on 08/18/2003 2:18:06 PM PDT by Bush2000
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To: TheEngineer
Golf is "one dimensional" in the sense that you every golf player is doing the same thing and each player plays for themselves. You can have golf players compete against one another in the same set of tasks and figure out which is the "best" as a result of that competition. Baseball, on the other hand, has "positions". If I look at hitting, I might select one player as "best" but if I look at pitching, I might select another player as "best" and any assessment of the overall "best" player will be subjective because of that.

In addition, baseball teams might pick up players who are not the best at anything because they fill a need or because they are what the team can afford. It is too simple to claim that every baseball team signs the "best" players and it is too simple to claim that every software user picks the "best" software on technical merits.

127 posted on 08/18/2003 2:21:09 PM PDT by Question_Assumptions
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To: TheEngineer
Yes. Albert Pujols. :-)

Living or dead? And can he pitch?

128 posted on 08/18/2003 2:24:57 PM PDT by Question_Assumptions
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To: TheEngineer
Amusing. Pathetic, but amusing.

And you deliver again.

129 posted on 08/18/2003 2:28:25 PM PDT by Knitebane
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To: Bush2000
You're still trying to spin this -- and it's not washing. As TheEngineer correctly points out, GNU GCC is used to build Linux. Whether or not you want to call that "Linux code", it is most certainly critical to compiling Linux; therefore, the difference is really moot. Keep trying, though. It's amusing watching you twist in the wind...

And both of you are radically twisting and spinning this into something that it isn't. Let me sum up some of the facts for you.

js1138 stated that the Linux source server had been hacked.

I stated that it was not the Linux source server, but rather the FSF server.

TheEngineer jumped in and stated that GCC is on the FSF server.

I responded that, yes, it had, but GCC had not been compromised and that he should tell the whole story.

Then the both of you started your smear campaign, delivering many innuendos about how GCC might have been hacked but not one shred of evidence, even when I post evidence (you may disagree with it, but you haven't posted anything relevant discounting it either) that GCC and all other software on the FSF site is free of contamination.

The original post that I responded to was about Linux source code server. Get it yet?

130 posted on 08/18/2003 2:38:48 PM PDT by Knitebane
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To: Knitebane
And then you butted in with a smear on GNU code.

It wasn't a smear. It was a correction to your misleading and inaccurate statement:

The hacked site wasn't "the Linux development servers," it was the Free Software Foundation FTP site. It houses no Linux core source code, only code for GNU userland tools.

I just correctly pointed out that FTP.GNU.ORG is home to GCC. GCC is the C Compiler that is used to create binaries for the Linux kernel and most server apps like Apache, OpenSSL, Perl, etc.. If a trojan were to be successfully inserted into GCC, then its effect would be felt on all kernels that are compiled with GCC. That includes the vast majority of Linux distributions.

Care to tell me why [the Mach and Hurd kernels would have been affected by a trojan-infected GCC]?

Because GCC is the most popular and important open source compiler in existence. A well-formed trojan inserted into GCC could infect any binary that it produces. If an infected GCC were used to build Mach and Herd kernels, then they would be affected, too.

I'll try small words this time.

ROFL! Like you know any other kind.

131 posted on 08/18/2003 3:23:13 PM PDT by TheEngineer
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To: Question_Assumptions
And can he pitch?

The only guys on the Cardinals who can pitch are Woody Williams and Jason Isringhausen. That's our problem. :-)

132 posted on 08/18/2003 3:25:09 PM PDT by TheEngineer
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