Microsoft Windows: A Lower Total Cost of 0wnership

bahamutirc writes "Dave Aitel of Immunity, Inc. has written an excellent report detailing the lower Total Cost of 0wnership Microsoft Windows has over Linux. Dave takes a unique approach in comparing the two operating systems, and the results are not surprising. The paper was submitted to Bugtraq today and is available in PDF and Open Office."

Astroturf?

[neilcSD]

I thought SCO were the ones supposed to be astroturfing on Slashdot...

Before the anti-Trolls come out...

[Short Circuit]

Read it. It's the best TC0 analysis I've ever seen.

Scratch that, it's the only TC0 analysis I've ever seen.

(hint hint)

0wnership?

[michael path]

I imagine that yes, due to the cheap labor of script kiddies that Windows does indeed have a lower cost of '0wnership' (sic).

Especially if...

[jamesdood]

Your primary business is creating mal-ware!!

not only

[kin_korn_karn]

not only does Windows have a TCO, it has a TCP - Total Cost of pwn3rsh1p

What more would you expect...

[Larne]

... from someone who stays up all night, every night, getting drunk? Oh, Dave Aitel, not Dave Attell. Never mind.

Astroturf

[SQLz]

I've never seen a paper written with L337 terminology before.

Yes, you got me.

[Anonymous Coward]

My first response was "Great. Another MS funded piece of crap."

My first clue otherwise was the pie chart in the Executive Summary; "Difficulty of owning Windows vs Difficulty to make this graph".

Now, once I see the 0 in 0wning, I'm laughing my ass off...

Re:Astroturf?

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought SCO were the ones supposed to be astroturfing on Slashdot...

I think you mean "astr0turfing on Slashd0t."

/ An0nym0us C0ward

I t0tally agree!

[Anonymous Coward]

Excellent paper!! I h0pe the Cx0's 0ut there take a l0ng hard l00k.

In my 0rganizati0n, we've c0me t0 basically the same c0nclusi0n. In fact, the c0st 0f 0wnership f0r wind0ws f0r us has been *net negative*, due t0 the tremend0us number 0f an0nym0us v0lunteers we've f0und 0n the internet wh0 are m0re than willing t0 0wn 0ur machines f0r us!

Linux can't even t0uch that!

Mod Article Up! :-)

[MooseByte]

Too bad we can't mod articles up. That's the funniest thing I've read in quite awhile.

Just in time too - bad Friday juju around the office at the moment. I think I'll forward this around and lift the collective mood before a coffee pot goes flying into a random cubicle.

My other computer...

[Dr. Brad]

T-shirt: My other computer is your Windows box.

Take care,
brad

Re:What more would you expect...

[joeldg]

Have you seen his new Insomniac set in Japan?
the title is
"Sloshed in translation"

best show there is..

Re:Sick of lies about Ownership Costs

[julesh]

You didn't read the article did you.

No I'm not new here.

Re:Mirror

[GoofyBoy]

Only on slashdot would someone use a domain name like that to distribute an business/satrical OS analysis white paper. :/

Showing it to the board...

[Supp0rtLinux]

What a difference a 0 vs an O can make. So I can assume that my board has no clue what it means to 0wn a system, show them the PDF, and get a pat on the back for choosing Windows. Or, I can show them this huge satire and have them ask why I chose Windows when Linux is clearly more secure, then have them fire my rear. Ah, the perplexities of IT...

Re:Sick of lies about Ownership Costs

[Anonymous Coward]

Dave, I just want to say man, I love your show on Comedy Central. Great job and keep up the good work!

I'm missing something here

[Lurker McLurker]

I can't find the -1 didn't get the joke mod anywhere

Convenience color link

[anethema]

All the colors of the rainbow! (well, i guess maybe not all ;)

Pretty greeen [slashdot.org]

Nice and red [slashdot.org]

Pasionate purple [slashdot.org]

A nice dull grey [slashdot.org]

uhhh, brown? [slashdot.org]

All of them easier on the eyes than puke color.

That's a lot of work for one joke!

[btempleton]

Ok, a funny joke, but still.

I notice this paper still uses terms like "vulnerability." Instead of calling these things holes or vulnerabilities, the term I prefer is "window." As in, "Somebody found a window into the IIS web server" and so on.

The plural is left as an exercise to the reader.

Re:I stopped reading on the second page..

[pclminion]

Because of this, I couldn't take the report seriously

Trying to ever take it seriously in the first place was your mistake.

I'm quite amused at the number of sub-6-digit Slashdotters being reeled in on this hook...

Re:Missing Logic

[Iorek]

Kinda puts your nick in a new light, eh? ;-)

Re:0wned? Please...

[DynamiteNeon]

Nono, didn't you hear? The moment you start using Linux, your IQ jumps up 40 points.

Re:Unsupported

[arose]

You have a very low cost of 0wnership...

Re:CERT says myDoom cost $40 billion

[pclminion]

factor this!

Um, 2^12 * 5^10?

Re:I stopped reading on the second page..

[Zardus]

I'm quite amused at the number of sub-6-digit Slashdotters being reeled in on this hook...

Its old age rearing its ugly head. We're gonna have to start putting sub-6-digit slashdotters in geek nursing homes soon. Poor bastards.

Re:A Perfect Piece of Shit

[Anonymous Coward]

"Mind you, I am a Mac OS X system admin"

umm? what does "that" entail..

as for "virus" attacks on linux, that is kind of funny saying the average windows box is owned within 30 minutes of being online unless it is behind a nat.

Re:Score - Dave: 1 Most slashdotters: 0

[SpecBear]

You see, the '0' in '0wnership' is actually a 'headline canary'. It's a new feature that allows automatic identification of people who didn't RTFA.

Re:My other computer...

[Skeezix]

My instant messenger away message: "I'm away from your computer right now"

Articles like this...

[shish]

One wonders - if articles like this come up more often, how long until it becomes the norm (ie >50% of people do it) for people to RTFA? Maybe we'll just end up with a new class of "Glanced At The Fantastic Article"...

Re:Score - Dave: 1 Most slashdotters: 0

[White Roses]

This is why I use a font that puts a / through the middle of the 0.

Re:Wait a minute! A lower cost of ownership?

[ScottGant]

also, couldn't he have just submitted the paper in fricken HTML like a normal person?

Re:My other computer...

[bobbozzo]

Another T-Shirt:

I rooted you girlfriend's box and I didn't use a trojan!

Re:I'm missing something here

[CheeseTroll]

Let's put your .sig to the test...

Mod parent up!

Too bad I just let some mod points expire, I'd have burned through the "-1 Didn't get the joke" mods in about 5 seconds.

Re:I stopped reading on the second page..

[The Darkness]

When I was your age we had to hack sendmail to get access to our accounts.. during a DDoS! Blindfolded! And also.. uh.. what was I saying again?

Re:What the hell ?!? No, it's not.

[Ciderx]

Its an attempt at satire. Unfortunately, it a total failure. About as funny as famine.

Re:My other computer...

[mt v2.7]

A bumper sticker: My child reads your honor students email.

Re:wow

[templest]

Apparently a large portion of the Slashdot commenters aren't aware of what '0wn' means in the hacker/cracker sense of the word.

Are you sure you don't mean $cr1p7-k1dd13 sense of the word? No real hacker I've ever met has felt the need to talk in this obscure language we all recognize as '1337'.

For those of you who don't know... '1337' is the hacker/cracker word for 'leet' or 'elite'.

Re:Astroturf?

[SlightlyOldGuy]

If the marketdroids at Microsoft are no more perceptive than many slashdotters, we should be seeing a link to this paper on the "Get The Facts About Linux" page real soon now...

Re:Wait a minute! A lower cost of ownership?

[jc42]

If he'd put it in HTML, it would be Microsoft HTML. Then it'd be even bigger than a Word of PDF document, and only recent IE releases would render it correctly. And it would come with a CSS that made it unreadable on opera. ;-)

Re:A 189 KB PDF file...

[Tenareth]

189k?? Heck, most website's home page is bigger than that these days.

Re:Your sig explains it all...

[vettemph]

Say it right, It's:

()WnZer&|-|iP!