Vista Security The 'Longest Suicide Note in History'? 467
rar42 writes "The Inquirer is reporting on an analysis of Vista by Peter Gutmann — a medical imaging specialist. This isn't the usual anti-Microsoft story — just a professional looking at what is going to happen to his computer if it is upgraded to Microsoft Vista. From the article: 'Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS elements in order to provide content protection for so-called "premium content", typically HD data from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources. Providing this protection incurs considerable costs in terms of system performance, system stability, technical support overhead, and hardware and software cost,' says Gutmann."
A biz idea for the new year (Score:2, Interesting)
Did you know DirectX 10 will only be released under Vista? Even if you have the latest and greatest G-card and a fast system, sorry, if you run XP you'll be stuck with DirectX 9. There's no technical reason for this. It's just that MS wants you to 'retrograde' to Vista.
How about someone do a web site reselling old XP licenses? eBay refused to do this because MS asked them not too. How about someone will some guts and enterpreneurship takes a go at this. Could be a huge market for XP resales especially to businesses?
As for games developers, do what I do: Switch to OpenGL next release.
Re:A biz idea for the new year (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Dupe from Friday (Score:2, Interesting)
Mod parent up.
Mod story -1 redundant.
Mod me -1 offtopic.
Mod yourself Merry Christmas.
TLF
Re:I'd prefer a less pre-loaded stance (Score:5, Interesting)
The most sad part is that Microsoft is abusing this by pointing to every such study as prejudiced and often rightly so. But what is the general public to do now? You either have experts that study the matter and become prejudiced or you have those with only superficial knowledge who can keep the illusion of objectivity but more often than not they do not know enough about the matter. Often to the point to believe studies paid by Microsoft as being a source of objective information. And if you want to keep the illusion of objectivity you need to cite those and it just seems wrong to me.
Sometimes you are just not supposed to be objective. Some topics do not invite that form of discussion. Is the Earth flat? I don't think anybody expects you to present the supporting opinion in equal length. Did holocaust happen? Again, not really a question in need of giving equal space to both sides. So why 'Is Microsoft crooked and do they intentionally cripple their product to harm consumer and competition?' needs any more discussion even after it was affirmed by Findings of Fact published by a federal judge? The matter of do they or don't they has long been settled. At this point the only question should be: "How exactly are they trying to cheat this time?"
Re:Vista is a fantastic piece of ... (Score:3, Interesting)
>PS: Linux users are breaking the LAW every time they watch a DVD using their OS.
Untrue.
Distributors of some types of DVD decoding software may be doing so in violation of civil statutes in certain jurisdictions, but I must ask you to cite the specific prohibition you claimed in your PS:. Chapter and verse of the applicable law, please, don't waste our time with "DMCA". I know all about the DMCA, the DVD/CCA/CSS issues, etc.
Re:A biz idea for the new year (Score:5, Interesting)
Direct3D10, which will ship with Windows Vista in a few months, doesn't seem to be a large cause for concern. At first glance it appears to be more of an evolutionary change rather than revolutionary. New shader support will be needed, but extending ours once OpenGL supports it should be pretty easy. Stefan mentioned Microsoft is currently offering a lot of incentives for Windows developers who develop D3D10-only games since they'll only be usable on Vista - there's no plan to backport D3D10 to XP. Dan Kegel asked if that means we should port Wine's forthcoming D3D10 implementation to Windows, which would be relatively easy when we switch to WGL.
Re:Well then don't use it (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/6767 [securityfocus.com]
The worst case I ever saw in person was at an assisted living facility. Their pull chains (that the residents pull when they are in trouble) was being monitored by a PC running Windows 95 (this was in 2006).
>You're not supposed to use a consumer grade OS for mission critical apps anyway. So if you went with a vendor that >builds its apps on such an OS, then you are at fault.
Progress requires that RIAA/MPAA be screwed over (Score:3, Interesting)
The record and film industry do not want new technologies to be available to the public. They will fight bitterly until the last, until the new medium is forced on them. And then they will make money on it. Think of home video. The film industry brought the VCR manufacturers all the way to the Supreme Court until they lost. Now the film industry makes significantly more money in home video sales than in the theatres. Technology must be imposed non-consentually on the content providers. The manufacturers need to release their products regardless of the complaints of the content providers.
I don't know why Microsoft is bending over for the media companies. They should just publically state that any mandated copy protection will hurt the ability of corporations to develop their own proprietary software. I'm sure there is at least a dozen companies which will gladly provide written statements about how the copy protection hurts their business. Microsoft then gives the media companies the middle finger. Pirates rape the media companies in innovative ways by releasing the content in manners not approved by the owners. The media companies are forced to create new media delivery methods to match consumer demands. This increases their revenues which were stagnant because of media executives who couldn't innovate their way out of a paper bag. The consumer benefits from new options in the market. Everyone benefits from the rape.
I don't believe piracy for profit should be legal. However, I don't believe that non-profit piracy is that bad. Many people would never purchase the movie or television show. Many people later purchase the legal version of the pirated product. For example, let's say a Slashdot reader named Jim missed out on the first 8 episodes of Heroes. He had heard it was a really good show, but didn't want to watch number nine first. Let's say that Jim downloaded the episodes in non-approved manner and watched them. Now Jim is a loyal Heroes watcher. Or let's say that Jim downloads technical books, finds which ones he likes and then purchases them online. Does Jim contribute to the media companies bottom line or does he hurt the media companies bottom line?
It was supposed to be a C3 O/S !!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
With Windows Vista, Microsoft appears to be completely abandoning any pretense of high-reliability.
Many industrial and medical applications have fairly high reliability requirements. Using commodity software and hardware has some cost and reliability advantages. It is easy to source replacement parts, and implement hardware redundancy. Being able to easily obtain replacement hardware is a big advantage if downtime costs are large.
The problem is that Microsoft appears to have abandoned the high-reliability sector. Windows XP has a continuous stream of rolling updates for both XP and the Anti-Virus packages. The result is that your high-reliability application can stop working for no apparent reason. From all indications, Windows Vista will make this worse.
Recently, I have been looking harder and harder at Linux. Linux offers a much more stable platform, and I can customize the installation to make it much more difficult to corrupt. The issue is that such a high software investment has been placed in specialized Windows solutions, that it is difficult to port everything to another operating system overnight.
Elimination of Open-source Hardware Support (Score:2, Interesting)
if its a good OS, todays ver is the final (Score:5, Interesting)
Its still linux. 8 year old stuff still compiles mostly, its fluid.
If windows was so great, it would stay at one version XP forever, with unlimited updates forever, SP4 SP21. etc...
Just because they are forced by marketing to make a new version is admiting its core is crap and needs a rewrite.
They could just as easily update/replace portions of XP gradually, six monthly. And make sure each other component isnt
too tied to others. ie WMP shouldnt need IE7 or something else... it should be detect and use if available.
This whole idea of , lets stop current dev and all new dev is placed into a new 'version' edition is total marketing crap, and
old school stuff of the 80s. Modern complex systems should never have a major rebuild, its always small step updates, like real
biological evolution.
OSX is basically the same, but again its articially versionized because of just new components added, and the silly side effects like
newly compiled made software not working on old OSX's even if they use no new features, thats my biggest pet pieve of OSX. Sometimes
its only the result of the installer package, not the code it self which would work fine. If X library is less than version Y, then dont use
those features.
Btw does apple make the old OS10.1 and 10.2 upgrades from 10.0 FREE NOW? what about any one left in 10.2 land, do they get a free 10.3 upgrade
once 10.4 is widely installed? Having too many versions installed out there should be a worry for them, they should allow all 10.3 machines to upgrade
for free. It would surely be cheaper to have no support for pre 10.3 if you provide free upgrades.
Re:I'd prefer a less pre-loaded stance (Score:4, Interesting)
1. Power plant uses Windows PC's to monitor "x".
2. If "x" can't be monitored, we shut the power plant down. This is "fail-safe".
3. If enough power plants shut down, then we have to shut down the power grid. Shutting down the power grid affects the entire east-coast. When the power grid is shut-down, we automatically shut down all power plants. This is a fail-safe response. After the power grid is shutdown, it takes a few days to restart things.
4. If we shut down the grid, then several people will die (via indirect sequences of events). At a minimum, many people will be placed in high-risk situations, and large numbers will be inconvenienced.
What would it take to shutdown a network of identical Windows PC's making up a power system? A piece of malware, a rogue anti-virus update, etc. It really wouldn't take all that much to wipe out the power grid for the east coast. A series of inept coincidences could potentially succeed.
As a Professional Engineer, a person who is supposed to be able to advise companies on this stuff, it is extremely difficult to avoid sounding excessively alarmist. I work on industrial applications that are supposed to be fairly high-reliability. It is very difficult to keep Windows PCs isolated from the outside world. If you don't isolate the PC's, then you are vulnerable to Windows service-packs and Windows Anti-Virus software shutting down your production line. How do you even explain the problem to people? Everyone uses a Windows PC, and a Windows PC could never hurt them, right?
What do I recommend? I don't know the answer. Mostly, I try not to think about it too much. With the large amounts of specialized Windows software, it is difficult to think of any easy fixes.
Re:Dupe from Friday (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not about Vista security. It's about Vista DRM.
The difference is that security is about the owner of the hardware establishing and protecting his control over it, while DRM is about a party A trying to claim some control over hardware belonging to another party B, on grounds that some pattern of bytes which A or a third party owns is currently instantiated, or might at some time be instantiated on B's hardware. When used for DRM, the term "security" becomes a meretricious euphemism designed to mislead an audience about who is securing what from whom.
if you want to read LSNiH then just read the EULA (Score:4, Interesting)
this is a microsoft hosted page that you can pull up any EULA you want (MS products only of course)
Microsoft requires the right to DISABLE YOUR COMPUTER if it fails a validation check (WGA BOFH style anyone?)
Comment removed (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Not trolling.... (Score:0, Interesting)
If I'm giving Sky £30+ a month then I think that the stuff should be ad free
Chinese DVD players (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I'd prefer a less pre-loaded stance (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:It was supposed to be a C3 O/S !!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
I just the other day got a Redhat Linux Quad Opteron with 4gigs of RAM crash under me. RAM was full, OK, but swap wasn't. What's worse, the logs had stopped filling a week before. The Sun server was happily chugging along with 2+ *years* uptime under similar loads.
Now realize that Sun doesn't give you high speed, no-siree. The reason I had stuff running on the Linux box was that it was easily 5 times faster than the Sun station.
Hey, Sun servers are fabled to be able to hot-replace a burning RAID card. What else could you want?
The only reason to shun Sun in favor Linux would be economical. The only reason to shun Linux in favor of Windows would be for desktop use. Although, I don't know the comparative prices of Win Server 2003 and Redhat, so I guess there could be economical reasons there...
Re:Unnecessary Decline? (Score:4, Interesting)
You are dreaming in colour. Wars happen in all sorts of countries. There have been FEWER wars amongst big countries in the past few hundred years, than little countries. Just the big ones (Napoleonic, Franco-Prussian, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf) tend to be noticed more. Pretty much the entire African continent has been continually at war since the European powers pulled out... these countries are so small they hardly get noticed on the international scene, yet war is happening all the time there. Your comment is unfounded. Sure, the big countries tend to back one side or other in these small wars, but they're not the ones that START them.
Re:Priorities (Score:5, Interesting)
And it's going to hurt them. probably long term and big time.
Zune is a failure vs Ipod because consumers don't want to deal with DRM everytime they want to listen to something, especially when there are hundreds if not thousands of music players that will play non DRM files. Including the Ipod.
Vista will fail for similar reasons. Business is happy with XP and will support it until Microsoft doesn't, and maybe adopt Linux after that. Consumers will only upgrade when they buy a new PC, and will stay around even after support is killed. if Apple starts opening their mouth about vista DRM screwing their music experience, they might just buy a Mac next time. Hell I don't know why Apple hasn't done a "Buy a Mac and get an Ipod Free" deal as of yet. It would definitely get a mac in the door faster.
It's looking the same way for office2007 business wise. I know we look at it and say to ourselves "training nightmare". I'm sure we're not the only ones saying that especially since our business is Higher education. I can only imagine what a commercial business is saying.
Apple and Microsoft had the power. They had the power to give both AA's the finger and work directly with the artists. They had the power to ignore them completely and let the users rip until the cows come home. They had the power to screw these Hi-def DVD formats until they relaxed the standards to work with existing hardware and software. Unfortunately, Apple seems to be giving the RIAA the finger while somewhat bowing down to the MPAA's HD lockdown Schemes, and MS is asking both AA's which lower cheek to kiss in a futile attempt to gain some more exclusive content that Apple's going to get anyway because their the market leader. Even then, all MS is really going to get in the end is more demands from the AA's when they could have easily just stayed the course they were going and force the AA's to conform to the digital age or die.
If there is any time for Apple and Linux to start pushing themselves, now's the time.
Re:Unnecessary Decline? (Score:2, Interesting)
Close, you stopped too soon. Capital also seeks a reduction of controllable risk. Ergo, capital seeks power in order to maximize profit, no fetish here.
Duplicity from Friday (Score:1, Interesting)
And what freedoms would that be? The right to be entertained? The right to vote with my dollars? The right to complain to my congressperson? Vista isn't taking anything away from me because...
1-I still can use everything I've purchased.
2-I don't plan on purchasing Vista.
3-I can CREATE (one of those foreign words around here) whatever I want and enjoy it in the comfort of my house.
And last I CAN JUST SAY NO to the urge to own things, be it legally bought, or illegally downloaded. A lesson most of you are just now waking up to.
Wow, that's disrespectful. (Score:1, Interesting)
*Make a note that it's not always about money. Just ask any of the websites out there that have their content "borrowed" even when asked nicely not to, and the material is "free" to begin with.
Re:or, you could... (Score:2, Interesting)
when you attempt to add non-drm'd media to the media library for vista media center, it ignores that content.
that's my experience.
Re:Unnecessary Decline? (Score:1, Interesting)
You state" Just a thought, but living in a world where we aren't brought up to constantly need mind numbing entertainment spewed at us any time we aren't working might not actually be a bad thing.".
What if that's what is actually responsible for the decline of movie and music sales?
My music collection consists mainly of music from the'70s and '80s. And only a few artists at that.
What if North American society as a whole is becoming jaded with the entertainment options available.
The RIAA and the MPAA both blame 'rampant and uncontrolled' downloading of copyrighted content as being the sole cause of the decline in sales. What if those 'declines' are due more to the fact that people are getting plain fed up with the crap that's being shovelled out of the studios? I used to be able to listen to commercial radio but the quality of the pap being played in heavy rotation means I haven't listened to commercial radio for quite some time now. I've got my portable media player and that's good enough for me.
Another aspect the RIAA especially fails to take into account time and time again is the fact that CD's generally last considerably longer than a 45's, 33's or even a cassettes did. No need to constantly replace your favourite albums also translates into fewer album sales. And I know there are quite a few people like myself who have their entire audio collection FLAC'd onto their computers in a media library accessible with a few keystrokes while the original CD's sit in their jewel cases on the shelf.
And with the advent of the Internet, how many of us are bypassing the conventional 'Major Labels/Payola/Fixed Radio playlists' marketing sham by visiting the sites of odd bands from around the world and ordering CD's either directly from the site or through their chosen online distributor, often a costs more inline with what a CD should cost as opposed to what the major labels milk from an album.
Just a thought
Re:Unnecessary Decline? (Score:3, Interesting)
This sounds great and it got you a score of 5 for "insightful", but it's not true. Consumers are allowed, by US law, to import one copy of any CD, DVD or VCD they want for personal use. It's only when you try to get more than one copy of the same title that you run into potential legal issues. There were some court cases in the 1980s involving imported records and CDs and the US courts ruled that individuals may import one copy of any title for personal use, but if more than one copy is imported, it gets into sticky royalty payment issues. So despite what you think, it's certainly not illegal for US citizens to buy foreign CDs, VCDs and DVDs or to bring them back from trips. I do both all the time and never has US customs interfered with anything I have brought with me or had shipped through the mail.
It's also not illegal in the US to own a region free DVD player. Hollywood hates it and they fought against it, but there's no law against it. I'm no fan of the MPAA or RIAA, but it does no one any good to say that things are illegal when they are not.
Re:Unnecessary Decline? (Score:3, Interesting)
Likewise, it's not illegal to own a region-free DVD player, but actually getting one is very difficult due to other coercive forces on the market. And to convert an existing player to a region-free one is illegal under US law.
There are other ways the force of law can be brought against the free market rather than the direct "thou shalt not."
Re:Priorities (Score:1, Interesting)
This may be so but things change. I am currently fighting with Acer UK to get money back for WinXP that came pre-installed and it is amazing what I have achieved so far. Most of their arguments have been destroyed and they have effectively caved in. Accordingly they have created a new policy that outline the circumstances when a person can receive a refund for Windows from them, in accordance with the Microsoft EULA (which was one of their main arguments against the refund). I should receive my refund cheque in January. The only problem I have with their policy is that I have to return the machine to them to have Windows removed (or confirmed that it has been removed in my case) at my expense.
This is only the start with regards to Acer in the UK. Since they have created this policy I am determined that notice of it should be put in an easily accessible place on their website or on any literature. If not, they will be opening themselves up to legal action later on if a returns policy exists but is clearly hidden to ensure the end user does not know about it.
I am hoping that if Acer create a policy then other notebook manufacturers will do them same. Since this will level the playing field a little, making it easier across the whole to get a refund for Windows, I am hoping that they will see that the next sensible step will be to give the user a choice, because this will be cheaper than having to receive peoples computers for them to remove Windows.
Also, the current investigation that is currently being held by the European Commission (EC) could effectively change this illegal bundling.
holy sh!t!!!! From the MS output_protect.doc (Score:2, Interesting)
From the doc
"By contrast, the Windows-based PC is designed to be an open platform. Anyone can load software on it; it is easy to write software for it, because all the interfaces are well defined and published; and there are many good software tools available."
Open platform? By who's definition?
LOL!
Re:Unnecessary Decline? (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, that's all great economics theory and all, but it doesn't seem to apply to the music industry. If it did, it would mean that declining CD sales would lead to lower prices, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Instead of adapting to the market, the industry appears to look for other reasons for the decline in sales, leading to legal and political machinations to preserve its old market at the old prices. It almost appears like the industry would prefer to go bankrupt than to follow established market principles.
Re:Unnecessary Decline? (Score:2, Interesting)
Kim's funds may be insignificant in absolute terms; but relatively speaking, while the rest of North Korea is totally dark [globalsecurity.org], he has enough money left over after his cognac, Segways and iPods [washingtonpost.com] to fund a nuclear program [fas.org].
The effect of money is more insidious and less visible than “blind devotion;” instances:
You're all missing the point . . . (Score:2, Interesting)
Let me say that again: Businesses!
Most businesses aren't concerned that their employees may not be able to view HD content on their desktop PC's, as that is not what they hire people to do (in general). As long as Microsoft can assert that a desktop machine running Windows Vista will continue to be able to fulfill enterprise business requirements in a stable, reliable way there will be plenty of businesses perfectly ready to plunk down their money to get what Microsoft promises will be "the most stable and secure computing experience to date."
Better have a look at Microsoft's balance sheet - somehow, I doubt that the majority of profits come from individual user sales! Their big bucks come from per-seat volume licensing of OS and productivity products - that's their bread-and-butter! I don't think a financial clearing-house, or a medical supplies company, or your average insurance office will really get sweaty about HD-DVD playback being broken because there's no HDMI interface to the ol' VGA monitor.
Before the masses point out that there are plenty of productivity killing traps in Microsoft Vista (and there are), Microsoft will simply assure businesses that as long as their hardware doesn't change drastically they can expect their machines to continue operating flawlessly. The relative truth or falsehood of that assertion is irrelevant; Microsoft will say it and businesses will accept it. There are way too many large organizations with PHB's at the helm for the technically savvy to prevent this from happening. After that, those businesses which were insightful enough to avoid the "Microsoft upgrade cycle" will ultimately be forced to come along by way of remaining compatible with the rest of industry.
Don't like what you see in Vista? Too bad - once it's entrenched in business it'll make inroads in the home (how many /.'ers use software at home similar to their employer's software so that they can be more productive at work? I, for example, run openSuSE at home because my employer uses SuSE Linux Enterprise Distribution in the workplace; it lets me be more productive at home and at work because I can leverage what I learn in one environment to the other).
Re:Unnecessary Decline? (Score:3, Interesting)
The husband/wife work and contribute their paychecks. As kids grow up, they start contributing more and more to the household, doing chores and what not. Each member of the family takes what they need from the communal resources. At no point in time does a father tell their child "I'm sorry, son. We have enough money to pay for you to see the doctor, but you didn't mow the lawn, so your asthma goes untreated."
Yes, parents have more authority than the children, but they are given that authority under the assumption that they understand/know more than the child. Communism does not mean the lack of structure.
In short, Communism works. What it doesn't do is scale . Anything larger than a family usually doesn't last long. It certainly doesn't work at the national level, as shown by the fall of most Communist nations, and the Capitalization (is that even a word?) of the others.
What we're seeing is the expansion of economies from a national level with few trading partners to a global level is the scaling problems of Capitalism. More specifically Capitalism as we know it. These problems are scaring a HELL of a lot of people, as shown by the rise of socialist governments in South and Central America. The pro-China sentiment being shown is this fear magnifying the benefits of a Communist/authoritarian nation while glossing over the drawbacks. It will pass, eventually.
At least, IMHO. I wonder if the acronym IANAE(conomist) will start increasing in popularity?