Phoo...
I am glad this thread is getting a bit more constructive,
otherwise I regret I started it.
I'd quote certain passages from certain books,
but you'd better pick them upon your choice

I'll assume you know what you're talking about concerning the movies, and will stand corrected, while asserting that this error hardly effects my point.

But, what's this about 200 days? Are you saying that, on learning a security hole exists in IE, the MS boys leaf ahead through their calendars and say, "We'll release a patch for this on this day, 200 days from now"?

I mean, I've never made a study of MS's responses to attacks, but it seems to me that there have been patches issued within a couple of days of recognition of a problem. Where did you get this number and where can I go for more information?

(As I said somewhere above in this thread, the simple avoidance of routine use of Internet Explorer and Outlook eliminates about 99% of the dangers to the individual user. Of course, the "average user" I've leaned upon so far is quite likely to use these two prime targets by the very fact of their averageness, if that's a word.

It's the sad fact that, in its efforts to be all things to all people, Microsoft's collossal programs almost necessarily have certain exploitable flaws. While it's become fashionable to ridicule and condemn MS for this condition, I find this to be essentially unfair. The situation is similar to, "If you wait until you are ready for kids, you'll never have them". Keeping in mind the almost boundless range of capabilities the Windows platform covers, it's almost miraculous there are so few vulnerabilities. The culprits aren't the Microsoft engineers, but are actually the criminals who search out and take advantage of these weaknesses.)

lol m$ has it fixed, they gonna address some of the many problems with sp2....

http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-5158...feed&subj=news - 200 days to fix
http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/securi...9168432,00.htm - another one
http://www.google.com/search?q=micro...utf-8&oe=utf-8 - my search

Yes, as the most used systems/software Microsoft will be attacked more often. That is not the point. The point is that MS is known for taking it's time to fix exploits. I have seen reports where firms which find exploits have been explicitly asked not to release details - the fix was out 6 months later. Microsoft should be applying fixes and patches much much quicker. These reports to MS aren't vague ill written reports - they are detailed and give the methods the firms took to find the holes and often suggestions. Microsoft take the "security through obscurity" thing too far.

And let's not forget what happened when they tried to issue cryptography without peer reviewing it. Crypography is always peer reviewed - open source, if you will. (Hint: it was cracked in a stupidly short space of time)

Well, what do you want from Linux and what are your Linux Questions?

also - norton mcafee fsecure release virus definitions within hours.....microsoft should be able to patch within weeks, esp when they have such a huge chunnk of the market...they should have a pile of liability suits to deal with imo

Belgian Chamber of Commerce was running some kind of nix two years ago - the last time I've been there. I saw WindowMaker WM on all screens.

IBM Linux Services in Belgium & Luxembourg:

Are these words is just a trick of an intelligent copy-writing? Perhaps it is, but at least in my personal Linux was the only option. Happily the option was given, even though I was obliged to pay M$ for the OS which I erased from my HD.

Today you can see Redhat, SuSe, Mandrake sitting nicely together with M$ on the shelves of the major department stores (at least in Belgium). Does it hart you, even if you work for one of these companies?

I think I've already given my attitude toward linux. To reiterate, I think, though I'm not really qualified to judge, it may have a future in which it competes head to head with the current edition of Microsoft's operating system. It can only benefit the consumer if that is the case.

It is not the case, however, that linux is capable of doing so today. The ordinary computer user simply will not exchange the cream of the crop for what is, by comparison, practically a weed. Since no one has taken it upon himself to explain what it is that linux is capable of doing that is exclusive to itself, I will have to believe the answer is, nothing.

Now, linuxfond has asked what I want from linux. The answer is, not much. I intend to continue to experiment with the system, watch it develop, and have fun with it. My return question would be, what would you suggest I do with it?

oh boy this is a long thread, but an interesting one!

now before i start, i'll state my position: i love linux, use it 99% of the time for all the things i do on my home desktop - surfing, email, playing my ogg-encoded music collection, video-editing, watching tv...

but i'm not blind to the faults - i've just spent a *week* coaxing suse 9.0 to play nicely on my father's box, compiling drivers for a usb adsl modem, etc.. linux is still some way from being entirely 'desktop-friendly', which is no fault of the operating system itself, nor the great bunch of developers out there. it's just the way it is at the moment - hopefully things will change..

now on to the 'political' side of things.. as regards 'the french' - well, the french, as i see it, rightfully look out for their best interests, there's nothing wrong in that. it is, after all, what we all do, you guys in america, too. that's human, surely? i've got a lot of respect for our cousins 'over the channel' - they have a robust sense of national identity, even if it does p**s a few people off now and again.

for me though, i just think that the open-source model is a fairer way of behaving - there are plenty of hugely talented, well educated people in india, for example (some of the finest mathematicians...), and microsoft's licensing policies, not to mention the closed-source nature of the product, effectively lock poorer people out. to my mind, information technology has come to the point where it's almost a natural resource - it shouldn't be in the hands of a few, it's there to be shared amongst us all.

No actually M$ won't have a single liability suit to deal with. If you've ever read the user agreement that comes with any Windows installation, you may read a statement along the lines of "M$ is not responsiblie for any data loss, software failure, etc. etc.". But they WILL have to deal with a lot of technical support calls/e-mails/whatever as well as many disgruntled users. It was thanks to the WBlaster32 worm that repeatedly corrupted my fresh WinXP installs for 2 weeks that I finally turned away from the dark side. It's funny that a computer virus caused me to make the best decision that changed my entire computing life for the better

emphasis was on the words, 'should' and 'imo.'

and with what ppl get sued for around here it doesnt really matter whats in the agreement, being stupid is enough to sue for now...

Who cares which Linux distro a government uses, as long as it uses one. And wouldn't contracting with a distro whose company is local be convenient?

I hate to admit it, but the person, many posts ago, who said that Linux is slower than Windows seems to be right. In my distro (MEPIS) and probably all others I've tried, Konqueror can't start without spinning the damn hourglass at me; Windows Explorer usually can. And I assume I don't need to describe how slow OpenOffice is. Last year, someone told me something about making Linux applications run faster by disabling dynamic links or something to that effect (I'd have to dig up the post, which wasn't here), but I haven't looked into it yet.

KDE was great in Mandrake 9.2, but I frequently get the "spinning hourglass syndrome" with recent releases myself. Try using Gnome or Fluxbox or some other DE/WM.

And they don't mind if you start your own thread just to rant here (in this forum anyway). So no need to resurect two year old discussions, IMHO.

please troll move along. This is a LINUX forum after all not a Windows forum. you want to call this anti-american, BULLSH1T this has nothing to do with that. this has to do with the fact that a LOT of companies, and governements are currnetly using older MS products because in the day they were an OK option.

Today with Linux so much better in performance, stability, reliability, flexibility, and scalability, MS just can not compete.

The ONLY reason the US gov. is moving to Vista is that the US Gov. is the #1 supporter for MS. This has NOTHING to do with the fact that the french, the germans, or anyone else for that matter have chosen to MOVE away from the weak, insecure, virus riddled software you seem to love.

I for one am an american, and am very very very glad to say my business is 100% MS free. no more Windows crashes eating my data, no more viruses infecting my computers forcing me to run multiple protection software WAISTING my system resources. I can run my OS, run my apps and KNOW that my system resources are going to PRODUCTION, not waisted on checking to see if every file that moves is a virus, or that every web page visted does not have some kind of malware that will invade my computer and make it part of some bot-net.

as for XP and Linux performance... if your linux is crashing, then you did something wrong or have bad hardware. it is that simple. as for performance speed, i find linux to boot slower then XP, but it runs just as fast and in most cases out performs in raw speed over XP on the exact same hardware.

So again CHEERS to those Governments that are STRONG enough of will to stand up to MS and tell them to take a hike and to NOT fall for their bribes much like what happened in the US this year with Michigan.

So far every government, agency, company that has reported a move AWAY from MS to Linux have shown more productivity, and a reduced TCO (total cost of ownership if you do not know what that is) by reducing their overall IT cost for keeping things running, updated, and performing well.

So again troll please move along and go back to your beloved Mr. Gates and his spyware riddled pathetic excuse of a business computer operating system called windows.

the ONLY thing windows is good for is playing games. other then that Linux is better by far, oh and im no guru when it comes to linux but i AM when it comes to Windows.

The fine art of trolling is not forgotten !
Thanks for everything, iouzero or whatever your pseudo.