Summary: Yet another vector of compromise found in Vista 7; new damage control and PR dissected

MICROSOFT MAY already know that Vista 7 will disappoint enterprise users and there are bad signs ahead of a distant release date. But one particular issue that we've been keeping track of is the serious security holes which may suggest that Vista 7 would be less secure than the already-insecure Windows Vista.

Vista 7 does not exist as a product yet, but it has already been breached entirely (or shown to be hijack-able) on several occasions since its test builds were first made public. To give just 3 examples from totally separate times (there are more such examples):

• January: Cybercrime Rises and Vista 7 is Already Open to Hijackers
• February: Vista 7: Broken Apart Before Arrival
• March: Department of Homeland Security 'Poisoned' by Microsoft; Vista 7 is Open to Hijackers Again

Well, here is a brand-new one for April:

Researchers show how to take control of Windows 7

[...]

"There's no fix for this. It cannot be fixed. It's a design problem," Vipin Kumar said, explaining the software exploits the Windows 7 assumption that the boot process is safe from attack.

Vista 7's problems are not just to do with security however. One of our readers, DaemonFC, has already explained why Vista 7 will fail [1, 2] and another reader has just sent us this pointer to interpretation of Microsoft's latest publicity stunt.

When things are really screwed up in public or corporate affairs, when your products cause the death of little cute babies you make a harmless girl your corporate spokesperson on an issue who makes a pretty face.

This Larson-Smith campaign is like Swanlake in Russian television.

I work in that PR business and I know the rules of the game, so I must admit that her selection makes me feel really scared and the way she is set in scene shows that Julie Larson-Green is just a marketing communicator, an image campaign. Honestly, I thought Win7 would just be a fixed Vista with some "visible changes". I didn't know things went that wrong:



I didn't knew that Windows 7 was expected to become a real mess. "Rumour has it Larson-Green is already working on Windows 8, but she's obviously also still tweaking the user experience in Windows 7". You see what I mean?

Why do you write it so diplomatic?

"So, when details of Office 2007 made their way onto the net, with information about the new interface, I immediately wanted to know who on earth was the person who had the determination and skills to put the ... gears ... in motion. As it turns out, it was a somewhat shy former waitress and customer service person... "



Larson-Green is the Sarah Palin of Microsoft. McCain learned his lesson, sorry, this is not 1997. Microsoft marketing people became all PC but "We are the Internet", and we are not your fools.

Adapt or die. I don't care.

The last time we saw a company doing this routine with a gentle female representative it was Foxconn, just after it had shafted Linux. Foxconn sacked 100,000 employees a few months ago. If the rumours are true, Microsoft may sack some more tonight, but not as many as 50,000 as Cringely has advised. ⬆

"Microsoft is unique among proprietary software companies: they are the only ones who have actively tried to kill Open Source and Free Software. It's not often someone wants to be your friend after trying to kill you for ten years, but such change is cause for suspicion."

--Bradley M. Kuhn (SFLC)