01.19.10
Gemini version available ♊︎Reader’s Post: 3 Stories on Advising Against Using IE
Summary: Criticisms brought forth by several Boycott Novell readers
EARLIER TODAY we wrote about the BBC's poor coverage of Internet Explorer (IE) denouncements, which happened at a national level. Instead of just reporting the news, the BBC added Microsoft spin and some readers of ours saw that clearly. Separately, and completely independently from the previous post, another reader wrote to us some hours ago:
I just read a story this morning on the BBC where France joins Germany in advising against the use of Internet Explorer. It tries to discourage people from switching by saying that other browsers may have other security problems and quotes Microsoft as saying that IE is the “most secure browser”:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8463516.stm
I notice that the above story differs a bit from the original story where it was only Germany giving this advice. This story doesn’t contain so much of the Microsoft “hard sell” words such as “most secure browser”:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8465038.stm
I suppose that means that Microsoft is really worried about this latest event. Finally, here is a story in French for comparison. Of the 3 stories, this one by far seems the most straightforward and factual:
http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies…
A summary of the Microsoft sourced content is something like “Microsoft completely rejects the allegations and says that the security problems encountered by Google do not affect ordinary users. The problem can be solved by setting the security level to ‘high’.” It goes on to say that BSI says that raising the security level makes the attacks more difficult, but does not prevent them completely. The article ends by saying that setting security to ‘high’ disables ActiveX and Javascript, which may render some Websites completely inaccessible. MS-BBC indeed!
Another reader wrote to us the following two days ago:
This incident shows how easy Microsofters can operate posing as ICT workers.
Everyone ‘understands’ the idea of practicing medicine and many spotted trouble but no one did anything about it for the longest time:
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.
Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.
Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done
Very few understand ICT so if a whole IT department gets replaced by poseurs, there’s no one to call them on it. Even if there is, like in the fake doctor case, they’ll keep their mouth shut hoping that ‘someone’ would have prevented any mischief.
Microsoft-oriented administrators are notorious for just rebooting and never actually diagnosing issues, which means that the issues will recur.
Some other interesting input from readers can be found in the IRC channel. Yesterday for example we learned from Eruaran that “Microsoft has discontinued XP Pro, but technically business customers can still use it. They are artificially inflating Windows 7 numbers by forcing people to buy Windows 7. One of our business clients today needed to upgrade from Windows 2000 to XP because of lack of driver support on newer hardware.”
“Same trick [are] applied to Vista figures,” says FurnaceBoy.
“They are looking forward to MS putting XP under the deprecated OS list.”
–OiaohmEruaran continues: “According to Microsoft, if they buy Windows 7 Professional they can use one of their Windows XP Profesional license keys to install XP on that system, then call Microsoft to tell them that they bought W7Pro and they are ok with that. Windows 7 never gets installed, Windows XP does, but they have to buy a Windows 7 license. Microsoft is promoting the idea that ‘business is embracing Windows 7′, but its a complete crock.”
Oiaohm writes: “MS forget to tell people that entities like charities got free upgrades for Vista to Windows 7 in there usable licence keys and can install back to windows 2000 under that licence. Yet everyone else is expect to pay for upgrades. [...] No new issued keys. By the roll. Each roll is 10 000 keys. So far they have not got through the first roll. They are looking forward to MS putting XP under the deprecated OS list.”
This sure puts Vista 7 in perspective, doesn’t it? Never underestimate public relations (PR). You know that they lie when their lips are moving. It’s their job to deceive; those who do not deceive will not survive in this job. █
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Needs Sunlight said,
January 19, 2010 at 2:43 pm
It was like this in the 1990′s, too. We know now that it is not a technical problem but a people problem that needs to be addressed to make Microsoft go away.
NotZed said,
January 19, 2010 at 8:02 pm
“Microsoft-oriented administrators are notorious for just rebooting and never actually diagnosing issues, which means that the issues will recur.”
Well what other option do they have most of the time? Everything is hidden behind those ugly inconsistent GUI’s, plus the software is proprietary – they’re not even ‘allowed’ to look deeper, the tools provided are bullshit, and windows is a pile of shit that will become unstable anyway. There’s a reason that a reboot `fixes’ the majority if issues.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
January 19th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Sometimes it won’t even reboot, especially after Patch Tuesday.