06.29.10
Lie Watch: Microsoft Does it Again
Summary: Response to some new spin and lies from Microsoft
• Microsoft Attacks, By and With the Numbers (fake/bogus/selective numbers that we wrote about before, especially the server figures which are easily contradicted by Steve Ballmer’s statement (September 2008) that “forty percent of servers run Windows, 60 percent run Linux”)
There are two things that are worth noting about the figures that the Microsoft post quoted. First, that it bothered to include them alongside all the other sectors where Microsoft is under pressure. This is a clear indication that the company is feeling the heat from GNU/Linux in the server market: you don’t bother defending yourself unless you’re under attack.
But what’s more telling is that Microsoft couldn’t find any better figures to make its case. As Arthur rightly points out, the way they were gathered seriously undercounts the true usage of GNU/Linux. The fact that despite that distortion GNU/Linux still has pretty decent numbers – 21% is hardly shabby – means that the real market shares in terms of real-world deployments will be much worse for Microsoft. Hence the attack.
• Netgear modem/router giving your browser “Page Not Found” errors? Blame Windows 7, then hit it with a hidden hotfix. (possibly another case of silent patching, which Microsoft finally admitted)
Windows XP and Vista are not affected. Linux is not affected. It’s not a problem with the router.
See: KB983528 – The TCP receive window autotuning feature does not work correctly in Windows Server 2008 R2 or in Windows 7
Microsoft, probably in an attempt to cover up Windows 7 defects, jury rigged that article to not show up in search engines. Go ahead and google for KB983528 and you’ll see that Microsoft has hidden it, deliberately, with robots.txt trickery.
Anyway, if anyone is similarly afflicted, try whacking it with that Hotfix and tell me what you get.
Here is what this illusion of security can lead to:
• Chase Bank May Drop Support of Chrome, Opera (are they seriously suggesting that IE6 is secure, despite all the recent evidence to the contrary [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]?)
mwandaw writes “Banking giant JPMorgan Chase may drop support of some popular browsers because they do ‘…not all offer the minimum levels of security that we require while others may not perform well with our site.’ After July 18 you may not be able to access the website with a browser that they do not support. The list of browsers they currently support seems outdated: Internet Explorer 6.0 and higher, Firefox 2.0 and higher, and Safari 3.0 and higher (for Macs only). With usage of IE6 plummeting and concerns about its security well known, the inclusion of that browser seems suspect. On the other extreme, rising star Chrome appears to be left out, too. What does Google think of that?”
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