a million monkeys typing

NYT: Fox Is in MS’s Henhouse (and Salivating)

Posted December 19th, 2004 at 12:52pm

I love the following bit from the NYT article Digital Domain: The Fox Is in Microsoft’s Henhouse (and Salivating):

Mr. Schare of Microsoft does have one suggestion for those who cannot use the latest patches in Service Pack 2: buy a new personal computer. By the same reasoning, the security problems created by a car’s broken door lock could be solved by buying an entirely new automobile. The analogy comes straight from Mr. Schare. “It’s like buying a car,” he said. “If you want to get the latest safety features, you have to buy the latest model.”

In this case, the very latest model is not a 2001 Internet Explorer, but a 2004 Firefox.

One of the seminars I give on behalf on my organisation is on virus, spyware and security issues. I’ve taken to giving out TheOpenCD (which just hit version 2.0 a week or so ago), including Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice.org, because of the concern over security issues inherent in IE, Outlook & cousins, and MS Office. (Nope, I don’t generally give away Linux, because I also do tech support and am not that much of a masochist.)

By the way, if you’re not aware of it, and use (or know someone that uses) Windows, it’s worthwhile checking TheOpenCD out. Tonnes of Open Source software –all the latest versions, too– with a nice little user-friendly interface that shows descriptions, screenshots, tutorials, demo movies, and even has a one-click button allowing simple installation. Great Christmas gift, too, or at least a stocking stuffer.