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I agree with you.

I think alot of these people think that if someone trashes on there stuff all of a sudden.. "they must be wrong" right? I say this as a Mac advocate and a Linux advocate. Window users take notice! Mac and Linux have next to zero problems with Spyware, Trojans, e-mail worms, and malware.. and they dont need to install a single 3rd party program to protect them. Secure OS's dont need firewalls. Help yourself, they get it right, so learn from them, ok.

I think author of this article is dead on. All of those mentioned services should be disabled untill needed.. And it needs to be easy to configure them.

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I envision this.. you install your new shiney XP SP2 computer out of the box. turn it on, enter your name yada yada Then it asks you the domain or workgroup question? after that you get a dialog that says.
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"How do you conect to the internet?" options *DSL / Cable, *Dial-up Modem, *Other, *Do not conect to the internet.
If you select a service like DSL, then DHCP, and DNS cashing are turned on. If you select Dial-up then that is configured, and the proper services turned on.
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Then you get the question "Would you like to share files across your Local Area Network?" *Yes *No
If you say yes then NetBios, SMB and all that is turned on, if no, it remains off.
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See? Simple. Turn it on as you need it.. and make it easy to reconfigure with simple questions. That wont break or limit anyones computer. (or your enjoyment of 2k4 flash ad's, :: cough :: err, I mean, media lifestyle)

So long as Windows "just works" for everone, out of the box, it will never, NEVER be secure. I am well on my way to becoming a computer security speicalist, and the very first thing you learn in Introduction to Computer Security is if your not using it, TURN IT OFF.