Microsoft on Responsible Vulnerability Disclosure

  Submitted by Esther Schindler Microsoft 8 Comments
Mark Miller, director of the Microsoft Security Response Center, shares his opinions about the wisdom of sharing vulnerabilities with customers. "Responsible disclosure, reporting a vulnerability directly to the vendor and allowing sufficient time to produce an update, benefits the users and everyone else in the security ecosystem by providing the most comprehensive and highest-quality security update possible."
Read More

Internet Explorer Still Cannot Be Removed From Windows

Internet Explorer 128 Comments
Groklaw has an article arguing that Microsoft has not yet complied with the DOJ order that users must be able to remove Internet Explorer from Windows. "So he explained the blue and white screens of death, what a dual boot startup is, commingling code, and then tying or bundling, specifically tying Internet Explorer with the operating system. He explained how you can't use Add/Remove to get IE or Media Player off your hard drive, but that you can use SPAD, 'set program access and defaults', to choose Firefox or another browser as your default browser instead of IE. However, IE remains on your hard drive."
Read More

Government Agency Tells Schools to Shun Vista

Windows 44 Comments
In a surprise criticism of Microsoft, the UK government's schools computer agency, has warned that deploying Vista carries too much risk and that its benefits are unclear. Becta, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, said on Wednesday that it 'strongly recommends' schools do not deploy Microsoft's next operating system within the next 12 months. And in a further dig at Microsoft, Becta argues there are no 'must-have' features in Vista and that "technical, financial and organisational challenges associated with early deployment currently make a high-risk strategy."
Read More

For Vista Testers, It’s All in the Family

Windows 15 Comments
Millions of computer users participate in software beta programs every year, usually toiling away in anonymity, never quite sure if whatever they find or report will matter in the final product. Others find the experience a lot more fulfilling, such as the families that participated in Microsoft's Life with Windows Vista program. In addition to the more than 2 million testers of Vista, Microsoft selected 50 families from around the world and watched, in a reality TV kind of way, how they interacted with Vista, right out of the box with the first beta and all the way up to release to manufacturing.
Read More

An Initial Analysis on the Apple iPhone

Apple 134 Comments
Apple today announced the long awaited iPhone, a device that I predicted about years 1.5 ago that it would happen (I won't forget how a fellow editor from a Mac site emailed me to say that I am crazy after reading my blog back then). But the iPhone is real, and it's public information now. So based on the little we know about the device so far, let's see how it stacks up against its smartphone competition.
Read More

For Windows Vista Security, Microsoft Called in Pros

  Submitted by John Mills Windows 78 Comments
When Microsoft introduces its long-awaited Windows Vista operating system this month, it will have an unlikely partner to thank for making its flagship product safe and secure for millions of computer users across the world: the National Security Agency. For the first time, the giant software maker is acknowledging the help of the secretive agency, better known for eavesdropping on foreign officials and, more recently, U.S. citizens as part of the Bush administration's effort to combat terrorism. The agency said it has helped in the development of the security of Microsoft's new operating system to protect it from worms, Trojan horses and other insidious computer attackers.
Read More

Dell’s Secret Linux Fling

  Submitted by tux68 Linux 38 Comments
Dell's love affair with Linux is a clandestine affair these days, conducted in secret, away from disapproving eyes. But now the pair have been spotted in China. When Michael Dell first saw the web-footed beauty, he fell head over heels. Six years ago Dell pledged a series of strategic investments in Linux companies, including Eazel and Red Hat. The romance attracted the disapproval of Microsoft however, and barely lasted weeks. Very quietly, Dell dumped the bird.
Read More

The Free Software Movement and the Future of Freedom

  Submitted by ciaran Open Source 80 Comments
"The following is a transcript of a lecture given by Richard Stallman in Zagreb (Croatia/Hrvatska) on March 9th 2006. The lecture was given in English. Richard Stallman launched the GNU project in 1983, and with it the Free Software movement. Stallman is the president of FSF - a sister organisation of FSFE. Transcription of this presentation was undertaken by Ciarán O'Riordan."
Read More