borfast Posted July 13, 2004 Share Posted July 13, 2004 (edited) From http://slashdot.org/articles/04/07/12/2343210.shtml?tid=126&tid=128&tid=172&tid=185&tid=190&tid=201 LnxAddct writes "InfoWorld is reporting that a few Microsoft products are also vulnerable to the "shell:" scheme vulnerability found in Mozilla last week. These applications include Microsoft Word and MSN Messenger." Time for another patch, amigos. Once again, courtesy of our favorite software maker, Microsoft You know, I must admit it, this is one area where MS has always been unbeatable and Free software has never been able to reach them: the huge of patches they issue for their products in so little time! But there is one thing that irritates me: the ignorance of the news editors/publishers/whatever. They write news titles like "Microsoft products also vulnerable to Mozilla flaw", making it sound as if the problem is Mozilla's fault when it's Windows' fault Edit: Oops.. did I say "time for another patch"? Naaa, forget it, there's no patch available for this one, yet Edited July 13, 2004 by TCH-Raul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarqFlare Posted July 13, 2004 Share Posted July 13, 2004 Yeah, but you probably wouldn't be upset with "Mozilla products also vulnerable to Microsoft flaw" Hehe. Just poking fun. Somebody's gotta stick up for MS... Not that I'ma ll to pleased with them myself.. lol I'll play devil's advocate. It's fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borfast Posted July 13, 2004 Author Share Posted July 13, 2004 LOL I would, Robert. Believe me. I don't get irritated at this kind of stuff for denigrating Mozilla's image or Free software's image, or whatever. I get irritated because I see a lot of people in the media talking about stuff they don't know and then they say stupid things. Believe me, if the problem was with Mozilla and they said "Mozilla also vulnerable to Microsoft flaw", it would irritate me just as much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danceswithscissors Posted July 26, 2004 Share Posted July 26, 2004 I used to be constantly hit with trojans and worms when I used IE. They embedded themselves all over my computer. Macafee and AVG could find some but not all the hiding places. Had to reformat 4 times in 6 months. Yes, I had all the security updates and windows patches, but they not only didn't protect me, they made my computer run very badly and caused additional problems. The last time I reformatted I dumped IE and installed Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird. 3 months later I haven't had one problem with a worm or virus, my computer is clean, functions just like it's supposed to, and I'm a very happy camper with Mozilla products. :: climbing down off my soapbox and returning you to your regular programming :: woooot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borfast Posted July 27, 2004 Author Share Posted July 27, 2004 Glad to see you took the red pill, Jana Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deverill Posted July 27, 2004 Share Posted July 27, 2004 "Mozilla products also vulnerable to Microsoft flaw" I'd expect the headline to say "Mozila neutralizes Microsoft vulnerability in just 24 hours. Microsoft users still up the creek with no updates in site from Microsoft." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinW Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 First, I do not discredit those who complain about IE, as there is some validity to their arguments. However, IMO, one of the problems with freeware is that there is no single point of responsibility, even if or when a security flaw may appear in their software. Nor, is their any requirement for thyem to go back and retest prior versions of their software or how it impacts other system applications. FWIW, I recently attended a live web cast presentation hosted by Microsoft's VP for Security. During his presentation, he addressed the complaint that patches and hotfixes appear to be "slow" in being released. He said that not only do they have to go back and review and test the problem and resolution for all prior versions (IE4, IE5, IE5.1, IE6, IE6.1), but they also have to test it and release separate versions for all of the various language versions of IE. All told, I think he said that for the last IE hotfix patch, they actually had some 400 separate versions of the patch that they ultimately released. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borfast Posted August 1, 2004 Author Share Posted August 1, 2004 (edited) Kevin, then they need to rethink their way of building software The fact of IE providing various languages i s not a valid reason for them to have to provide a patch for each available language. Localization of a software program is a separate thing from it's coding. If MS doesn't know how to do that, they can hire me and I'll teach them The various versions (IE4 throurgh 6.1) can be a reason for a bit of a slowdown but, IMHO, not as much as MS usually takes. As for freeware having no responsability, first we need to clear something up: freeware (Wikipedia definition)is not Free software. It is true that most Free software applications' patches are not backported to previous versions but that's not their goal, either. MS needs to support the products they say they support. The Mozilla Foundation, for example, never said it would support Mozilla versions prior to the current stable version. If you want to keep up to date, you need to use the stable version. It's a bit "selfish" but it's the only way it works. Besides, if you need "official" support from the Mozilla Foundation, you can purchase it, just like you purchase technical support from Microsoft when you buy one of their products or when you extend the initial 90 days of support that come with their products. And like the Mozilla Foundation, there are other companies who provide support for Free software products. No, it's not like Microsoft, which is a business and has to keep running, and no, they don't have all the quality assurance technicians and schemes and rules and blah, blah, blah that Microsoft has. Still, think about where they were when they started, look at where they are now and compare the final results of both Microsoft's and the Mozilla Foundation's products. What I mean with all this is that I don't think having someone saying "we assure you this will work and we assure you we'll patch the security holes in all the previous versions of this software, blah, blah, blah" is going to make me want to use it. I prefer to see with my own eyes what they are capable of and honestly, even with all their talk, support, assurance of this and that, I simply don't trust Microsoft anymore. But I trust the Mozilla Foundation, although they never promissed me anything, never asked for my money in exchange for their products, don't have a quality assurance section, don't release patches for previous versions of their software, etc... Edited August 1, 2004 by TCH-Raul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deverill Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Another interesting tidbit: news.com.com/Mozilla+puts+bounty+on+bugs/2100-1002_3-5293659.html?tag=nefd.top Do you think you will ever see Microsoft offer a $500 bounty for every serious security bug reported to them? They'd go broke! This is a level of commitment to the consumer that attracts me and I daresay many others to Mozilla over Microsoft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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