Linux Sucks. Java sucks. I'm a Microsoft guy again!

[Level 20 Anklebiter]

I doubt Microsoft will ever depend on Windows Server as their meat and potatoes revenue.

It already is.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10294232-56.html

What's the Client category? End consumer? Workstations? As for server and tools, that can include things like Active Directory and Exchange servers, which is where MS is heavily entrenched. Whereas in OSes that depend on being 'cloudish' (I hate the term, but it's close enough), you need something that can work with virtualization well enough to allow for relatively smooth transition of hardware. MS has HyperV, but it's still being worked on in terms of further improvements and adoption (I hope it gets adopted because it's been a slow track on the *nix branch of servers in terms of virtualization). So, I can't say Windows Server is where the majority of the funds are coming from when other products (AD and Exchange) can also account for the numbers.

[AL the Inconspicuous]

From Slashdot -- Firefox Most Vulnerable Browser, Safari Close --

Cenzic released its report revealing the most prominent types of Web application vulnerabilities for the first half of 2009.  The report identified over 3,100 total vulnerabilities, which is a 10 percent increase in Web application vulnerabilities compared to the second half of 2008.  Among Web browsers, Mozilla Firefox had the largest percentage of Web vulnerabilities, followed by Apple Safari, whose browser showed a vast increase in exploits, due to vulnerabilities reported in the Safari iPhone browser.

It seems a bit surprising to me that this study shows that only 15% of vulnerabilities are in IE.

Firefox had 44% of the discovered vulnerabilities, Safari had 35%, Internet Explorer 15%, and Opera had 6%.  Google Chrome wasn't mentioned.  But, regardless of which browser you use - even if it's available for Linux, the default binaries (and most likely ideal optimizations as well) will run slower than on Windows - and that benchmark doesn't even consider Silverlight / Flash, but uses Java instead, which should definitely give Linux an unfair advantage!

[BobRobertson]

Firefox had 44% of the discovered vulnerabilities, Safari had 35%, Internet Explorer 15%, and Opera had 6%.

Ah, "discovered" vulnerabilities.

It would be interesting if the "discovered" problems within Internet Explorer that are discovered internally were added, not just the ones publicly reported. One of the negatives of "open" development is that problems are easily seen.

[Cognitive Dissident]

The overwhelmingly dominant reason why people beat up on Microsoft is their hatred of capitalism

You might be interested in the difference between "capitalism" and "merchantilism". That way you won't go throwing economics terms around while obviously not understanding them.

The overwhelming reason that people beat up on Microsoft is because Microsoft are arrogant bullies. Just like the United States government.

Nobody hates Microsoft for Microsoft's "freedom".

Well put.

[AL the Inconspicuous]

It would be interesting if the "discovered" problems within Internet Explorer that are discovered internally were added, not just the ones publicly reported. One of the negatives of "open" development is that problems are easily seen.

Shut up, or the user plebs might hear you!  My NASDAQ-listed pals paid good money for that FUD study and then astroturf the results around the Web, and you're ruining it!  Hush!

[AL the Inconspicuous]

From Slashdot -- Microsoft Buys Teamprise, Will Ship Linux Tools --

Microsoft's Senior Vice President, Developer Division, S. Somasegar has announced that Microsoft has acquired  Teamprise from Sourcegear, LLC, and will be shipping it as part of the upcoming Visual Studio 2010 release.  Teamprise is an Eclipse plugin (and related tools) for connecting to Team Foundation Server, Microsoft's source-control / project-management system.  What's most interesting about this is not only that Microsoft has realized that heterogeneous development platforms are important to their developer customers, but the fact that Microsoft themselves will now be developing and shipping products based on those heterogeneous platforms, including 5 versions of Unix.

Another step in the right direction.

[NHArticleTen]

[AL the Inconspicuous]

I once worked with a QA guy who I thought of as a dinosaur...


Anywayz, having tried all the new and upcoming Microsoft products, including Silverlight 4 beta, I'm going back to Linux.  (Sure, I'd rather be running a BSD-licensed OS, but they suck even worse.)  I don't like the Linux desktop, but hey - it's home.  Kissing Stallman's government-loving butt and having to run a mixture of GTK, Qt, XUL, Java, and Wine applications isn't so bad...  really...   

[BobRobertson]

I once worked with a QA guy who I thought of as a dinosaur...

I worked at NASA for a while, and it was interesting seeing the ancient artifacts from the Golden Age tottering around. Not that they weren't perfectly fine people, they may even have been doing somewhat productive work. A couple even reminded me of dinosaurs. Or at least actual fossils.

Anywayz, having tried all the new and upcoming Microsoft products, including Silverlight 4 beta, I'm going back to Linux.  (Sure, I'd rather be running a BSD-licensed OS, but they suck even worse.)

I put Win7 on the laptop I retired from daily use over the summer, due to repeated hardware failures. Basically, I wore it out, even though Linux on the 2.8GHz P4 (ca 2003) still screamed. And I'd been looking for an excuse to get a multi-core system for a while...

Anyway, just sitting there, Win7 will put the disk into serious use for 5-10 minutes out of nowhere, even if it's just sitting there without being used and with no applications running. I have NOT installed anti-virus or any of the other crapware. Leaving taskman open, CPU usage goes to 40-50%, disk lights flashing, and nothing running. Strange.

I don't like the Linux desktop, but hey - it's home.  Kissing Stallman's government-loving butt and having to run a mixture of GTK, Qt, XUL, Java, and Wine applications isn't so bad...  really...   

Never having kissed Stallman anywhere, I can't say. I'm not a beard man.

If I may ask, since KDE can be made to look/act much like the traditional Windows interface, what it is you don't like? Is it just the mix of GTK, Qt, Java, etc, or is it "look and feel"? I've noticed that much use of Windows now cannot be done without that "mix" of Java, etc, either.

[AL the Inconspicuous]

The last check from Ballmer bounced, so I don't have anything positive or constructive to say about any Microsoft products at the moment, not even the best and lighest software alternatives to use, not even which crappy services might be slowing down your laptop that you probably need to disable. 

[AL the Inconspicuous]

From another thread --

I notice they never mention that it's a Windows virus. If you're concerned at all about security on your PC, don't use Windows. (I use Linux, but there are lots of alternatives that are also free as in no cost)

I've already debunked the "Linux desktop is more secure" argument to pieces!  Comparing apples to apples it's actually less secure, but 100x more obscure, so the virus writers don't bother targeting it, and it's not targeted for commie ideological reasons as well.  I can write a trojan that fills your hard drive with kiddy porn in a 10-line obfuscated perl script, no ASM required!  Your only protection is the fact that Linux can do what Microsoft is forbidden by law - put all its software into trusted repositories so you hardly ever have to download anything from anywhere else.  If I can social-engineer you into adding my Debian repository, for example, you're even more screwed than an average Windows user, who's at least running anti-virus by default!  (And it's still easier to inject malicious checksum-spoofing chunks into a distro ISO you're downloading via BitTorrent, for example, than to do so to something that comes directly from Microsoft.)  A noob stupid enough to download a Windows virus can fuck up a Linux box just as well, but the latter has lots of networking tools and encryption libraries already installed for the malware to leverage!

(Disclaimer: I am running Linux at the moment, but not because I think it's good at keeping newbies content and secure.)


EDIT: and, oh look, coincidentally it so happens that someone targeted Ubuntu (l)users today exactly as I described... 

[BobRobertson]

From another thread --

I notice they never mention that it's a Windows virus. If you're concerned at all about security on your PC, don't use Windows.

I've already debunked the "Linux desktop is more secure" argument to pieces!

No, all you've done is assert this:

If I can social-engineer you

Which works for anyone, at any time, on any system.

Yes, let's compare apples to apples. Sure. This guy gets infected because of using Internet Explorer to some random web site with the hack-du-jure running, that only infects Windows.

Go ahead and assert the "obscurity" theme. I won't even try to deny that there may very well be some aspect of that, except that such a substantial number of very profitable targets run Linux and they're not getting hacked into multi-national zombie PC 'Bot nets in huge numbers every day.

A noob stupid enough to download a Windows virus can fuck up a Linux box just as well

Such is life. Luckily, there is a lot of documentation available for "noobs" to help. Not running as root is a good start.

and, oh look, coincidentally it so happens that someone targeted Ubuntu users today exactly as I described...

Well, that's one.

[AL the Inconspicuous]

My latest attempt to force myself to use Ubuntu Linux has been so terrible I feel like I was raped!  It ended with me being banned from UbuntuForums.org for daring to question the copyleft philosophy (as compared to truly free software like BSD)...  I just broke every Linux distro CD/DVD I could get my hands on.  FUCKING IDIOTS!!!      

Now again I'm faced with an important life decision - BSD or Microsoft...  It's a way more important decision that chosing a life partner, because I don't think anyone spends 8-16 hours per day programming one's wife...

The former isn't really an option, because you can't get jack shit done without bowing to the same commie GNU gods, and although its license is free most BSD software was actually funded through public universities and government research grands.  Microsoft really is the best thing the human race is capable of accomplishing thus-far.

[Sam Gunn (since nobody got Admiral Naismith)]

I don't think anyone spends 8-16 hours per day programming one's wife...

Hell yes.  Talk to Brede here, may be able to help.

[BobRobertson]

My latest attempt to force myself to use Ubuntu Linux has been so terrible I feel like I was raped!

An experienced user restricting himself to Ubuntu is a silly thing to do.

It ended with me being banned from UbuntuForums.org for daring to question the copyleft philosophy (as compared to truly free software like BSD).

Picking a fight on someone else's turf sounds like a good reason for banning to me.

I just broke every Linux distro CD/DVD I could get my hands on.  FUCKING IDIOTS!!!      

Could have limited your wrath to the Ubuntu disks. But that wouldn't be so much fun.

You really aught to stop blaming others for your choices.

Microsoft really is the best thing the human race is capable of accomplishing thus-far.

Painting with a broad brush. It might very well be what works for YOU, just like some people cling to government. It doesn't work for everyone.