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Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

pcmag.com

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Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#151

Post by baggers »

vijayr wrote: post #143
Intermernet wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you also "boycott the hell" out of: Yahoo Google Facebook PalTalk YouTube Skype AOL Apple Who have also been mentioned as complicit in this whole scandal. Just to be fair :-) By the way, I actually agree with you and have been slowly switching all my home stuff to linux and trying to get away from Google Dependence (although I type this in Chrome on a Win 8 laptop... damn work computer)

What about ubuntu tracking/sending our info to Amazon? Which Linux distro would you recommend, that is easy to use, and not sell out it's users?

All areas of Ubuntu that report to Canonical/Amazon/etc can be disabled and/or uninstalled. I personally find this the optimal way from base install to get to a desktop I enjoy using but otherwise I would probably have a look at debian.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#152

Post by TausAmmer »

flexie wrote: post #120
acqq wrote: post #3

This is a financial disaster waiting to happen. Microsoft is oblivious if it is not doing something to divorce itself from the NSA. Apple, on the other hand, could have come out smelling like a rose, but following the death of Steve Jobs, who apparently refused to play ball with the NSA, it stupidly jumped on board to join the PRISM club. According to the Prism slides, it really looks so: "Dates when Prism collection…

What amazes me is that among those corporations with revenues in the tens of billions of dollars, not one of them challenged the constitutionality of the decision in court. Not one, not once. Not that it would be necessary in an obvious case like this, but each one of Microsoft/Skype, Google/Youtube, Apple and Facebook could easily have hired the nation's best and brightest one thousand lawyers at $1,000 an hour, ful…

Well, how does one fight dictatorship in a court that is owned by dictatorship?

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#153

Post by lmm »

vijayr wrote: post #143
Intermernet wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you also "boycott the hell" out of: Yahoo Google Facebook PalTalk YouTube Skype AOL Apple Who have also been mentioned as complicit in this whole scandal. Just to be fair :-) By the way, I actually agree with you and have been slowly switching all my home stuff to linux and trying to get away from Google Dependence (although I type this in Chrome on a Win 8 laptop... damn work computer)

What about ubuntu tracking/sending our info to Amazon? Which Linux distro would you recommend, that is easy to use, and not sell out it's users?

Mint seems to be popular. But honestly if you care about this sort of stuff you're going to have to get a bit technical, at which point you might as well use something really serious like OpenBSD.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#154

Post by rasur »

blots wrote: post #135
reidrac wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that it is available for everyone to inspect means it can be peer reviewed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_review That doesn't mean you're supposed to review it or that it is reviewed at all, but it is a requirement for the open source development model. About the Linux kernel, see this example: http://kernelnewbies.org/UpstreamMerge From Quality control section: "Some of the world's best developers will…

It's definitely better then not open source, but still I'd love to know more about those "world's best" developers and who pays them. Open source is the necessary but not the sufficient condition. It needs to be reviewed by independent people, otherwise the open source part is useless.

It's also safe to say that the NSA are not completely stupid. Any nefarious code would unlikely be completely obvious, even to top developers.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#155

Post by josteink »

joshuaheard wrote: post #142

The same thing is happening at Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and other tech companies. Why single out Microsoft?

Because statistically unless you're in a clear minority, Microsoft makes the OS which you do all your work and process all your data on.

It's sorta a big deal.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#156

Post by acqq »

JonFish85 wrote: post #140
acqq wrote: post #3

This is a financial disaster waiting to happen. Microsoft is oblivious if it is not doing something to divorce itself from the NSA. Apple, on the other hand, could have come out smelling like a rose, but following the death of Steve Jobs, who apparently refused to play ball with the NSA, it stupidly jumped on board to join the PRISM club. According to the Prism slides, it really looks so: "Dates when Prism collection…

"And can you just imagine how much more sales Apple would get now for not being on that list?" Barely any change at all, I'd bet. And not worth the legal hassle they could have been up against if it came to a knock-down, drag-out battle with the US Government over .

I can imagine that U.S. companies wouldn't do anything, but European companies would be much more motivated for transition. As we speak, the top managers in Europe do try to find an alternative and everybody likes the easy way out. At the moment, baring some other potential compromising evidence, Apple would be such a way was it not on the Prism slide. Transitioning to big the powerful non-compromised Apple would be probably valued as less pain than transitioning to your in-company-made Linux distribution.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#157

Post by prawks »

versk wrote: post #41
LinaLauneBaer wrote: post #9

A couple of years ago at a Linux conference in Germany I had a discussion with a Microsoft employee at their booth. At that time I was a 'hardcore' linux user with no trust in Microsoft at all. The discussion with the employee went like this: Me: "Hello. Could you tell me what Microsoft is doing at this Linux conference? I honestly want to know that." Him: "We are here to show how our products can work well together…

I keep hearing this on HN and reddit, but I think this is a mainly an echo-chamber effect. I'd say its far more likely that the vast majority of people don't actually care or realise what was happening, or they do realise and still don't care. I'd be surprised if the NSA leaks have any noticable impact on Microsoft's revenue.

Pretty much. The truth is, unless your company serves Internet security careerists or people impassioned about Internet privacy, your customers do not care.

The company I work for has absolutely no intent of dropping Microsoft products in lieu of the NSA leaks, even with large amounts of sensitive customer data. I can't imagine many large companies would. It would require such a vast amount of work it's unfathomable to even imagine most companies considering it unless they were about to lose nearly all of their customers.

Caveat: customers do not care, at this stage in the game.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#158

Post by JimmaDaRustla »

acqq wrote: post #118
jgreen10 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is a company producing consumer devices, while the others are companies offering Internet services, which is what PRISM targets. Apple has only recently had some success in the Internet services space with iCloud.

Apple had internet services since around year 2000. Apple had mac.com emails for a very long time, as well as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MobileMe .Mac: July 17, 2002 – July 9, 2008 MobileMe: July 9, 2008 – June 30, 2012 iCloud was launched on October 12, 2011, one year before Apple entering Prism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICloud The main difference before iCloud was that you had to pay for it. I can however rem…

You must not have read the part where he said "recently had some success"

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#159

Post by Kylekramer »

acqq wrote: post #118
jgreen10 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is a company producing consumer devices, while the others are companies offering Internet services, which is what PRISM targets. Apple has only recently had some success in the Internet services space with iCloud.

Apple had internet services since around year 2000. Apple had mac.com emails for a very long time, as well as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MobileMe .Mac: July 17, 2002 – July 9, 2008 MobileMe: July 9, 2008 – June 30, 2012 iCloud was launched on October 12, 2011, one year before Apple entering Prism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICloud The main difference before iCloud was that you had to pay for it. I can however rem…

Well, in the NSA's eyes, that main difference is important. Free (and highly pushed by the very popular iPhone and iPad) meant people actually starting using iCloud. The cost-benefit analysis shifted tremendously from .mac/MobileMe.

It is fun to think of Steve Jobs as the lone person saying "fuck you" to the NSA. But it isn't realistic. It isn't like the other companies are run by meek people who love bending over to authorities.

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