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Lenovo's Response to Its Dangerous Adware Is Astonishingly Clueless

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Re: Lenovo's Response to Its Dangerous Adware Is Astonishingly Clueless

#161

Post by danudey »

engendered wrote: post #54
jhou2 wrote: post #26

Kudos to MS, srsly. lol the amount of positive press that MS has been garnering recently on HN is impressive.

Don't think it is purely happenstance. There is absolutely and unequivocally either brigading Microsoft fans, or paid shills, hitting HN hard. There was a garbage post on the front page yesterday and I left a completely benign post that didn't go with the pro-Microsoft/anti-Google narrative -- saw -11 within less than 60 seconds.

I hated Microsoft for years, for all the stupid garbage they pulled. Antitrust stuff, terrible software, mismanagement, etc. Even after switching to using a Mac full time, I still had to deal with awful Office documents with undocumented changes, or 'XML-based' documents with undefined data formats. Sending my resume to someone and finding out the entire thing had been reformatted into Courier New and lost all my indenting, making me look like an idiot, etc.

But lately, things have changed. Apple is the new Google, loved by the tech world. Google is the new Microsoft, using their market power to do dumb stuff that no one really cares about, and Microsoft is the new Apple, the underdog who got left behind by changing technology and ego and is making a serious, determined effort to become and stay relevant, to put out good products, and to regain their position as a market leader (earned this time, and not strong-armed).

Re: Lenovo's Response to Its Dangerous Adware Is Astonishingly Clueless

#162

Post by dang »

engendered wrote: post #102
remarkEon wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does everything have to be a conspiracy? So either Microsoft is building some good and interesting stuff, or there's some conspiracy to target HN that would get them...what, exactly? +Karma here?

Does my statement somehow make everything a conspiracy? Boy, we on HN are supremely good at knocking down those strawmen. "or there's some conspiracy to target HN that would get them...what, exactly? +Karma here?" Is this supposed to be intentionally naive? Microsoft is a technology company that heavily relies upon buy in and advocacy. Is this really difficult to understand? Every single comment to my post has either…

It's no secret that we've had problems with pro-Microsoft astroturfing on HN in the past. But the way to deal with this is not to make angry, substanceless accusations and then complain when the community responds poorly. Please stop.

I'm going to detach this subthread as off-topic now.

Re: Lenovo's Response to Its Dangerous Adware Is Astonishingly Clueless

#163

Post by hellbanner »

danudey wrote: post #161
engendered wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't think it is purely happenstance. There is absolutely and unequivocally either brigading Microsoft fans, or paid shills, hitting HN hard. There was a garbage post on the front page yesterday and I left a completely benign post that didn't go with the pro-Microsoft/anti-Google narrative -- saw -11 within less than 60 seconds.

I hated Microsoft for years, for all the stupid garbage they pulled. Antitrust stuff, terrible software, mismanagement, etc. Even after switching to using a Mac full time, I still had to deal with awful Office documents with undocumented changes, or 'XML-based' documents with undefined data formats. Sending my resume to someone and finding out the entire thing had been reformatted into Courier New and lost all my ind…

Oddly insightful for such a simple analogy. Out of curiosity, what products do you use from these companies? (Eg android phone, mac computer, microsoft xbox?)

Re: Lenovo's Response to Its Dangerous Adware Is Astonishingly Clueless

#164

Post by mey »

fname wrote: post #100
buro9 wrote: post #13

Microsoft is currently doing Lenovo's work for them: https://twitter.com/FiloSottile/status/568800260111388672 The latest version of Windows Defender is actively removing the Superfish software and the cert. The text of the definition is here: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=us7iXvkn

This is really great, but the real question is will users actually see this on a default Lenovo OS build? Can anyone confirm that Defender doesn't get disabled in favor or say... McAfee or Symantec?

Per OEM appeasement, if there is a 3rd party AV software installed, Windows Defender auto-disables. So many Lenovo users will have an issue.

ArsTechnica covered this issue in their reporting today http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/02/windows-defender-now...

Re: Lenovo's Response to Its Dangerous Adware Is Astonishingly Clueless

#165

Post by kalkin »

notsony wrote: post #157
sp332 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least "Lenovo US" is owning up to it. https://twitter.com/lenovoUS/status/568578319681257472 Not sure how they're connected to the "Lenovo" that issued that statement.

Seems to be a lot of self-righteous moral crusaders on Twitter, and some on HN too, who won't be satisfied until they see Lenovo employees hanging from lamp posts...

Not sure that you have to be especially self-righteous to think that there is some level of betraying user trust that ought to actually have some kind of negative consequences for people.

Re: Lenovo's Response to Its Dangerous Adware Is Astonishingly Clueless

#166

Post by danudey »

gumby wrote: post #101
engendered wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't think it is purely happenstance. There is absolutely and unequivocally either brigading Microsoft fans, or paid shills, hitting HN hard. There was a garbage post on the front page yesterday and I left a completely benign post that didn't go with the pro-Microsoft/anti-Google narrative -- saw -11 within less than 60 seconds.

> Don't think it is purely happenstance. I agree that it's not purely happenstance -- I think Microsoft the company is making a genuine bid to be relevant again. It's a desperate bid, and I don't think it's in their DNA to succeed, but it'd be great if it happens. Personally I avoid using MS whenever possible; I still have to use Word and Excel to communicate with others, and some conferences still require a PPT file…

> It's a desperate bid, and I don't think it's in their DNA to succeed

I'm not so sure. I think their DNA is changing pretty rapidly these days. Office for iOS is better than Office for Windows RT. Windows Azure services are actually really good, with tons of documentation on how to use them across all platforms (iOS, Android, Javascript, Node.js, etc).

It feels as though the last few decades, every team has been beholden to the Windows/Office hegemony, whereas now teams have the direction to make a good product on their own terms. Without having to answer the question "how will this keep Windows/Office dominant", the massive amount of talent at Microsoft can finally start to shine, and I really think we're starting to see the genesis of that environment lately. It's too early to tell, but I'm pretty hopeful.

Re: Lenovo's Response to Its Dangerous Adware Is Astonishingly Clueless

#168

Post by flyinghamster »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #38
buro9 wrote: post #13

Microsoft is currently doing Lenovo's work for them: https://twitter.com/FiloSottile/status/568800260111388672 The latest version of Windows Defender is actively removing the Superfish software and the cert. The text of the definition is here: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=us7iXvkn

Every AV should be doing this. Is MS the only one doing it?

For that matter, were AV vendors intentionally looking the other way with Superfish, or any other nasties?

Re: Lenovo's Response to Its Dangerous Adware Is Astonishingly Clueless

#169

Post by PhasmaFelis »

notsony wrote: post #157
sp332 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least "Lenovo US" is owning up to it. https://twitter.com/lenovoUS/status/568578319681257472 Not sure how they're connected to the "Lenovo" that issued that statement.

Seems to be a lot of self-righteous moral crusaders on Twitter, and some on HN too, who won't be satisfied until they see Lenovo employees hanging from lamp posts...

If this had been done by a private person instead of a corporation, they would be looking at prison time. The double standard is frustrating.

Re: Lenovo's Response to Its Dangerous Adware Is Astonishingly Clueless

#170

Post by Jtsummers »

JadeNB wrote: post #111
joshuapants wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would have to really flex the definition of authoritarian to include the US, to the point of making the word uselessly broad.

The OED says: > Favourable to or characterized by obedience to authority as opposed to personal liberty; strict, dictatorial. It's certainly reasonable to argue about whether this actually applies; but I don't think that it represents a useless dilution of the word to think that it might. (Well, not 'dictatorial', but the rest of it.)

I'd like to hear that argument and not just the assertion that it is arguable.
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