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Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

pcmag.com

281–290 of 310 posts

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not worth the legal hassle That's not the Steve Jobs I read about. Like him or not, he was a man of principle.

He was also pragmatic enough to pick the right battles. That,s a prerequisite for success in any business.

Again, not the Steve Jobs I've read about.

Having your factory retool weeks before you launch an unproven product because you don't like the glass? Not very pragmatic.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#282
post #247
post #169

GNU/Linux, and Free software and hardware in general, look to be the BIG winners out of the NSA brouhaha, because all non-US governments, businesses, organizations, and individuals around the planet who need to safeguard their private or confidential information now have reason to mistrust proprietary (unauditable) software and hardware. Free, open software and hardware are less likely to have secret 'back doors' ins…

In times like these I wish Ubuntu wasn't made by a US company. It could've been a huge winner out of this, and they could've played used it to the full extent in their marketing campaigns. I'm not sure they can still do that. At least if the EU countries want to go about "standardizing" around one Linux distro (like China did), they will just pick one, and not have one for each country.

[deleted]

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was also pragmatic enough to pick the right battles. That,s a prerequisite for success in any business.

Again, not the Steve Jobs I've read about. Having your factory retool weeks before you launch an unproven product because you don't like the glass? Not very pragmatic.

I think pushing your suppliers hard to correct a serious flaw in a key product is pragmatic.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#284
post #123

When a company does what's asked of it by a government and people are upset with the company something's seriously wrong. A company's main priority is typically to make money within the bounds of the law. A government's should be to improve the quality of life and uphold the moral values of its citizens. I have a feeling had Apple been first on board rather than last the journalist would argue that Microsoft were evi…

Be that as it may, I cannot change your government. I can, however, stop relying on any of the companies who are complicit in spying on me. The problem here is the divide between national government and international corporations, where the corporations' actions influence far more people than the direct actions of the national government. I cannot exert any influence over a government that isn't mine, but I can decid…

Fair point well made. Opinion updated.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's boycott the hell out of Microsoft. They gleefully sold out their users to the NSA.

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)

May be best to focus all boycotting energy on one company, like was done for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#286
post #279

When a company does what's asked of it by a government and people are upset with the company something's seriously wrong. A company's main priority is typically to make money within the bounds of the law. A government's should be to improve the quality of life and uphold the moral values of its citizens. I have a feeling had Apple been first on board rather than last the journalist would argue that Microsoft were evi…

Hopefully in your thinking there's some limits to what the company would do when asked of it by the gov't. For me it would be anything obviously against the spirit of the Constitution.

Agreed. My argument was that the government asking the company to do something immoral would be more of a concern to me than the company doing it, since the government is supposed to hold a position of trust with its society whilst the company is generally assumed to represent its owners and/or investors interests.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, not the Steve Jobs I've read about. Having your factory retool weeks before you launch an unproven product because you don't like the glass? Not very pragmatic.

I think pushing your suppliers hard to correct a serious flaw in a key product is pragmatic.

"serious flaw" == hyperbole

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#288
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A boycott is supposed to carry a sheen of justice, and this suggests at least a nod towards being fair.

It's as though you're being bullied by two people, and when you try to deal with one of them, you're accused of being unfair because you can't deal with both! It sounds very much as though it was the bullies who decided what was "fair" in this instance.

The boycott request was a call to community action. You're reframing it as a single individual's struggle for survival, which isn't the same thing.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#289
post #169

GNU/Linux, and Free software and hardware in general, look to be the BIG winners out of the NSA brouhaha, because all non-US governments, businesses, organizations, and individuals around the planet who need to safeguard their private or confidential information now have reason to mistrust proprietary (unauditable) software and hardware. Free, open software and hardware are less likely to have secret 'back doors' ins…

It would be grossly unprofessional of the three-letter agencies if they should have failed to run counter-intelligence operations upon the open source communities. Futhermore, given their resources to hire hackers and long history of infiltrating loosely affiliated organizations, it is hard to image that they have struggled to place moles deep within many critical projects. Open source communities have no membership…

When people ask me why I switched to Gentoo, I'm going to borrow liberally from this post as justification. I know the code my system was built on now. It's trivial to do an audit of that code, as well. I didn't have that security with RHEL/Fedora or Ubuntu/Debian

If you didn't build your OS, you'd better trust the person/people that did.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#290
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the Lone Ranger. It's a business. Think of Federal employees at Fort Meade, who were hired to do the sort of work I am describing. Think of defense contractors with nondescript offices in Fairfax who hire those same employees after they leave the government and whose employees spend their days writing and pulling and pushing and merging open-source software. Think of $200,000 a year. Think of Edward Snowden.…

> It's asymmetric warfare. But the side without the money is disorganized and open and trusting. The Snowden leak happened (as did Manning), so the Government is not as organized as optics would suggest. They are drowning in the data deluge just like everybody else.

Sure, but 4,999,998 other people with secret level security clearances are not being whistleblowers and leakers.

Hard to imagine a better success rate for any organization composed of fallible human beings.

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