even the head of microsuck wants a mac

[flappo]

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?s...61209135113443

"Here's the latest report from the Iowa antitrust litigation, Comes v. Microsoft, Inc., being held in Polk County District Court. We have excerpts from transcripts of Thursday's and Friday's sessions, including a 2004 email from Jim Allchin to Steve Balmer and Bill Gates in which he says Microsoft had lost sight of what customers need and that he himself would buy a Mac, if he didn't work for Microsoft.
"

;

xhibit 7264. Almost three years ago, on January 7, 2004, Jim Allchin, the senior executive at Microsoft, sent an E-mail to Microsoft's top two executives, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, and the subject was "losing our way."

Mr. Allchin says, I'm not sure how the company lost sight of what matters to our customers, both business and home, the most, but in my view we lost our way. I think our teams lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means, how important current applications are, and really understanding what the most important problems our customers face are. I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that does not translate into great products. He goes on to say, I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft.

OUCH

[Golden AWe]

DOH!

[FORD]

Considering that Mac's now have Intel processors and run Windows, they would be fools NOT to own one. The less buggy a Windows installation is on a Mac, the more copies of Windows will sell to Mac users.

Haven't heard any reports yet on how Vista runs on the Mactel. Anyone else know of any reports on that?

[Nitro Express]

I installed Microsoft Office on my MacBook because I needed Excel but what overpriced shit it is. For wordprocessing and presentations I use Apple's Iwork.

Microsoft still has $40 billion in cash and they aren't hurting but the whole personal computing world is changing and more and more people are discovering Apple. Once you get used to OS X, man, you're hooked. No more Ctrl, Alt, Del. No system crashes. If a piece of software locks up like some of the shitty Adobe stuff you go into the Finder and hit Force Quit. The opperating system shuts down the offending software application without needing a reboot.

Doing graphics and photography is easy. Burning discs is easy. No port problems. Plug it into a firewire or USB port and it works.

Why would I want a PC?

[DrMaddVibe]

Vista hasn't been released to the public yet.

It is the buggiest software to date that I've ever had my hands on. The security is a JOKE!

Stay away from this.

[Hardrock69]

I have it already. It is too available to the public.
Or else I could not have gotten my grubby little hands on it.

There are vast improvements over XP.

But you won't be able to fully appreciate them until the first service pack comes out, and the millions of bugs are fixed.

Fuck Microshaft.

I will never pay another dollar to those fucking assholes, and will continue to encourage people to get it for free!

[DrMaddVibe]

What you have is what I have and its not complete.

I agree wholly about the patches(yeah...plural!), because they're going to be running hotfixes until the cows come homw with this.

I have seen 2 very major corporations business plans with regards to IT and they're going Mac. One is slowly integrating the lower end Mac now and wait until the leases are up on the Dells and HP/Compaq crap is up.

[Satan]

The Final Vista IS out there, because it was released to computer mfgs (Dell, Compaq, Gateway, etc) a few weeks back. These copies always get leaked to the net. Since Windows 95, I've never failed to find a final release at least 2 months ahead of their announced retail release date. It's also my firm belief that (just as it is with the record companies) these leaks are intentional, because Microsoft WANTS the new OS discussed and critiqued online, and the vulnerabilities talked about.

It's all advertising and market research from their perspective, and a few people running the new Windows release for free beats the cost of whatever the "professional research" would cost them, and the results are probably more accurate, because we aren't being paid to kiss Micro$oft's ass.

I doubt M$ will ever release a final product without any bugs. Why ruin a long established tradition?

[DrMaddVibe]

I've had it for almost 2 months!

Fuck off frod!

You're way over your head in this department.

[Satan]

Did I say WHEN I got it, AssVibe?

Let me put it this way..... I own Bill Gates' soul. Who do YOU think gets the first copy?

[Dr. Love]

They release the RTM version through MSDN... I've had it since it came out. Legally.

[Nitro Express]

Vista is a joke. I think people are going to continue using Windows XP Pro for some time past the retail release of Vista.

I love how Microsoft tried to copy OSX even down to the little chess game Apple has.

The whole Vista project just goes to show how clueless and disfunctional Microsoft is.

[MERRYKISSMASS2U]

Who doesn't!



I made the switch. Never looking back.

[Nitro Express]

IT depts. have already dumped Microsoft's networking software preffering Linux instead. I have been running all Apple computers in my office on a simple network. No complaints. No system is 100% glitch free but one thing that is apparent. The engineers at Apple have thought things through pretty well. Apple has closed the price gap between the Mac and PC. OSX is more secure, more bug free, you still can run Windows if you want. I see the Apple appeal.

[MERRYKISSMASS2U]

24 inch iMac here with not a single line of MS code on it. I also have a few home built machines. 1 is still fairly kick ass. It runs XP, but it's just a file server for the Mac. I use it for the occasional game too (it runs Oblivion ok)

[Nitro Express]

I still love building tricked out PC's and running the shit out of them so hard you need a water cooler to keep it from burning up.

Mac's are cute little hippie dip things. I always loved them but what's cooler than neon lights in a clear panel box with a bunch of LED's flashing on the memory cards and liquid coolant being pumped?

I just have to have both just like I have to have sevral guitar amps I don't need. LOL!

[Nitro Express]

Microsoft Sells But Who's Buying?

LOL!

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
Once you get used to OS X, man, you're hooked. No more Ctrl, Alt, Del. No system crashes. If a piece of software locks up like some of the shitty Adobe stuff you go into the Finder and hit Force Quit. The opperating system shuts down the offending software application without needing a reboot.

Doing graphics and photography is easy. Burning discs is easy. No port problems. Plug it into a firewire or USB port and it works.

Why would I want a PC?

I'm not going to stick up for Microsoft after all the misery their bugs have given me over the years but I have to say that everything you describe applies to Windows XP too. Task Manager does the same as Finder, XP is pretty damn stable unlike previous versions of Windows, never had problems with USB but did have on 2000.

I wouldn't touch Vista for at least a year.

Cheers!

[DrMaddVibe]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/25/te...gewanted=print

Flaws Are Detected in MicrosoftÕs Vista

By JOHN MARKOFF
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 24 Ñ Microsoft is facing an early crisis of confidence in the quality of its Windows Vista operating system as computer security researchers and hackers have begun to find potentially serious flaws in the system that was released to corporate customers late last month.

On Dec. 15, a Russian programmer posted a description of a flaw that makes it possible to increase a userÕs privileges on all of the companyÕs recent operating systems, including Vista. And over the weekend a Silicon Valley computer security firm said it had notified Microsoft that it had also found that flaw, as well as five other vulnerabilities, including one serious error in the software code underlying the companyÕs new Internet Explorer 7 browser.

The browser flaw is particularly troubling because it potentially means that Web users could become infected with malicious software simply by visiting a booby-trapped site. That would make it possible for an attacker to inject rogue software into the Vista-based computer, according to executives at Determina, a company based in Redwood City, Calif., that sells software intended to protect against operating system and other vulnerabilities.

Determina is part of a small industry of companies that routinely pore over the technical details of software applications and operating systems looking for flaws. When flaws in Microsoft products are found they are reported to the software maker, which then produces fixes called patches. Microsoft has built technology into its recent operating systems that makes it possible for the company to fix its software automatically via the Internet.

Despite Microsoft assertions about the improved reliability of Vista, many in the industry are taking a wait-and-see approach. MicrosoftÕs previous operating system, Windows XP, required two Òservice packsÓ issued over a number of years to substantially improve security, and new flaws are still routinely discovered by outside researchers.

On Friday, a Microsoft executive posted a comment on a company security information Web site stating the company was Òclosely monitoringÓ the vulnerability described by the Russian Web site. It permits the privileges of a standard user account in Vista and other versions of Windows to be increased, permitting control of all of the operations of the computer. In Unix and modern Windows systems, users are restricted in the functions they can perform, and complete power is restricted to certain administrative accounts.

ÒCurrently we have not observed any public exploitation or attack activity regarding this issue,Ó wrote Mike Reavey, operations manager of the Microsoft Security Response Center. ÒWhile I know this is a vulnerability that impacts Windows Vista, I still have every confidence that Windows Vista is our most secure platform to date.Ó

On Saturday, Nicole Miller, a Microsoft spokeswoman, said the company was also investigating the reported browser flaw and that it was not aware of any attacks attempting to use the vulnerability.

Microsoft has spent millions branding the Vista operating system as the most secure product it has produced, and it is counting on Vista to help turn the tide against a wave of software attacks now plaguing Windows-based computers.

Vista is critical to MicrosoftÕs reputation. Despite an almost four-and-half-year campaign on the part of the company, and the best efforts of the computer security industry, the threat from harmful computer software continues to grow. Criminal attacks now range from programs that steal information from home and corporate PCs to growing armies of slave computers that are wreaking havoc on the commercial Internet.

Although Vista, which will be available on consumer PCs early next year, has been extensively tested, it is only now being exposed to the challenges of the open Internet.

ÒI donÕt think people should become complacent,Ó said Nand Mulchandani, a vice president at Determina. ÒWhen vendors say a program has been completely rewritten, it doesnÕt mean that itÕs more secure from the get-go. My expectation is we will see a whole rash of Vista bugs show up in six months or a year.Ó

The Determina executives said that by itself, the browser flaw that was reported to Microsoft could permit damage like the theft of password information and the attack of other computers.

However, one of the principal security advances of Internet Explorer 7 is a software ÒsandboxÓ that is intended to limit damage even if a malicious program is able to subvert the operation of the browser. That should limit the ability of any attacker to reach other parts of the Vista operating system, or to overwrite files.

However, when coupled with the ability of the first flaw that permits the change in account privileges, it might then be possible to circumvent the sandbox controls, said Alexander Sotirov, a Determina security researcher. In that case it would make it possible to alter files and potentially permanently infect a target computer. This kind of attack has yet to be proved, he acknowledged.

The Determina researchers said they had notified Microsoft of four other flaws they had discovered, including a bug that would make it possible for an attacker to repeatedly disable a Microsoft Exchange mail server simply by sending the program an infected e-mail message.

Last week, the chief technology officer of Trend Micro, a computer security firm in Tokyo, told several computer news Web sites that he had discovered an offer on an underground computer discussion forum to sell information about a security flaw in Windows Vista for $50,000. Over the weekend a spokesman for Trend Micro said that the company had not obtained the information, and as a result could not confirm the authenticity of the offer.

Many computer security companies say that there is a lively underground market for information that would permit attackers to break in to systems via the Internet.

[Nickdfresh]

I think I want a Mac...