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Re: Microsoft ammunition
Great news, Toto.
The wisest people are already avoiding MS products and are using free
software like Linux to its fullest capacity.
Cc-ed to Bill Gates.
igor
Toto wrote:
>
> >From Infoworld:
>
> March 24, 1997
>
> Coda dependency may contribute to the fall of the
> great Gates empire
>
> Last week's column demonstrated that Microsoft is
> unable to respond to the network computer in its
> usual "co-opt the technology" manner -- a fact
> that may signal the turning point in the company's
> history. (Why am I leaving Intel out of this
> prediction, you ask? Because it is in a far more
> flexible position than Microsoft. Its chips can
> run anything. Microsoft needs them to run
> Windows.)
>
> Add to this NC threat the mounting troubles for
> Microsoft, and it's no wonder there's no joy in
> Redmond tonight.
>
> Look at the trends. According to International
> Data Corp., Microsoft SQL Server for Windows NT
> has been losing significant market share for two
> years to competing products that run on multiple
> platforms. Microsoft's Wolfpack clustering
> technology is turning out to be a Chihuahuapack.
> (See "Toothless Wolfpack," March 17.) Seemingly
> endless rapid-fire announcements by ISVs to
> support standards such as Java, JDBC, LDAP, IMAP4,
> and CORBA are shoving Microsoft's TAPI, MAPI,
> ISAPI, "SLAP-HAPI," and a host of other
> Microsoft-centric specifications right out of the
> limelight.
>
> By now you have undoubtedly heard more than you
> want to hear about the fellow in Germany who
> demonstrated that a malicious ActiveX control can
> secretly empty your bank account. Leaks, bugs, and
> hastily cobbled service packs have been drawing
> attention to the immaturity of Windows NT. And,
> most recently, college kids have found more holes
> in Internet Explorer than it takes to fill the
> Albert Hall. (My apologies to those outside the
> Beatles generation who don't get the reference.)
>
> Meanwhile, Microsoft has crushed or alienated
> practically every potential partner that might
> otherwise have helped it out of its current fix.
>
> Network hanky panky
>
> This latest Microsoft Internet Explorer security
> dustup really isn't a bug, it's a feature.
> Internet Explorer was built to make it easy to
> launch a file, whether that file is on your hard
> drive or sitting on a server somewhere in
> Freedonia. Unfortunately, it took someone outside
> Microsoft to realize last August that the file one
> launches from Explorer could be a Word for Windows
> document packing a malevolent macro.
>
> Then, in the past few weeks, .URL, .LNK, and .ISP
> files were added to the danger list. Then it
> surfaced that Microsoft's Common Internet File
> System opens the door to network hanky panky. This
> is clearly a company that isn't used to thinking
> outside of the universe of the local LAN. The
> Microsoft patches configure Explorer to ask your
> permission before launching a potentially
> dangerous file type (similar to Netscape
> Navigator). OK, but this solution makes it
> virtually impossible for Microsoft or anyone else
> to integrate a browser seamlessly into the Windows
> desktop.
>
> If seamless, safe desktop access to remote files
> on the Internet is the goal, Microsoft is spinning
> its wheels. There is really only one way to
> provide these features without introducing a local
> security risk. You have to eliminate the
> possibility that anything you run can affect your
> local drives. Better still, get rid of your local
> drives.
>
> In short, a Java-based browser is a good way to do
> it, but a Java-based network computer is best.
> Which brings us back to the conclusion of last
> week's column.
>
> But, if you're tired of the repetition, here's a
> reason you should sit through another sermon:
> RandomNoise's Coda. Coda lets you design entire
> Web pages in Java rather than use a mixture of
> HTML content, tags, and Java applets.
>
> Most pundits seem to be fixated on the fact that
> Coda gives you a way to display fancy fonts that
> HTML can't handle. Our own Bob Metcalfe is the
> only one I know of who addressed the bigger
> picture. (See From the Ether, March 10). He
> pointed out that Coda may lead the way toward
> replacing HTML with Java.
>
> A Java-based Web page removes the distinction
> between application and data. It presents data
> just as an HTML page would, but every element on
> the screen has the potential to be an interactive
> part of a sophisticated application.
>
> In other words, the Web page becomes both powerful
> and safe enough to earn the right to be the new
> desktop user interface to the world. But Internet
> Explorer and Windows are nowhere in that equation.
>
> So is Microsoft in a batting slump, or is this the
> beginning of the end? Personally, I think
> Microsoft can pull out of this one. All it would
> have to do to fully recover is turn Windows NT
> into Unix, drop Distributed Component Object Model
> for CORBA, phase out its Windows-centric protocols
> for platform-independent standards, adopt
> NetWare's Novell Directory Services, kill ActiveX,
> port SQL Server to several different platforms,
> and abandon the idea of integrating Internet
> Explorer into the desktop.
>
> Well, I'm going to take a nap. Wake me when all
> that happens.
>
- Igor.