Iang ... what about linux? What about the stuff that Venkat sells .... FMware allowing dual booting etc ... I appreciate that it may be selfish to expect a direct reply but it would be interesting to read about in one of your future notes. (thanks for subscribing me ...).
Darren.

Hi Darren,

all that stuff is irrelevant to the big picture, simply because the mass market doesn't buy that stuff. Most users, in excess of 90%, use Windows because they don't want to do anything but use the simplest possible solution.

For these users, the mass of the market, the Mac is the only other game in town. It's the only system that caters to non-computer literate people, and the only one that also offers things like Microsoft Word.

iang

The end is near as far as Microdudle goes because it has become the most complexed and unrewarding experience in the marketplace. As soon as people can they will switch to Apple because it works and does not require 30mb patches. Phishing is of course the major game being played as far as rip offs go outside of Microdudle. IBM created Microdudle and they have adopted Linux as their game plan. Linux is hard to work with for idiots like myself but Apple fills the void. As Ipod exposes more consumers to Apple the road to a marketing coupe has been paved. Apple will become the largest operating system quickly because the replacement of amortized desktops has peaked and the replacement cycle is coming due. The choice between something that works and something that does not makes it simple Microdudle no longer works because of its failure to adopt security into its designs. Apple is a UNIX based system that has lots of well educated support people that acutally talk to each other and know what they are taking about. This expert talk floats the boa of idiots like myself. The stroking of checks on the part of corporate buyers will not be in Microdudles favor they have destroyed the trust required to maintain the relationship. If for example you corporate situations where well trained and heavily supported infrastructures cannot stay open because of Microdudle then they will not be replacing it with Microdudle. Regardless of what percentage of desktops Microdudle now claims they will not be the way forward. Phishing was the tip of an iceberg as far as violating trust the Microdudle SP2 patch was the death of their monopoly and the dawn of Apples dominance in the consumer sectora and Linux in the commercial sector.

I've used Microsoft software for a while and I've never gotten a virus, worm or any spyware or adware. SP2 has been a big help in this regard. It's true that it has broken some applications but on the security front it has been a big improvement. Presumably there will be an SP3 in 2005 and things will get even better.

As far as stealing passwords and such, what we really need is Palladium, which will allow each application to create a secure vault for storing its secrets. But that won't be ready by 2005, thanks largely to the backlash from the privacy community.

Microsoft has the power to greatly improve the security situation, and it has the economic incentive to do so as well. SP2 shows what Microsoft can do. Yes, it had problems, but Microsoft bit the bullet, broke things, and put it out anyway because it fixed bugs and improved security.

It has taken time for Microsoft to respond to the increased need for security; a company its size doesn't turn on a dime. But it is turning and the security situation is changing as a result. The security community is living in the past if they don't see Microsoft's improve security posture as the most important factor for 2005.

SP2, etc is obviously part of the equation, and there is no doubt that a newly installed SP2 installation is mostly secure, for now. But, it takes a long long time for something like SP2 to roll out, and that's the issue: forget whether any particular software solves this in practice or in theory and look at the big (economics) picture.

It's pretty clear that in 2006 there will still be lots of machines not running SP2. So the problem will still exist. No matter how many times the supporters say "install SP2" the mass of the market place simply doesn't do it. This of course is why upgrades are becoming automated, but again, it will take a few years to roll that out.

In the meantime, we have a serious problem. The net has a serious problem. The notion that this is going to significantly change in 2005 - on the scale of the net - is hard to see. Fundamental shifts in software just don't happen that fast.

Ian, You are right on. I'm going to link this article and take the liberty of quoting some of it on my site.

Darren, you are right, rayservers.com was created in anticipation of these events. Those that have followed computers for a while know this is coming.

It just surprises me that no big players have taken the approach that we have - sell Linux and support legacy Windows via VMware - I hope to see interest in that approach as viruses get nastier.

Linux has gotten very usable these days. We don't need Apple to take a UNIX core (BSD) and make it useable - Linux is plenty useable - the pieces that were missing - OpenOffice and Firefox are getting mature... you can even run Linux on a Mac, with Mac OS X inside it and Windows inside the OSX inside Linux!!

http://maconlinux.com/sshots.html

Hey, Ian can you subscribe me? Thanks.

---Venkat.