Comments on: Microsoft's blast from the past

A year after the MSBlast worm, the software giant releases SP2 for Windows XP. Would it have stopped the fast-spreading virus?

Time increase penalties

Most of these "hackers: are unemployed bums with a small amount of knowlage and virtually no knowlage of the real world .These people destroy other peoples property for no particular reason . It is time to put these people away just like you would burglar or mugger . twenty years with no computer access should do the trick . Oh yes ,fifteen of those years in prison with a guy named Bubba might help too .

[David Arbogast]

Following Logic

Assuming that most hackers are indeed unemployed bums, it stands to reason that due in part to their lack of sufficient finances, and their warped view of right/wrong, they are probably also the kind of people who think that all software should be free, the copyright system in America is broken and thus void, and capitalism is bad.

Of course, not all hackers are poor ignorant kids... some are intelligent criminals. Either way, I agree that they should be locked up.

[unixrules]

This just kills me

Now comes SP2. This is the most secure and stable OS yet from
Microsoft. Sound familiar? That line has been on every MS
install screen since Win95. When are all you yahoos going to
wake up and use something else? SP2 will be just as buggy as
all its predecessors.

[David Arbogast]

Your comments kill me

A claim of "best system yet" with every release is great. It mean that every system is an improvement over the previous system. Show me a product that does not make these claims, and you will probably find that you are looking into the garbage can.

Something interesting about the article you obviously failed to pick up on... all of those vulnerabilities were patched before the exploit was released. Just as with any other operating system, staying current helps keep you safe. Microsoft fixed their bugs before there was ever a problem. Good work on their part. Infections were caused by user negligence.

Personally, I would rather use a system that has shown continual improvement, year after year, for more years than Linux, the OS prefered by hackers, has even been alive. I also prefer to use a commercial product that keeps myself and my company shielded from intellectual property violation litigation.

You should spend some time researching bugs for real. Get away from slashdot and CNet... check out CERT. You'll probably be surprised when you compare the number of known bugs in Windows to Linux.

[audiophile7]

Genius, what you recommend?

What OS you use? What you recommend? Windows is 9 of every 10 PCs, so of course that is going to have more vulnaberilities that MacOS or Linux. Only few people try to make worms to MacOS or Linux, because less people are using it.

[jamesivie]

Can't boot anymore after SP2!

I installed SP2. Now I can't boot. It's not like I have nonstandard hardware either. Intel 3.0 GHz CPU with hyperthreading, Intel Motherboard, ATI video card. It even locks up whenI try to boot in "Safe Mode". The last file listed is agp440.sys. Thanks a lot!

[David Arbogast]

bummer

That's why smart businesses apply patches in a test environment before putting them on production machines. You must have a very rare incompatability problem or something. How much time did you spend researching hardware/software requirements before downloading?

[jamesivie]

Fixed!

OK. After several hours of reserach, I found the problem. My motherboard (only got it 2 months ago, Intel D865PERL) had a BIOS that was 10 versions out of date. I installed the latest BIOS and it came back up just fine. Whew!

Didn't you know...

Then it is working perfectly. You can come under a cyber attack if you can't load Windows. At least that is Microsoft thinking. So SP2 disables Windows. After all it is almost one big virus itself. Now your computer and data is safe.

8^)

Robert

[dwhite25]

cant boot

you know youv'ebeen screwed you haven't got the boot
disks
how can you fix it Microsoft sell systems witout the boot
disks

[audiophile7]

Windows will always be vulnerable

Microsoft should redesign Windows from zero. They keep making updates and making changes to the actual structure of Windows, so, new bugs and worms are going to appear. They need to REDESIGN Windows and maybe that way is the way that they are going to stop worms and virus for a while.

I agree...

I agree. I also think that Longhorn is going to be close to this, which is part of the reason it is taking so long.

Part of the problem is that they core of Windows is so old and out of date that they just keep slapping basically one coat of makeup after another on an old dead corpse hoping to pass it off as fresh and alive.

Photoshop is the same way. It is way past time that Adobe just bite the bullet and start over so that they can do things like live filters, saving history as an action, etc.

I think the problem is that companies are terrified to do this. They see it as a very expensive nightmare and that is something they don't really want.

I also think that no matter what computer software is always going to have problems. Hell even little cell phones are turning out to be unsecure, we are seeing virii coming out for them now. I also think that Microsoft has some of the buggiest stuff around, but they do seem to be getting better. Security aside Windows XP has been the most reliable version of Windows todate and I expect Longhorn to be better, that is if it ever ships.

Robert