Thanks Milhouse who sent me this interesting article written by Robert X. Cringely. He touches on the issues surrounding Microsoft, its standards and PR machine that supposedly in one drastic move will support security over features in its future releases.
From Pulpit: What"s Really Behind Microsoft"s New Commitment to Data Security
This week, Microsoft has suddenly and very publicly embraced "Trustworthy Computing," which is to say the company is finally committing to make their products less vulnerable to worms, viruses, and hacking. I hate to be so cynical, but one has to wonder what has changed to push Microsoft into this new policy? After years of watching their customers suffering billions of dollars in losses caused by security problems, why is Microsoft suddenly changing? Why now? The analysts and pundits are saying this is Microsoft"s response to negative news that might have eventually affected sales and some just see it as a public relations move. I"d say that rather than a marking a real change, this announcement is more a matter of executing a strategy that has been coming for a long time. It is neither a response to the insecure nature of Microsoft products or a PR move. Rather, this is Microsoft"s new way to get us all to buy more stuff.