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Microsoft Longhorn: New Technologies; Same Insecurities |
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 Nothing shakes one out of the doldrums like a good heavy dose of "Microsoft sucks". Yes, strong words, and sure to elicit a few Windows sufferers to leave an almost intelligible counter-comment. But here at 2GAMAAW, we don't just run around the neighborhood at 3:00 AM with our pajamas and bunny slippers on, hollering at the top of our lungs that Microsoft sucks, without anything to back it up. We get facts first and then perform our nocturnal anti-Microsoft rituals.
So, let's get into some of those facts. First off, details of Microsoft's upcoming operating system, nicknamed "Longhorn" were revealed last week at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (which, incidentally, has a much better breakfast bar than it's Amateur Developers Conference). Longhorn is supposedly a huge change for MS, a "platform shift" as they call it, "on the order of the move from early versions of Windows to Windows 95". I could say any number of things here, but for the sake of the story, let's give MS the benefit of the doubt and go along with them on this.
So assuming this is as big a change as MS claims it to be, you would think security would be job number one, right? Especially since that's what Bill Gates said would be the company's top priority back in early 2002. Well, we all know how well that's been going. But MS has a chance here to break all ties from their previous machinations and make a secure and stable operating system for the masses. (I'm trying real hard not to laugh here folks)
With Longhorn, MS is introducing a new application programming interface (API) called WinFX which "will be used to program everything in the Longhorn operating system, including three technologies called Avalon, Indigo, and WinFS". Avalon is Longhorn's graphics layer (think Quartz), Indigo is for writing "secure" and reliable Web services, and WinFS is a relational database file system, based in XML I believe, to make for quick searches of data and better grouping of documents.
If this sounds familiar to you, you're not alone. A lot of this sounds like the architecture of OS X. But it's not neccesarily stealing or a bad thing. A lot of the underlying technologies (like XML) are things that the entire industry is gravitating to. Now when MS takes a good idea and screws it up, as they've done so often in that past, THAT, my friends, is a Bad Thing®.
Proof of this is already evident in Longhorn. Let's look at an InternetWeek article that talks about WinFX and how it lets local programs get data from the Internet. At the conference last week, they demonstrated "a visit to a LexisNexis Web site that launched a program that let users search their hard drives and the Web simultaneously". Sounds like Sherlock, which was introduced way back in OS 8.5, but the point is that if programs from over the Internet are allowed to control what goes on in the OS locally, there could be HUGE, horrible, horrific problems. And apparently MS is letting the application developers decide what permissions the programs should have - so one poorly-written piece of software and the entire defenses for Windows Longhorn are compromised.
To top that off, apparently MS is also looking at stuffing an instant-messaging buddy list onto your desktop and tossing in some features that post blog entries, both of which "could create new ways for attackers to enter systems."
Longhorn isn't due for release until about 2006, mind you, and who knows what enterprising new ways Microsoft can botch security by then!
Ah well, maybe Microsoft figures they can throw money at everything and the problems will just go away. It's worked for them in many court cases in the past. Plus MS is now offering $250,000 bounties for anyone giving information leading to the arrest of the MSBlast worm and SoBig virus creators (I know what you're thinking, but we had nothing to do with those).
Lastly, seeing as how Massachusetts has dragged Microsoft back into court, does anyone think they'll get more than just a slap on the wrist this time around?
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November 5 2003, 10:28 AM EDT, by
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Comments:
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| homer |
11/5/03, 2:38 PM EDT |
"... does anyone think they'll get more than just a slap on the wrist this time around?"
Nope, justice has been bought and paid for.
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| Eric |
11/5/03, 4:14 PM EDT |
What gets me is that the Windows shi.. er, press is *worried* that MS won't have another OS out 'til 2006. They've gotten so used to the yearly (or bi-yearly, rather) release that they want a "shorthorn" to come out in the interim.
Let's see, the MacOS didn't really change 'til OS X. Everything else was basically built off of or evolving from what came before... in 1984. Maybe you could call OS 8 a "major" jump. That's still, what, 10 years?
Linux is still evolving, but has it really had any "major" changes? How about the various flavors of *nix?
Me, I'm just waiting 'til after Christmas... my wife gets her laptop, and I go buy my eMac to replace (a) my PC and (b) my long-serving Quadra 840A/V.
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