L
Linuxgirl
Bill said:If I'm reading you right, your thinking was that if Microsoft has
managed to create a firewall which handles outbound as well as
inbound traffic, your sense of this particular CoolWebSearch issue is
that it is enough to make it imperative that Microsoft provide that
technology free to all Windows users.
They definitely have such technology, and in a consumer-friendly
version, as evidenced by the OneCare website descriptions.
They haven't announced pricing for OneCare.
It looks like similar firewall capabilities will be included in
Vista, but there's some question about that.
There are a number of vendors still providing free firewall software
for Windows and including outbound traffic blocking.
I guess I'm unconvinced about the real imperative here. I agree it
would be nice when new capabilities are developed that address
security issues, for them to be available to existing Windows users
for free. But how do you propose that Microsoft recover the cost of
doing that development?
Oh good grief Bill. If someone produces a computer operating system for
sale, it should be as secure as possible. If it's not then it should be made
secure. Yes the unknowledgable consumer is much of the problem with what
they allow to be downloaded, but a secure firewall should be one of the
*basics*.