? to MVP's who are testing SP2

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peter
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Peter

Is SP2 going to solve any problems?? Judging by what I read in these groups
Microsoft seem unable to come up with a foolproof system, not there ever
will be such a thing!
 
Peter said:
Is SP2 going to solve any problems?? Judging by what I read in these
groups Microsoft seem unable to come up with a foolproof system, not
there ever will be such a thing!
Click to expand...

As SP2 is still in beta, I don't see how you can make such a statement.
 
Peter said:
Is SP2 going to solve any problems?? Judging by what I read in these groups
Microsoft seem unable to come up with a foolproof system, not there ever
will be such a thing!
Click to expand...

It's obvious you don't have any clue what it takes to write flawless code.
 
I withdrew that particular question. One would think, however, considering
how long Microsoft has been at this game, that people would be having a lot
fewer problems than they are.
 
It was a general question, more directed at the security issues. I never
pretended to know anything about programming.
I see everyone is in a bad mood today!
 
Raoul,
A gentle addition: neither Microsoft, Apple, or any one else is ever going
to write a foolproof system. Microsoft is attacked by more hackers, spam
writers, malware, etc, simply because it is by far the most prevalent
operating system [about 90%].
 
With all due respect, that simply doesn't take into account all the
different hardware configurations that are out there. If our systems were
MACs you'd be much closer to correct and even they have their share of
problems and certainly that is the case when an OS or even service pack is
in beta.

Also, if the problems are going to be there, its best for them to show up
during the beta as opposed to later on though, inevitably some will show up
later as well. You have different hardware configurations plus device
manufacturers that don't do a good job of writing drivers and other drivers
that are simply finicky. Then there are the people who have layer upon
layer of upgraded OSs on their system.

Go to the following link, you'll find 40 pages of motherboards, now factor
in all the different chipsets, not processors but chipsets and different
BIOS revisions and this is only the tip of the iceberg of the enormity of
the problem as it doesn't take into account all the peripherals, all the
installed cards, all the various versions of software on all those different
systems, some compatible, maybe a lot compatible and but some not and then
factor in the users that never check for updated drivers, never check for
updates to their software and never even check to see if their hardware and
software is compatible.

I have a boilerplate response for people who are having consistent crashes
and one of the suggestions is, "While at the desktop, place the XP CD in the
drive, when the setup screen appears, select "Check system compatibility."
You'd be amazed at how many people have upgraded or moved to new systems
with XP but have never done a compatibility check. Why is this important on
a new system, because you often attach old hardware and install old software
and often the compatibility wizard can pick that up and help zero in on the
source of such issues. NOTE: for those without an XP CD, the wizard can be
downloaded online:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp

My point is, however, given all the different variables, it's amazing at
just how much compatibility they manage with each of these iterations and I
can tell you from my own experience as a beta tester, they test on as wide a
bed as possible. However, even with as wide a test bed as they have, they
can't possibly cover all the variables. Further, what do you expect to see
on these boards? You are going to see problems and issues because that's
what these boards are for, though you shouldn't see any SP2 questions here
as there are boards specifically for SP2 beta and that's where the questions
should be addressed as that is where they are likely to get help as well as
to be directed to file bug reports or find that their problem is a known
issue that is being worked on at this time.
 
Peter, you didn't specify the problems up front, it was a general question,
period, with no hint of what you were thinking beyond that.

True, Microsoft is a "Johnny Come Lately" to the issue of security. But
think for a minute, there were all sorts of companies out there offering
antivirus, firewall and malware protection. Now, look at the antitrust
issues they faced in the last few years. Can you imagine the outcry from
these other companies had Microsoft come out with their own product to
address these?

Okay, it's a valid point that there were a lot of security holes in Windows
but at least some of those holes were the result of features users wanted.
Second, believe it or not, you can't always anticipate what a hacker is
going to do or how they are going to essentially use the system against
itself, hence, Microsoft often has to patch the system to deal with some
new, unanticipated exploit. To their credit, they have responded, both with
patches as well as built-in firewall protection that will be greatly
improved in SP2.

Does that mean no one will become infected again? Of course not, do seat
belts and air bags prevent death and injury 100% of the time in an
automobile accident? Also, go up and down these boards and look for people
who complain they can't get their e-mail attachments; hence, they turn off
attachment blocking feeling perfectly safe since they know they only open
attachments sent by friends and people they know...UNFORTUNATELY, that's a
bad assumption since viruses are most often received from friends and people
we know; they replicate by sending themselves to every address in an
infected user's address book. A chain is only as strong as its weakest
link, just one mistake and any protection provided by the OS, your AV
software and whatever else you might be running can be negated.
 
I still don't understand why some people don't read the original question
properly and understand that not all of us are experienced users, and give a
civil answer.
As for "posting this kind of stuff before" I think you are confusing me with
someone else.
 
Gene K said:
Raoul,
A gentle addition: neither Microsoft, Apple, or any one else is ever going
to write a foolproof system. Microsoft is attacked by more hackers, spam
writers, malware, etc, simply because it is by far the most prevalent
operating system [about 90%].

--
Gene K
Raoul said:
It's obvious you don't have any clue what it takes to write flawless code.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Microsoft's products are designed to be programmable
and interoperable in a way that makes any serious
improvement in security virtually impossible. It's
not their market share but their design that has
been the major source of security headaches. They
have too many deals with way too many companies
who are using Microsoft's proprietary interfaces
for this to change at any point in the near future
regardless of security issues. Look how reluctant
Microsoft was in changing even that very minor
"feature" of IE that allowed phishers to spoof URL
addresses. I have clients with Bloomberg accounts
and Bloomberg makes extensive realtime use of Excel
via its API's. That setup makes me cringe. No
internet-connected Windows PC should ever be used
in highly sensitive, mission critical environments,
SP2,3 or whatever.

-BC
 
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