[ale] MS Propaganda representative

[Jim Philips]

Well, there is still more good news about the .Net strategy. First, there was 
the failure of "Hailstorm" to catch on. Now, it looks like Passport isn't 
generating a lot of user interest either. Here is a link:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=70&e=2&cid=70&u=/cn/20020417/tc_cn/survey__passport_required__not_appealing

It looks to me like companies and the general public are actually being pretty 
smart about this. Most people aren't willing to surrender all of their 
information and total control of their hard drives for the sake of 
"convenience". I think there is a good future for Web services. It just isn't 
the one being planned by Microsoft. But so far, the open source offerings in 
Web services look a little thin to me.

On Wednesday 17 April 2002 03:45 pm, Jeff Rose wrote:
>        Actually it went quite well.  It was pretty interesting to hear
> MS's strategy first hand and I have to say.... I am quite excited about
> .Net.  I think this could be the best thing for Linux.  They are really
> trying to force people to use MS products over the internet.  Let me
> repeat ... You will have to use MS Office, Windows etc. over the
> internet. Businesses will never go for that.  Individuals will HATE it.
> You could hear a collective groan from the Softies in the room as they
> realised they wouldn't be able to use bootleg software anymore.  They
> want subscription services so bad they don't care how their customers
> react.  And of course if you let your subscription run out I believe you
> will lose the use of the software.  Forced upgrades on temporary
> software.  Unbelievable.
>           And the .Net platform?  Well I think parts of it are
> interesting and could actually be quite useful.  But other parts are
> quite scary.  I think it will be a security nightmare.  From what I
> gather, MS believes most everything will be done over the internet and
> because of that you will have to allow websites to execute code on your
> machine.  DLL's can
> be updated dynamically and programs changed almost dynamically.  The
> example the rep used was Coca Cola has 70,000 PC's and to update all of
> them to Office whatever would cost $30,000,000 on top of the licensing.
> With .Net downloading one DLL will upgrade them all because they aren't
> really on every machine.  Basically other people will have the ability
> to upgrade your machine at will!  But you could also use that to infect
> 70,000 machines at once!  But for security, your browser will tell you
> what is being done to your machine as it is being done and DLL's are
> required to have a proper key.  He didn't give any details about the key
> but I'm assuming Microsoft will certify this stuff somehow.  Time ran
> out as he was explaining how you could safely allow others to install
> and run code on your machine over the internet so I don't quite
> understand it.
>         So if MS pulls this off they will be the supreme Lords of
> Computing but
> I can't see people giving up total control of their computers.  It's
> just too risky with no rewards for the consumer.  And businesses will
> never go for sending their sensitive data over the internet to MS's
> servers just to write a letter or update a spreadsheet.  So if MS
> doesn't back off on this, I think Linux will look mighty good to a whole
> lot of people.
>
> Jeff
>
> On Wed, 2002-04-17 at 12:54, Cade Thacker wrote:
> > So how did this go?
> >
> >
> > --cade
> >
> > On Linux vs Windows
> > ==================
> > Remember, amateurs built the Ark, Professionals built the Titanic!
> > ==================
> >
> > On 15 Apr 2002, Jeff Rose wrote:
> > > My professor says it's ok if my friends sit in on this thing so
> > > friends... anyone wishing to witness this, bring your wooden stakes
>
> and
>
> > > garlic.  I'll be the guy in the Linux t-shirt.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ---
> > > This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
> > > See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems
>
> should be
>
> > > sent to listmaster at ale dot org.
>
> ---
> This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
> See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should
> be sent to listmaster at ale dot org.


---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.