From: ichudov@algebra.com (Igor Chudov @ home)
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 16:21:29 -0800 (PST)
To: toto@sk.sympatico.ca
Subject: Re: Microsoft ammunition
In-Reply-To: <333AF0A6.6C81@sk.sympatico.ca>
Message-ID: <199703280014.SAA01221@manifold.algebra.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


Great news, Toto. 

The wisest people are already avoiding MS products and are using free
software like Linux to its fullest capacity.

Cc-ed to Bill Gates.

igor

Toto wrote:
> 
> >From Infoworld:
> 
> March 24, 1997
> 
>             Coda dependency may contribute to the fall of the
>             great Gates empire
> 
>             Last week's column demonstrated that Microsoft is
>             unable to respond to the network computer in its
>             usual "co-opt the technology" manner -- a fact
>             that may signal the turning point in the company's
>             history. (Why am I leaving Intel out of this
>             prediction, you ask? Because it is in a far more
>             flexible position than Microsoft. Its chips can
>             run anything. Microsoft needs them to run
>             Windows.)
> 
>             Add to this NC threat the mounting troubles for
>             Microsoft, and it's no wonder there's no joy in
>             Redmond tonight.
> 
>             Look at the trends. According to International
>             Data Corp., Microsoft SQL Server for Windows NT
>             has been losing significant market share for two
>             years to competing products that run on multiple
>             platforms. Microsoft's Wolfpack clustering
>             technology is turning out to be a Chihuahuapack.
>             (See "Toothless Wolfpack," March 17.) Seemingly
>             endless rapid-fire announcements by ISVs to
>             support standards such as Java, JDBC, LDAP, IMAP4,
>             and CORBA are shoving Microsoft's TAPI, MAPI,
>             ISAPI, "SLAP-HAPI," and a host of other
>             Microsoft-centric specifications right out of the
>             limelight.
> 
>             By now you have undoubtedly heard more than you
>             want to hear about the fellow in Germany who
>             demonstrated that a malicious ActiveX control can
>             secretly empty your bank account. Leaks, bugs, and
>             hastily cobbled service packs have been drawing
>             attention to the immaturity of Windows NT. And,
>             most recently, college kids have found more holes
>             in Internet Explorer than it takes to fill the
>             Albert Hall. (My apologies to those outside the
>             Beatles generation who don't get the reference.)
> 
>             Meanwhile, Microsoft has crushed or alienated
>             practically every potential partner that might
>             otherwise have helped it out of its current fix.
> 
>             Network hanky panky
> 
>             This latest Microsoft Internet Explorer security
>             dustup really isn't a bug, it's a feature.
>             Internet Explorer was built to make it easy to
>             launch a file, whether that file is on your hard
>             drive or sitting on a server somewhere in
>             Freedonia. Unfortunately, it took someone outside
>             Microsoft to realize last August that the file one
>             launches from Explorer could be a Word for Windows
>             document packing a malevolent macro.
> 
>             Then, in the past few weeks, .URL, .LNK, and .ISP
>             files were added to the danger list. Then it
>             surfaced that Microsoft's Common Internet File
>             System opens the door to network hanky panky. This
>             is clearly a company that isn't used to thinking
>             outside of the universe of the local LAN. The
>             Microsoft patches configure Explorer to ask your
>             permission before launching a potentially
>             dangerous file type (similar to Netscape
>             Navigator). OK, but this solution makes it
>             virtually impossible for Microsoft or anyone else
>             to integrate a browser seamlessly into the Windows
>             desktop.
> 
>             If seamless, safe desktop access to remote files
>             on the Internet is the goal, Microsoft is spinning
>             its wheels. There is really only one way to
>             provide these features without introducing a local
>             security risk. You have to eliminate the
>             possibility that anything you run can affect your
>             local drives. Better still, get rid of your local
>             drives.
> 
>             In short, a Java-based browser is a good way to do
>             it, but a Java-based network computer is best.
>             Which brings us back to the conclusion of last
>             week's column.
> 
>             But, if you're tired of the repetition, here's a
>             reason you should sit through another sermon:
>             RandomNoise's Coda. Coda lets you design entire
>             Web pages in Java rather than use a mixture of
>             HTML content, tags, and Java applets.
> 
>             Most pundits seem to be fixated on the fact that
>             Coda gives you a way to display fancy fonts that
>             HTML can't handle. Our own Bob Metcalfe is the
>             only one I know of who addressed the bigger
>             picture. (See From the Ether, March 10). He
>             pointed out that Coda may lead the way toward
>             replacing HTML with Java.
> 
>             A Java-based Web page removes the distinction
>             between application and data. It presents data
>             just as an HTML page would, but every element on
>             the screen has the potential to be an interactive
>             part of a sophisticated application.
> 
>             In other words, the Web page becomes both powerful
>             and safe enough to earn the right to be the new
>             desktop user interface to the world. But Internet
>             Explorer and Windows are nowhere in that equation.
> 
>             So is Microsoft in a batting slump, or is this the
>             beginning of the end? Personally, I think
>             Microsoft can pull out of this one. All it would
>             have to do to fully recover is turn Windows NT
>             into Unix, drop Distributed Component Object Model
>             for CORBA, phase out its Windows-centric protocols
>             for platform-independent standards, adopt
>             NetWare's Novell Directory Services, kill ActiveX,
>             port SQL Server to several different platforms,
>             and abandon the idea of integrating Internet
>             Explorer into the desktop.
> 
>             Well, I'm going to take a nap. Wake me when all
>             that happens.
> 



	- Igor.