RE: OT -- MS makes a statement about open-source software movemen

I like that prison metaphor. I've rarely metaphor i didn't!

A security-guru buddy of mine sent me a site reviewing all major Unix/Linux/MS security vis a vis TCP packet snooping/spoofing.

Linux came out leagues ahead.

|| -----Original Message-----
|| From: Andy Duncan [mailto:andy_j_duncan_at_yahoo.com]
|| Sent: Monday, May 07, 2001 7:26 AM
|| To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
|| Subject: Re: OT -- MS makes a statement about open-source software
|| movemen t
||
||
|| Hi Jared,
||
|| > >He described the open software movement as ``flimsy,''
|| ''flawed,''
|| > >jeopardizing property rights and threatening to undermine
|| the software
|| > >industry, a key economic growth engine.
||
|| Mr Mundie, methinks thou protest too much.
||
|| Isn't this the typical case of having it both ways? First
|| of all Microsoft
|| say, "Don't split us up, we're not really a monopolistic
|| trust, because Linux
|| is a growing rival". Later, once it looks like they've avoided the
|| trust-busting, "Linux isn't a rival at all, it's flimsy and flawed".
|| Monumental arrogance, almost as bad as New Labour's here in
|| the UK. Next we'll
|| be hearing from Redmond, "The government should ban Open
|| Source as it's a
|| threat to National Security, and consumers should only be
|| allowed to buy
|| Microsoft, which is totally secure", and we're back to
|| protectionism, special
|| interests and the removal of freedom from the individual to
|| use whatever the
|| heck they want. The sooner the Microsoft trust is split in
|| two, the better.
||
|| Just what are they afraid of? If Open Source is as bad as
|| they say, then the
|| market will out, and remove it, without any intervention
|| being necessary on
|| their part, just as open standards in the hardware world,
|| originally led to the
|| rise of the generic PC, the end of IBM's domination, and the
|| rise of Microsoft.
|| It looks like they who lived by the open standard, are
|| mightily afraid they're
|| going to die by the open standard, unless they can get their big
|| government/corporation protectionism and retaliation in
|| first. I think they're
|| right.
||
|| Watch out people. This looks to me like the first salvo in
|| a barrage attempt
|| to use their gargantuan financial and legal muscle to remove
|| our individual
|| freedom to choose. Because to any monopoly, governmental,
|| labor or corporate,
|| choice is the enemy.
||
|| > >`We recognize that Open Source Software (OSS) has some
|| benefits such as the
|| > >fostering of community, improved feedback... and
|| debugging,'' Mundie said
|| > >in prepared remarks. ''But there are significant
|| drawbacks to OSS as well.''
||
|| Yes, the monopoly is broken, special interests lose their
|| stranglehold over the
|| rest of us, free trade is strengthened and the wealth of IT
|| is allowed to
|| spread and grow around the rest of the world, without being
|| siphoned off to
|| fill the coffers of just one privileged company.
||
|| > >Open source software programming creates greater dangers
|| of security risks,
|| > >software instability
||
|| This is your mission, should you choose to accept it. There
|| are two people
|| held in different jails, and you have to rescue just one of
|| them, as they both
|| know the secret formula to making the world's perfect Mocha
|| Coffee. Now, which
|| one should we choose to rescue? Let's check out the camps:
||
|| Prison Camp A
|| =============
|| A single proprietary combination padlock (from 001 to 999)
|| is placed on the
|| single main gate, by the single camp guard, who's 93. A
|| large roll of black
|| cotton sheet, 10 feet in width, has been wrapped around the
|| camp, as an outer
|| fence 10 feet high. Before you attempt to break in and
|| rescue your prisoner,
|| you are not allowed to see beyond the black cotton sheet.
|| This provides all
|| the security the camp officers think is necessary. Everyone
|| else, except the
|| prisoners, have gone home. Two prisoners a week, regularly
|| escape from the
|| camp, in the postal truck.
||
|| Prison Camp B
|| =============
|| You can see everything here, through the three sets of 20
|| foot high chain link
|| electrified fences. You can see the mine strips between the
|| first two sets of
|| fences, the watchtowers with machine guns every 200 yards,
|| the 100 Rottweiler
|| guard dogs patrolling around the last fence, the razor wire,
|| and the guard
|| barracks every 50 yards, which house three shifts of 500
|| guards to provide 24
|| hour a day protection. You know the exact design
|| specificiation of the mines,
|| the type of food the dogs eat, the fact that each of the
|| many padlocks on each
|| gate has exactly one million combinations (you even have
|| blank keys for the
|| padlocks, which you can cut at your leisure). You know what
|| calibre bullets
|| the machine guns fire, you know how big the windows are in
|| the barrack blocks
|| and what the guards ate for breakfast. You have detailed
|| aerial plans of the
|| entire complex, which have been posted on the camp's
|| website, as a challenge,
|| by the camp commandant, who prides herself on never having
|| lost a prisoner.
|| You know that the guards are on a $1,000 dollar bonus per
|| man for every
|| intruder or escaping prisoner that they shoot dead and a
|| $10,000 dollar bonus
|| per man per annum for going a complete year without losing a
|| single prisoner.
||
|| Question
|| ========
|| Which is more secure?
||
|| I know which one I'd rather try and break into.
||
|| > >and breaking up common industry design standards that
|| > >could force valuable corporate intellectual property into
|| the public domain,
||
|| This should read, "breaking up Microsoft de-facto standards,
|| which we've used
|| as cash-cows for a generation, and making us reveal our
|| secret APIs, once we've
|| been split into two companies, which will give other
|| commercial operations an
|| even playing field, to compete with the split company and
|| increase free trade."
||
|| I think Adam Smith knew what to do with such companies back in 1776.
||
|| Rgds,
|| AndyD
||
||
||
|| =====
|| andy_j_duncan_at_yahoo.com
||
|| O'Reilly's "Oracle and Open Source":
|| => http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/oracleopen/
||
|| Orac, Perl/Tk and Perl DBI Database DBA & Development Tool:
|| => http://www.perl.com/CPAN-local/modules/by-module/DBI/ANDYDUNC/
||
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|| Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
|| --
|| Author: Andy Duncan
|| INET: andy_j_duncan_at_yahoo.com
||
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