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Re: SQL Server Worm devastates Microsoft Corporate networks!

From: Sinister Midget <xunil_at_kc-rr.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 16:47:15 GMT
Message-ID: <dvclg-tmg.ln1@elstinko.registrado.network.es> 





On Wed, 29 Jan 2003 08:22:21 +0000 (UTC), sommar_at_algonet.se drooled and scribbled:

> Kent Paul Dolan (xanthian_at_well.com) writes:




>> Which, of course, is the strongest possible argument against letting a

>> monopolist like Microsoft continue to exist _at all_.  If the market

>> were divided up among the twenty or so competing OS vendors that a

>> non-monopolistic market would engender, every link that crossed an OS

>> boundary would be another natural stagnation point for virii; it is

>> the ubiquitousness of "M$ at the other end" that makes messes like the

>> current one possible.


> 
> And had the market thought that it was a good idea to have 20 different
> OSs with equal share, with all that means in porting and compabitibility
> problems, that is how world would have looked like.





I agree. And since MICROS~1 shows themselves to not be Trustworthy(tm)
over and over and over and over and......it's time the world gave them
the silver bullet and put them out of our misery.



> Indeed, that is how the world looked like 20 years ago.



But it doesn't have to be that way now. There's the possbility of a few
types of OS, all working together, each with its own niche market or
its own strengths and weaknesses. There's really only one market that
seems to be opposed to that.



The way things were 20 years ago were fairly diverse, that's for sure.
That doesn't mean they were bad or that they impeded progress.
Everything we have now was built on the backs of what was going on
then. Not everything was interoperable. Not everything needed to be
interoperable.



It was a more fun world then, though. Before, one could change hardware
or OS and have some joy in computing.



Until I found my way back to reality, all I experienced for a number of
years was a sameness.* I'd turn the computer on. It would look like it
did yesterday (bland). It would function like it did yesterday (crash a
lot, lock up, run slowly). I would do the same things with it that I
did yesterday (not much, but there were severe limitations placed on me
because everything had to remain bland or someone might "experiment"
and break something, giving the maker of the "OS" [Micro-Soft, in this
instance] a reputation for poor quality software [it turns out they
wanted to do that without anyone's assistance]). I used the same
programs that did the same things the same way. I couldn't do anything
other than what I was told I could do with what was there. If I wanted
other things to be done, I'd cheerily go out and buy another product
that did 1/3 to 1/2 of what I wanted it to do and be excited with it
for all of 10 minutes after installing it. Those days were a tedium
that I first thought were a good thing. After awhile, though, it became
apparent that the days of experimentation were being strangled (times
like when the C-64, Atari 800, TI-99a and a whole bunch of other
machines were around, times when one could never seem to find enough
time to _try_ all of the things that were available, when learning was
neverending, times when it was a real joy to use a PC). Now using a
computer is considered pleasurable if it doesn't crash, the software
actually has more than a handful of things in it one wants featurewise.
Now it's reading email and not getting a virus, receiving an email
without a 12-page html attachment, getting emails that don't send
autoreplies back to spammers, actually finding fixes to some of the
problems the "OS" is causing, looking for drivers, and on and on and
on. Now a "pleasure" is downloading MP3s or getting patches. Now a
"pleasure" is doing something that wasn't the same as yesterday. Or, I
should say, that's how it was for me with what I used to use.



Now, though, I'm back to finding some real joy in computing. I'm
learning again, not just staring at a screen and smiling blankly (I
think there's some subliminal stuff in the other "OS" that makes life
seem to be OK, but it's buggy [isn't everything they put out?] because
it isn't complete, and leaves a gnawing little uncertainty in the back
of one's brain that keeps wondering why it doesn't seem as much fun as
it's supposed to be). I find there are lots of ways to do the same
things, and _I_ get to choose which one I like! I find out there are
things I can do that I didn't even know I had any control over, like
change my desktop around (I don't mean just the colors and icons,
either) to suit _MY_ needs, making it (the desktop) as light or as
bloated as my purposes or desires require, making my machine as light
or as bloated as I desire. I find I have control over the minutest
detail of my machine, that I can learn all about it or learn little,
that I can change how it works, modify many of the things it does, make
it interact better (or at all) with other programs. That I have a
choice of word processors, music players, CD burners, download
managers, browsers, spreadsheets, text editors, screensavers, ftp
clients, mail clients, video players, graphics packages, you name it.
If I still don't see what I need in what I get during the install, I
can go get others. I can experiment with as many different versions of
as many of all of these things (and more) as there are. And it nearly
always costs me the same as the price of the original package,



As an extra, I get servers. I get mail servers, ftp servers, telnet and
ssh servers, web servers. I get, or can get, streaming sound and video
servers, I can run virtual hosting. I can manage domain services. I
have DNS capability. As with the other things, the normal things listed
above, I'm not limited to one. I have choices in all of these. I can
use what I get when I install, or I can get others and put them in to
replace the stock versions. And it _STILL_ doesn't cost me more than
the original stuff.



There are two added benefits, some extra *oomph* that changing away
from monopoly-supplied software gave me.



For one, I haven't been infected with anything on any machine I have. I
haven't even worried about such an eventuality. There have been 3 (you
read right) potential worms since I started using this. All 3 of them
died very rapidly after they first appeared, all with practically no
effect on world commerce (despite they affected machines running the
majority of server software on the internet). There hasn't been a
single virus. There hasn't been a single instance of something
happening in an email or in a browser that brought the whole system
down. I've had a few things lock up in this time, but it's very rare
that I couldn't just kill a program and restart it when those happened.
I'm not claiming impenetrability. Any machine connected to any network
can be cracked. I mean all of those other things that users of the
stuff I used to use have to concern themselves with daily. I mean the
types of worms that cause BILLIONS of dollars of damage every time one
of them appears. I haven't seen nor heard of anything of the like on
the platform I use regularly.



The second added benefit: it's fun! I'm learning again. I find (for me)
I'm back to never having enough time to learn the things I want to
learn. I find I get to choose how I'll spend my day computing, that
it's completely up to me because: a) I'm not limited by the hiding of
code and features; and b) everything I choose not to deal with on aany
given day will cook right along without a whit of intervention from
me, and it'll happily do that for days, weeks, months, and, I've heard,
years (never quite tried that one). Most of all, I love the learning,
the experimenting, the testing things that don't lock up the machine
(very often), the variety that allows me to do this. It brings me back
to my old C-64, VIC-20 and Amiga days, but with a lot more stability nd
a lot more variety.



I'm back to loving computing again!!! That's something I lost for years
while I trudged through the wilderness that is Micro-Soft!!!



Oh, this stuff _did_ cost me a lot. Can't leave that part out. My
current installation cost me $0 up front. It's hard to quantify the
time spent and the value of that, though. For one thing, if I'm having
fun, should that count? If I'm learning for later, should that count?
I'm doing little to have to repair anything, and there isn't much time
and effort going into patching the few problems that crop up (and no
cost of rebooting associated with said patching). So the time angle
isn't much of a factor. Unless I throw in all of those things I choose
to do instead of having to do them to keep things working. But there
definitely is time put into configuring things (once, then they stay
that way), patching (2 or 3 times a week, done in the background while
I take care of something else, and still only done if, when and how I
decide), checking logs (most likely the most time-consuming part: maybe
3 hours a week), etc. So, let's just say 10 hours to maintenance.**
Still less than half of what I used to have to spend when using that
alternative software. And the rest of the time is mine.



On the subject of cost, after adding in how much the time is worth, we
can deduct how much I've saved in hardware by not being tied to the
permanent upgrade treadmill. I have a 200MMX with 64MB in that is
letting me test recent releases of other products that I want to learn
about. What recent release form those other guys could make much use of
that? I can run one machine headless (no monitor) because I can forward
my desktop between machines (either sharing one on both machines, or
having a different one on each machine, but viewing them on the same
monitor). What recent release by those other guys can do that? I have
(don't currently) used old printers, scanners, NICs, SCSI boards and
other things, things that the manufacturers stopped releasing drivers
for a long time ago. And those other guys couldn't provide drivers for
them either. I also have newer things (not the latest, but I built this
machine last year), using USB keyboards, mice and scanners, using newer
printers, using newer NICs, fairly decent video boards (I don't do
games, so I'm not looking to spend a fortune on video I don't need
anyway). I even have a mix of recent with some slightly older models of
some hardware. Does that other bunch give that sort of capability? I'll
answer for you: yes, to some degree. But not nearly to the same level.



While I might spend a little bit on maintenance of 4 machines in a
week, I can now deduct the money saved on not having to go get new
hardware because a software company makes sure my useful hardware
doesn't work any more. After also deducting the cost of the software
itself, I'm a big gainer in the long run!



Can those other guys honestly make that claim?



Given a choice of bland mush or excitement and experimentation, which
sounds like the better option? Given the up front and the longer term
costs of maintenance, (forced) new hardware, more on the OS itself,
more to get applications to actually do something and so on, would
using that model be better, or would the model that lowers all of those
costs and reduces the amount of time spent on fixing or maintaining
things make more sense?



For me, excitement it is! For me, lower costs it is! Let others deal
with the droll and mundane, with the sameness, with the drudgery, with
the expense.



Isn't choice grand?





-- 
Linux: Because you can!


Received on Wed Jan 29 2003 - 10:47:15 CST












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