Is This Dumb or is it Just Me?

Microsoft's Internet Explorer has many security problems that have been documented in thousands of places. I won't repeat all that here. However, one comment from Microsoft's director of product management for Windows shows the company's cavalier attitude.

Microsoft has fixed some of the Internet Explorer security problems by releasing Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. However, the company has also announced that it does not plan to release any such fixes for people who use Windows 98, ME, or 2000.

Gary Schare, Microsoft's director of product management for Windows, has one suggestion for those who cannot use the latest patches in Service Pack 2: buy a new personal computer.

Pardon me? I should buy a new computer because your company won't fix the problems that it created? By the same reasoning, one might solve the security problems created by a car's broken door lock by buying an entirely new automobile.

You can read more about this in a New York Times article written by Randall Stross. He also points out that Microsoft's director of product management for Windows doesn't use Internet Explorer himself, even though he expects you to do so.

You can read all of this at InfoShop.org

Comments

[John Ralls]

No, Mr. Schare is exactly right. Everyone who has security problems with Micro$oft software *should* buy a new computer.

It should be a Mac.

Of course, much of the benefit can be obtained at much less cost by running Linux or one of the BSDs on one's old computer and using the Win4Lin ($60, www.netraverse.com) to run the M$Win apps that one just can't do without. That takes a bit more technical knowhow and a lot more patience than just getting a Mac, though.

(You can still run your M$Win apps on your mac, too. That requires the somewhat more expensive (as much as $300) VirtualPC, unfortunately now from Micro$oft. Oh, and games don't run very well in either VirtualPC or Win4Lin.)

Regards,
John Ralls

[Edna]

Outlook Express and Internet Explorer is provided me by Cox.net. OE is also the one that removes so much of what they call my "unsafe attachments" (usually genealogy files)from my email. Now it looks as if John Ralls is saying the only thing to do is get a MAC! I loved my old Mac but it didn't run enough of the genealogy programs I wanted. This is very frustrating because I've been a computer user for over 30 years but I'm not a technician. I've purchased add-ons for protection and spamarrest. What next?

[John Konvalinka]

I downloaded and installed the beta of the MSN toolbar and desktop search.

And within a day I started getting messages from Norton AV telling me it had detected and deleted a hi-risk threat.

(I usually never get these messages, with Zonealarm and Norton on the case)

Guess where the "threats" were coming from: MSN toolbar suite.

Messages have stopped since I uninstalled it.

JK

[Joanthan Turner]

I have an aging Windows 98 system and have decided to follow Mr. Schare's advice to purchase a new computer. It will be a Macintosh.

Mr. Gary Schare seems to be Apple Computing's best salesman.

[Donald Moore]

I agree with Mr. Schare. Get a Mac. Now that Microsoft is a monopoly legally as well as actually, they are showing their true colors. No monopoly cares about its customers. Why should they? The market is virtually theirs.

I am a professional genealogist, run a part-time business, and have never used anything but a Mac for either business or pleasure. I have not yet found anything that I wanted to do on a Mac that I could not do because of software or hardware limitations.

[Dino (All Dino, All the Time)]

Donald,

Would you be so kind as to list the genealogy programs you use on the Mac (and maybe a one-sentence description of ones that also aren't PC, so we know what they do?). Also do you use VirtualPC?

There are quite a few of us out there that would like to know if we can run on a Mac.

[Tim]

I'm not Donald, but I have also only used Mac since I compared them to Windows PCs, side by side, back in 1994. I use Gene for all my genealogy work. It is very easy to use and makes reports and Web pages that are far better than anything else I've seen. You can see a sample at my Web site at http://www.geocities.com/missourimule_2000 . All we did was decorate. Gene is not ready for OS X yet, but the developer is working on it.

You might also look into GedItCom. It has a rather crude interface, but it works directly with GEDCOM files so there are no converting problems. It also has a great repair feature and is OS X native.

The big names like Reunion and Family Tree Maker are also available. You can find others at places like MacUpdate and VersionTracker, though most smaller programs are not as good.

Hope this helps.
Tim

[Tim]

Oops! Better put a / at the end of the URL above.

Tim

[Lew Griffin]

Well, getting a Mac sounds great, but there must be others like me who can't just toss out a roomful of Microsoft related hardware and software and start over. And just to play the Devil's advocate, I've never had a security problem with Internet Explorer on Windows XP. I have Service Pack 2, and any other patches they offer. And I only use the Internet for genealogy, such as Ancestry.com, etc. And I'm much happier with IE than Foxfire, when it comes to looking at census records, etc, on Ancestry. Maybe I'm the dumb one, but IE works best for me.