Patch Tuesday Redux
The folks that release Microsoft's security bulletins don't read
Redmond
Report. A month ago we made fun of their vulnerability descriptions, all
of which were exactly the same. The same was true yesterday, as all
five
problems "could allow an attacker to take complete control of an affected
system." Can you say cut and paste? The biggest patch plugs a major hole
in IE that third parties already fixed.
Guest Macintosh Rant
Redmond Editor at Large Michael Desmond had a severe reaction
to a recent
column by uber-analyst Rob Enderle speculating on what would happen if Microsoft
bought Apple. Here are Desmond's thoughts:
Microsoft's struggles with Vista have a lot of folks casting about for solutions.
Industry watcher Rob Enderle, for one, thinks a Microsoft merger with Apple
could knock the rust off executive management and bring some of Steve Jobs'
sharp-edged project management to Redmond.
Enderle's proposal is tongue in cheek -- as he notes, "the U.S. government
would [never] allow such a merger" -- but he says a close partnership with
Apple could do wonders for Microsoft and its staff. "Employees might also
move more freely between the firms, providing a formal system of cross-pollination
in skills and practices that both could use," he writes.
Read the file under "Google, Ballmer's Reaction" to see what Microsoft
thinks of employee cross-pollination. And really, any issues Microsoft has would
swallow up any solution Apple brings to the table -- it's a simple matter of
scale. Still, I'd welcome this partnership just to see footage of the inevitable
Ballmer-Jobs boardroom cage match.
Norwegian Government Threatens Microsoft Market Share
-- in Oslo
Norway wants
to do away with expensive commercial Microsoft software and, as much as
possible, switch to open source. As easy as it is to make fun of a tiny country
thumbing its nose at Microsoft (Norwegian sales are a rounding error on the
Redmond balance sheet), Norway is one of a growing number of countries pushing
Microsoft out and inviting open source in.
I for one think this is a good thing, as real alternatives keep Microsoft on
its toes.
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Drowning in a Sea of Web Sites
Last week we talked about the sheer number of Internet users slowing,
growing only 5 or so percent a year. This may be true, but Web sites are multiplying
faster than rabbits on Viagra. We are now at some
80 million Web pages, half of which are in active use. Meanwhile, more and
more sites are based on IIS, and cult king Apache is losing market share by
the gob.
About the Author
Doug Barney is editor in chief of Redmond magazine and the VP, editorial director of Redmond Media Group.