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Proprietary open|Source Windows - techy.Bytes

Security Through Obscurity May Have Some Truth

April 27th 2008 14:12
Firefox Safari Internet Explorer
One argument against Microsoft based software is that they are less 'secure'. Now personally I don't understand the concept of software being less secure, if you're not doing anything stupid you probably won't have to deal with anything nasty.


Having said that I think it is becoming more and more obvious, if Microsoft’s software was ever less secure it was not because of poor software practices but rather the obscurity of its competitors. Unfortunately for the open source community they can no longer just talk as such software as Firefox becomes more and more mainstream.

Now after years of learning from mistakes Microsoft seems to have created a fairly solid package, there is yet to be a major security breach for any of Microsoft’s newer software and all the while the security holes in competing software such as Firefox and Safari to Microsoft's Internet Explorer keep adding and adding.

Many people are switching from Internet Explorer to alternative browsers such as Firefox and Safari. Though that might make them feel more secure, the shift has also opened new doors for bad guys.

Case in point: We have no IE bugs to report this month, but both Firefox and Safari have been hit hard.

Hackers Focus Efforts on Firefox, Safari


Something tells me lots of hobbyist Firefox/Safari fanboy hackers are going to go hard after Internet Explorer to even things up before the month is out. But we'll see.
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Posted By: Ahmed - Category: Proprietary, Linux.open|Source, Windows
   


Firefox is Proof Open Source is Failing

September 16th 2007 09:12
The general consensus is that the open source isn't gaining traction is because Microsoft is doing what it needs to from a business standpoint to buy out/take hostage the consumer. However the massive popularity of Firefox is proof enough that this simply can't be the case.

When it comes down to it all you just have to look at it in perspective. Every Windows machine ships with a copy of Internet Explorer for free, yet consumers are actively finding and download Firefox. What of Word Processing software? People pay money for Microsoft Office, and it sure isn't cheap, it doesn't even necessarily come with every Windows PC and additional components will invariably cost more (such as Excel, PowerPoint, etc).

Yet we have 'Open Office' which is the Open Source communities answer to Microsoft Office. Totally free and comes with everything Microsoft Office does, not to mention has basically copied Microsoft Offices interface meaning there is nothing alien about moving between one and the other.

Common arguments such as 'Microsoft is willing to break laws and pay fines' or 'dump products' is absolute rubbish, the Open Source community is so full of itself that they have all but forgotten that good products is what sells and that laying blame on Microsoft is not going to make any real progress. Microsoft competes, if that means 'dumping' then so be it.

If Linux is free and the Chinese people may use Linux simply because it’s free Microsoft has every right in the world to say 'hey what the hey, I'm going to sell Windows for $3 in China to effectively compete with Linux. I’ll also invest heavily in the IT industry in China so that Chinas software industry can grow and thrive'. Not just Microsoft, many companies invest in developing nations, they invest to compete, it’s a game of chicken, the more you invest the bigger the turn back but the bigger the risk. Who benefits from all this rabid investing most? The Chinese people.

Microsoft Research and Development Lab in China
Microsoft Has Invested Heavily in China's Software Industry

Is dumping so wrong? That the Chinese in their whacko market get access to $3 Windows others pay $300 for? It's just the way things work, the way different economies work. Microsoft wants to establish a foothold in China because China is developing into a major software developer. In the same way IBM has always been investing millions of dollars in Linux Microsoft is investing millions in its own software, as a company must do.

So what of Microsoft 'cheating'? If Microsoft’s cheating (assuming its happening) is directly affecting Open Source softwares ability to compete then Firefox should have bombed. Like most other Open Source applications it should have started with massive hype and just ended there. Yet it didn't, why? Because it's a damned good piece of software, one of the few that can effectively compete with something you might want to pay for.
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