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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 10 Issue 16
Volume 10, Issue 16 Atari Online News, Etc. April 18, 2008
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2008
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1016 04/18/08
~ Mac Has Been Cloned! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Drive Against Abuse!
~ Fake Subpoenas Phish! ~ Repeat Password Peril! ~ Cyberterrorism Myth?
~ EO Subpoena Scam Back! ~ Red Hat Skips Desktop! ~ Brazil Bans 'Bully'!
~ PayPal: No Old Browser ~ Users Fight To Save XP ~ "Albany" Is Tested!
-* Infected USB Devices On Rise *-
-* Ballmer: Vista Is A Work in Progress *-
-* Do A Cloud Scan for Malware and Get Prize! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
It's getting to look and feel like Spring more and more each day. It's
a great time of the year, as far as I'm concerned. I've finally had some
nice weather this week to get out in the yard and finish up my fall
cleaning, interrupted by early snowfalls this past winter. Just a little
left to clean up - very little. The lawn received its first
"conditioning" treatment for the year, and now I need to add some
fertilizer and throw down some seed. Some of our perennials have started
to sprout - always a good sign!
I even got out another day to play some golf with some friends, taking
our golf on the road. A good day. And, I put in my first day back on
the job at the local golf course. Now maybe I'll be able to afford a
gallon or two of gasoline at these rapidly-rising prices!
I know that Joe has mentioned it several times over the past few years,
but it warrants repeating. The Spring season is like a rejuvenation of
the area - a time for many things to come back to life after a long
winter's dormancy. Sane can be said for people. Personally, this great
weather is what I've been needing to get myself out of a long mental
hibernation of sorts. It's great to get outdoors again, and getting
things done! And then begin to see how things continue to improve over
time.
So, as I manage to work out some sore muscled that seem to atrophy over
the winter months, I'll leave you all to enjoy the nice weather and
another issue of A-ONE at the same time. Life doesn't get much better
than that!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Another week has come and gone, and we're
finally starting to see real signs of spring here in the northeast.
Being a relatively new homeowner, I've got plenty to do to make sure
that my yard and lawn is up to snuff in the neighborhood. My big
disappointment is that my red maple tree in the back yard seems to be
dying. It's probably on the order of 60 years old, and... well, I guess
you'd say its a medium sized tree. It stands about 25 feet tall, and
the trunk is about eight inches or so in diameter. They grow slowly,
from what I've been told, and are evidently subject to some sort of
disease or blight. When we bought the house, this tree was my favorite
thing about the property. The leaves were a bright bright red, and the
tree was full and healthy looking.
Last fall, I had to prune some of the dead branches off, and I'd hoped
that that would be the end of that. Well, it doesn't look like that's
the way it's going to go. When I got finished cutting the dead
branches, the poor tree looked like a giant bonsai. I'm not kidding.
"Well," I figured, "maybe that'll be all I need to do, and it'll come
back healthy and happy next year."
No. Unfortunately, it seems that more branches are dying, and fully half
of what's left of the tree is going to need hacking off. I'll do it, of
course, and hope that my poor beautiful tree bounces back and
appreciates my attention and worry. I'll keep you posted, as I know
that you'll be waiting breathlessly to hear what happens next. [grin]
Meanwhile, in the Atari world, there's not much going on, really. But
for a platform that hasn't produced a computer in 15 years, that's to
be expected. I'm actually kind of surprised that there's as much news as
there is... new desktops, an updated BASIC, new work-alike machines,
emulators, and add-ons like USB ports and flash drives... it's all a
testament to the users, who found a platform they liked and decided to
stick with it, and the developers who put their talent and time into
products that there isn't a huge market for. Programming and hardware
engineering are areas where I have no talent, so I stand in awe of them
for their skill and dedication.
For me, my Atari ST computers were... unique. They were even unique from
one another. They each had their own personalities, along with their
own shortcomings. But shortcomings aren't always bad things. NOT being
able to something in a particular way often leads to finding other ways
to get it done. Remember getting the old ST connected to the internet?
Even something as simple as showing JPEG pictures was a challenge for a
while there.
Today, I've got a couple of spiffy computers that get daily use... a 3
GHz desktop and a 2.8 GHz laptop. The thought of clock speeds like that
was once a pipe dream. Who would have ever thought that our speed demon
8 MHz STs with their whopping 1 Meg of memory and built-in operating
system would one day be a relic and that an MP3 player the size of a
money clip would have not only a hundred times the storage space, but a
hundred times the computing power (as far as clock speeds go)? Not I.
I remember being told by my friendly neighborhood Atari dealer when I
bought my first hard drive that I was crazy. "No one will ever need
SIXTY MEGABYTES of storage!"
Yeah, well, that was before the advent of MP3s and AVIs and broadband
this and true-color that. These days, you need high-powered everything
in order to just tread water. Just take a look at the requirements for
Windows Vista.
I still fire up my STE, STacy and TT030 from time to time, and I've got
to confess that the STacy (with Rainbow TOS) is my favorite.. Oh, the
STE is faster and has some nice features added, and the TT is a LOT
faster, and has even more added features, but the STacy is pretty much
an original ST in all the ways that count. My wife (who sees no need to
use computers... thankfully), laughs at me because when I sit down in
front of one of my Ataris, I relax. I don't sit there and swear about
it taking so long to load something or the lack of colors, resolution
or whatever... I just relax and let 'the old days' wash over me.
Damn, it's good to be home.
Okay, let's get to the news, hints, tips and info from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Last week, 'Piotrek' asked about large partitions for TOS and MiNT:
"On the TOS system I used HDDriver and I made partitions, 8 partitions
(BGM), one LNX for Mint system and the last for Magic F32 partitions."
'Ggnkua' asks Piotrek:
"Ok, but on what system can you not see all the partitions? Or is that
for all of them?
When you made the 1gb partitions, how many mb did you typed? From my
personal experience, 1gb is 1023mb in hddriver, NOT 1024. 1024 will
cross some limits. (although my system is partitioned with 2gb
-2047mb- bgm partitions, working fine)."
Piotek replies:
"I can not see on MiNT system, This is a LNX partition (In HDDriver I
made 8GB partition but on MiNT it see only half (4 GB)).
I typed 1000 MB And I have not any problem with this partitions in TOS
and other systems."
'MiKRO' tells Piotrek:
"you still didn't tell us _where_ you see these numbers... teradesk?
jinnee? bash + df?"
Piotrek explains:
"I see this capacity of partitions under MiNT + Thing"
MiKRO tells Piotrek:
"Try to start toswin2, bash shell and type "df"... you'll see the real
capacity... I don't use thing but if I remember correctly it has
problems with >2 GB files and >4 GB partitions..."
With this information under his hat, Piotrek fires up TOSWin2 and uses
the df command (use df -h, by the way, to get results in 'human'
format) and tells us:
"Yes, you had it right, toswin and another desktop like Jinnee show the
correct capacity. Thanks a lot!"
'Phantomm' asks about the CPU in the STE:
"Did all 1040STe Computers have the Square 68000 chip?
And is there an adapter board that will allow hardware boards produced
for the long 68000 chip in older STs to connect to the 1040STe 68000
square socket? If so, anyone know where I might locate one?"
Dave Wade tells Phantomm:
"As far as I know. Yes. The only differences I know of between STEs is
that some had SIMM memory and other SIPP depending on availability at
the time of manufacture...
I don't think there is room under the shields [for add-ons]. I think
also the leads would need to be reasonably short..."
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Not all STEs were fitted with socketed CPUs. I had one
that I wanted to add FaSTech's accelerator to, and it turned out that the
chip was soldered directly to the motherboard. I sent it to Jim Allen
to have him desolder the chip and replace it with a socketed one so
that I could use his accelerator with it... he evidently still has that
machine. <jm>
Guillaume Tello asks about an Atari Hard Disk Controller:
"I have the Atari's 'HARD DISK CONTROLLER C103561-001 REV.3'.
On what machine can it be used? What are the 3 dip switches for?"
Jo Even Skarstein tells Guillaume:
"I'm 99% sure that this is a Stacy/MSTE SCSI adapter. It will plug
straight into a Stacy or MSTE, and can be used on all machines with a
ACSI connector if you fabricate a cable.
[The three dip switches are] To set the card's ACSI ID.
Be aware that there are several restrictions on this card:
- Does not have parity, so the SCSI drive must be able to work without.
- Only one SCSI unit can be connected, this must have SCSI ID 0.
- Can not access more than 1Gb.
- SCSI is not buffered, so you must use short cables and NOT terminate
the SCSI drive.
Most of these limitations can be worked around by hacking the hardware,
but in my opinion it's easier to buy a better adapter."
Guillaume now asks about the software for his ICD SCSI adapter:
"I have the ICD Link 2, but the guy who sold it to me has only Disk2,
and not the disk1! Where can I find it?"
Ronald Hall asks Guillaume:
"Do you have HDDriver? It works perfectly with it, and is much better
software. Its what I use with mine."
Guillaume tells Ronald:
"I'd like to use it with a CD-Rom + ZIP. Which version of HD driver works
with it?"
Ronald replies:
"I'm currently using v8.15, I believe. It works fine with my setup,
Hard drives, CD-ROMs, EZ135 removable, etc. I think you'll still have
to have CD-ROM software, and I'd highly recommend Anoydyne Software's
ExtenDOS PRO. Read what Uwe said though, he's da man."
As if on queue, Uwe Seimet, author of HD Driver, jumps in and posts:
"Any more or less recent version works, but you need a CD-ROM driver,
e.g. ExtenDOS pro, in order to access the CD-ROM."
I usually don't like to use single messages in this column, because they
lack the question-and-answer format that makes the journey of learning
fun, but this one's just got to get put in. Joakim Högberg posts this
about AtarICQ:
"Hi all,
I had originally planned to wait until this summers NAS (www.sak.nu/
nas/) before releasing a
new version av AtarICQ. However, after a rather hard hitting bug was
recently discovered and
fixed I instead decided to get a new release out as soon as possible.
The biggest noticeable addition to aICQ 0.172 is the ability to view
GIF images as background
in the contact list. This was made possible through a cooperation with
PeP, who has been kind
enough to supply a very, very nice OVL that decodes and processes the
GIF data. Cheers for that!
A somewhat thorough complete list of changes:
* Implemented support for loading graphics via external load modules
in form
of dedicated overlays. (Look into the preferences dialog to set this
feature up properly)
* Caching of background images implemented. By default AtarICQ will
use a
subdir (/cache) in its own work directory for storing the data. To
change
this, you need to tweak the cache dir within preferences dialog.
* After loading the GFXGIF.OVL the CPU cache will now be flushed
before the client
calls any functions within the OVL. Applies also to aicq.ovl!
* When put in compact mode (F10) the contact list will now use the
native
sliders of the AES, including a SIZER widget.
* Clicking the CLOSER widget on contact list while holding ALT-key,
will trigger aICQ
to remove the window TITLE.
* More optimized redraws of the TABs, resulting in much less
flickering when
toggling between open TABs.
* Cookie jar is now read utilizing Ssystem() under MiNT. Under TOS/
MagiC, the
old method is still used.
* Under large gfx resolutions the scrollback setting could easily be
defaulting to a much too small value, in case the message window
height was
increased. A check for this is now added after reading the config
file.
This problem could be noticed as a very serious scrolling problem,
causing
aICQ to lock up pretty good.
* In case COLOR_SELECT is not specified in the environment, AtarICQ
looks if
COLSEL.PRG is present in its workdir. (This prg is included in the
zip file
as of the 0.172 release)
Find the new release on the official AtarICQ website:
http://www.ataricq.org/
Enjoy the new AtarICQ, and please share any thoughts on the new
release with me either here or on the AtarICQ webforum at:
http://www.atariforums.com/list.php?25"
Well folks, that's it for this week. Tune in next time around and see
what's cookin' in the Atari world. Until then, keep your eyes on the
horizon, your ear to the ground, your back to the wall and your
shoulder to the wheel. And always, ALWAYS keep listening so you'll know
what they're saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Brazil Judge Bans 'Bully'!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Brazil Judge Bans Video Game 'Bully'
"Bully" has taken a beating in Brazil, where a judge suspended sales of
the video game on the grounds it is too violent for young children and
teenagers, a prosecutor said Thursday.
Judge Flavio Rabello prohibited the game from being imported,
distributed, sold or promoted on Web sites or in stores in Latin
America's largest nation, said Rio Grande do Sul state prosecutor Alcindo
Bastos. Companies have 30 days to comply with the judge's order.
Bastos said the judge found the game was inappropriate for children.
"The aggravating factor is that everything in the game takes place
inside a school," Bastos said. "That is not acceptable."
Made by Rockstar Games and mainly distributed in Brazil by JPF
Maggazine, the game lets players act out the life of a 15-year-old student
and decide how to deal with teachers and cliques at a boarding school.
A local youth support center had requested the ban.
"We have not been notified of the judge's decision," JPF Maggazine's
attorney Diogo Dias Teixeira said. "When we are, we will decide if we
will appeal."
He said the company advised retailers not to sell the game to anyone
under the age of 18.
A spokesman for Rockstar was unaware of the ban and could not
immediately comment Thursday.
Rockstar, a unit of New York-based Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.,
is known for "Manhunt 2," in which players fight violently to escape from
a psychiatric institution, and for the popular "Grand Theft Auto" game
series, in which players can hijack cars and run down pedestrians.
Bully is rated "T" for teenagers age 13 and older in the U.S., not of
"M" for mature players 17 and older. It launched in October 2006 in the
U.S. for Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2 gaming console. In March, it became
available for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 and Nintendo Co.'s Wii,
according to the Rockstar Web site for the game.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Psystar Offers a Mac Clone, OpenMac, for $399
Move over Mac. You've been cloned, or at least a company called Psystar
says you have. Psystar claims to be "reinventing the wheel" with what it
calls an OpenMac - for $399.
"Mac enthusiasts have been experimenting with running the new Apple
operating systems on commodity PC hardware ever since the Intel-based
Apple computers were introduced in early 2006," the company's Web site
said. "Psystar has assembled a system that is completely operational with
Leopard [Mac OS X 10.5] called OpenMac."
Psystar tapped into efforts known as the OSx86 Project. The project's
goals of running OS X on a PC have been realized. Even the latest
releases of OS X can now run on PC hardware, Psystar said, but
compatibility can be an issue. OpenMac seeks to solve that issue.
Psystar calls it OpenMac to "reflect the opening of what has previously
been a hardware monopoly."
Apple could not immediately be reached for comment, and the Psystar site
went down Monday in the wake of overwhelming traffic loads. But cached
pages reveal the particulars of the OpenMac, which is built from standard
PC parts, according to the company. Mac OS X compatibility is reportedly
achieved through an EFI emulator.
The OpenMac offers a 2.2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2GB of DDR2
667 memory and integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics. It also boasts a 20x
DVD+/-R drive, four USB ports and a 250GB, 7200-RPM drive.
The closest machine Apple offers is the Mac mini, but the specs are not
the same. The mini sports a 1.83-GHz or 2.0-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
processor with an integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics processor. It offers
1GB of DDR2 667, though it can support 2GB.
The mini sells for $599. Of course, Apple's machine comes with iLife,
Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive, a 30-day trial of iWork and
Front Row, as well as other standard applications. The clone doesn't
offer those extras.
Richard Shim, an analyst at IDC, was surprised to see a clone on the
market. So far as he knows, Psystar did not get licensing rights from
Apple and, unless something drastically has changed at Apple
headquarters, he doesn't expect Apple to grant them.
"A Mac at $399 would likely do very well, but I think it's a space that
Apple has consciously decided not to go into," Shim said. "Apple tested
the waters with the Mac mini and obviously the company hasn't dived
further into that area."
Apple has been bitten by cheap clones before. However, it hasn't changed
the company's strategy, Shim said. It seems Apple is content with
successfully deploying its strategy, he said, which is targeting
products at specific markets at steady price points.
"This could be a good way to test the interest in a lower-priced Mac,"
Shim said, "but they would would really need Apple to say this is a
legit product and we're not going to sue the pants off of them."
Psystar Says Apple Can't Stop Mac Clone Sales
Psystar, an independent systems vendor that sells hardware solutions to
the enterprise, created waves Monday with the announcement that it is
selling a Mac clone capable of running Apple's Leopard operating system.
Originally billed as OpenMac, the company quickly changed the name to Open
Computer, presumably in response to a call from Apple's lawyers reminding
Psystar that "Mac" is a trademark.
Psystar says it is offering a "smart alternative to Apple." According to
the Open Computer page on its Web site, "The Open Computer is a PC that
works just like a Mac with Apple's latest operating system OS X 10.5
a.k.a. Leopard. With the Open Computer you can run OS X natively as if
you had purchased an expensive Apple computer except that, while paying
less, you receive more."
Psystar's base configuration sells for $399, compared to $599 for the
slowest Mac mini from Apple. The company says its PC features a faster
processor than any Mac mini model, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive that
can be upgraded to 400GB, and an optional high-performance nVidia GeForce
8600 card. "You can buy it in black without paying more," the site adds.
But a larger issue is whether Psystar can sell hardware running Leopard
in violation of Apple's end-user license agreement, which prohibits
installation of Mac OS X on computers that are not "Apple-labeled."
A Psystar employee told InformationWeek that Apple's prohibitive end-user
license agreement (EULA) is "monopolistic" - and said the company will
fight for the right to sell its clone.
"We're not breaking any laws," the employee, who identified himself only
as Robert, said. "What if Microsoft said you could only install Windows
on Dell computers? What if Honda said that, after you buy their car, you
could only drive it on the roads they said you could?"
While such comments do not have the imprimatur of deep legal thinking,
they do actually raise "an interesting question," intellectual-property
attorney Denise Howell wrote in an e-mail. Apple's EULA "might raise
restraint of trade concerns," she said.
"Can a license go so far as to restrict the permissible hardware? Seems
like Apple must have been down this road before, though I can't recall
an example," Howell said. "A provision like this might also be
vulnerable to a claim that it's unconscionable or against public policy,
though making such a showing is an uphill battle."
Psystar also railed against Apple's margins. "They're charging an 80
percent markup on hardware," Robert told InformationWeek.
Legally, it's not clear whether EULAs are enforceable. Federal law gives
software publishers an exemption from the first-sale doctrine, which
limits copyright actions to the initial sale of the product. The federal
law makes renting and lending software a copyright violation, except for
libraries and schools. In discussing that law in the case of Step-Saver
v. Wise Technologies, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals noted that "a
purchaser of a copy of a copyrighted computer program may still sell his
copy to another without the consent of the copyright holder."
In a 2001 case, SoftMan v. Adobe Systems, a federal district court in
California held that the distinction between sale and license is
anachronistic: "Software is sold, not licensed," the court held.
There is something of a split of authority on the question of EULAs, and
the Supreme Court has never ruled on the issue. Assuming Apple sues to
stop sales of the Open Computer - and Psystar has the financial
wherewithal to see the case through the appeals process - the Open
Computer could define how far software companies can go in limiting use
and resale of their products.
Microsoft Confirms Testing of 'Albany' Low-Cost Office Suite
Microsoft on Friday confirmed it is planning to release a
subscription-based "value box" of low-end productivity software
code-named Albany, and has sent an early version of the product to
thousands of beta participants for private testing.
News surfaced last month that Microsoft was planning the suite - a
combination of Office Home and Student 2007; Office Live Workspaces;
Windows Live Mail, Messenger, and Photos client software; and Windows
Live OneCare - to compete with Google Docs and other free or low-cost
productivity suites available in the consumer market. Microsoft late last
month sent out select invitations to test Albany, asking people to sign
nondisclosure agreements just to sign up for the test, sources close to
the company said at the time.
However, Microsoft Product Manager Bryson Gordon said that Albany - which
the company internally had called a "value box" of software - isn't
simply a productivity play. "The free applications online address one
portion of this," he said.
Albany goes beyond that and provides what consumers have told Microsoft
are the "essential" products they use on a computer, Gordon said. "It
extends both into the security value proposition and extends into the
category of helping people connect and share with others," he said.
In addition to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint applications found in Office,
a plug-in for Office Live Workspaces in Albany will give customers the
ability to store and share documents online from directly within the
Office interface. Albany also covers basic PC security needs with
Windows Live OneCare, Microsoft's service that includes firewall and
antivirus protection, as well as basic consumer e-mail,
instant-messaging and photo-sharing needs with the Windows Live
software.
Albany suggests that Microsoft recognizes it must differentiate Office
from less costly or even free software such as Google Docs or IBM's
Symphony. These suites threaten to commiditize the consumer market for
productivity software, where low-end versions of Office, for now, remain
prevalent.
While people can separately purchase or download all of the products that
will be a part of Albany, a key feature of the package will be that it
provides for unified installation instead of customers having to install
all of the offerings separately. "We don't want them to go through a
cumbersome process to set this up," Gordon said.
Albany also will feature a "welcome" window that shows customers all of
the features and offerings in the suite and from which customers can
begin using the software, he said.
Microsoft has not set pricing for Albany yet, saying only that it will be
sold on a subscription basis. Whether that subscription will be monthly
or yearly also has yet to be determined. Moreover, the company is still
deciding through which channels Albany will be sold, although sources
close to the company previously said retail outlets such as Best Buy
would be among places people could purchase it.
Gordon said Microsoft is not planning a public beta for Albany, which it
expects to release before the end of the year. The company will use the
feedback from the private beta to come up with a final version of the
product.
Red Hat Skips Consumer Linux Desktop
Red Hat has no plans to create a traditional desktop product for the
consumer market, but will continue to place its bets on a desktop for
commercial markets.
"We are focused on infrastructure software for the enterprise market, and
to that market we are offering the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop,"
said Michael Chen, vice-president of corporate marketing at Red Hat.
"You need a different support ecosystem and applications for the
consumer desktop," Chen added.
Among the company's desktop goals for 2008 and 2009 is to ensure that its
desktop products complement its server and middleware products, Red Hat
said in a company blog post Wednesday.
Red Hat's strategy is similar to that of Novell, which is currently
focusing on Linux for enterprise desktops. The market for Suse Linux on
the consumer desktop is taking time to develop, and the market for the
desktop for the next three to five years is mainly enterprise-related,
Novell President and CEO Ronald Hovsepian said Wednesday.
Red Hat said that the Red Hat Global Desktop (RHGD), originally announced
last year, was delayed because of business issues, although Red Hat had
hoped to deliver RGHD in a few months, it said in the post. The RGHD is
designed exclusively for small, reseller supplied, deployments in
emerging markets, like Brazil, Russia, India, and China, and will be
supplied by a number of Intel channel partners, the blog entry said.
In a reference to Microsoft, Red Hat said that the desktop market suffers
from having one dominant vendor, and some people still perceive that
today's Linux desktops simply don't provide a practical alternative.
However, a growing number of technically savvy users and companies have
discovered that today's Linux desktop is indeed a practical alternative,
it added.
"Building a sustainable business around the Linux desktop is tough, and
history is littered with example efforts that have either failed
outright, are stalled or are run as charities," according to the post.
But there's good news too. Technical developments that have become
available over the past year or two are accelerating the spread of the
Linux desktop, it added.
Ballmer: Vista Is 'A Work in Progress'
As PC users clamor for Microsoft to continue to support Windows XP,
company CEO Steve Ballmer called the Vista OS "a work in progress" at an
annual Seattle event on Thursday.
"It's a very important piece of work. We did a lot of things right and
have a lot of things we need to learn from. You never want to let five
years go between releases," he said.
While Microsoft recently extended the date when the XP software will be
available for low-cost PCs, it doesn't plan to listen to some other
complaints, including that Vista is too big. "Vista is bigger than XP,
and it's gonna stay bigger than XP," Ballmer said. "We have to make sure
it doesn't get bigger still."
During the lively session, peppered with flag waving by a rowdy group of
Canadians, hoots, and applause, Ballmer spoke about a few other key areas
that the company will focused on in the near future. "It's virtualization
time for Microsoft," he said. "We're gonna make sure we democratize
virtualization." Probably less than 5 percent of servers in the world are
virtualized today, he said. "It's too darn expensive and too hard to
manage. We intend to take major strides around addressing both of those."
He also said to expect more work from Microsoft in the search market.
"There's an opportunity to knock the socks off in terms of innovation,"
he said.
Once Microsoft introduces some blog services later this year, Ballmer
intends to ask its MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) to switch their
default searches to Live Search for one week. After that week, he'll ask
for their feedback about what they liked and what they didn't, as part of
a broad effort to improve Microsoft's third-place standing in the search
market.
Another key area for the future of Microsoft is services. Overall, the
use of hosted services worldwide is small, but Ballmer expects that in
two to three years there will be an inflection point after which millions
of people will use hosted services, he said.
There are 4,000 Microsoft MVPs around the world, and nearly 1,800 of
them gathered in Seattle this week for an annual summit. MVPs are
technology experts who provide feedback to Microsoft about its products
- Ballmer said they are his favorite group to address.
The topics Ballmer tackled during his talk were sometimes similar, but
much broader compared to the big issue that he, Bill Gates and Paul
Allen, Microsoft's founders, discussed while beginning to develop
software at Harvard University. "Our strategy and mission have
expanded," Ballmer said. In the very beginning, year after year, Allen
would approach Gates with the idea to start building computers. And each
time Gates sagely said, 'No, Paul, we're not hardware guys,'" Ballmer
said. "We're on that same strategy 30 years later ... but we do have an
expansive vision."
Infected USB Devices on the Rise
You can plug lots of handy items into your computer's USB port, from
mobile storage devices to printers. If you're not careful, you can also
plug in a piece of malware, as well. That threat is growing rapidly:
One USB-borne piece of malware known as INF/Autorun has been at the top
of the threat charts two months in a row.
USB-equipped devices are a convenience particularly to mobile workers,
but they are also a growing threat because of the way computers
inherently trust them, according to Randy Abrams, director of technical
education at ESET, a maker of security software. "When you plug a USB
device into a computer, in order to make the consumer experience better
and easier, Microsoft [operating systems] will automatically run
programs," he told us. "It should start the install automatically so the
customer doesn't have to know anything to get the program installed."
That's a danger, he said, because the autorun feature is "completely
blind" to the programs it runs. "So I can put bad programs on CDs and
USB devices, and as soon as you plug them in, it's going to
automatically install that bad software."
The autorun feature may be a convenience for customers, but for security
experts it's anathema, Abrams said. "Microsoft's own security experts say
that autorun is a bad thing," and he should know - he worked for the
Redmond giant for a dozen years, nearly half of them spent making sure
that the company didn't release any infected software.
"I'm not a Microsoft hater, but this is just a completely insane
feature," he said. "It's like the customers are in a hockey game, and
what Microsoft has done is remove the customer's offensive line and
defensive line. The customer is like the goalie, so Microsoft has taken
off the goalie's safety equipment, put extra pucks on the ice, and told
the opposing team to have fun."
Abrams cited a litany of USB-related infections, old and new. McDonalds
in Japan gave away malware-ridden MP3 players. Global companies sold
infected picture frames, GPS systems, and video iPods. Just a week ago,
HP shipped infected USB keys with its ProLiant servers. "Autorun is an
easy way to exploit a system vulnerability because it's not going to be
patched, since Microsoft calls it a feature," he said.
It's easy to assume that the malware-laden devices were infected
deliberately but, as Abrams joked, "Never blame on malice that which is
easily explained by incompetence." He said that as manufacturing systems
increasingly are connected to the Internet, formerly isolated computers
now can get infected and then become digital Typhoid Marys.
"If you're making video iPods and you want to take one out of every 20
off the assembly line and plug it into a PC to test it, if that PC has
been on the Internet and has been infected, it can transfer that
infection to the iPod," Abrams said. "Ironically, the few units you do
quality control on are the only ones that are infected."
Abrams said that mitigating the risks of INF/autorun and its ilk won't be
easy. High-quality antivirus software that's kept up to date will help.
Another measure is to not plug in a USB drive while using administrative
privileges, which won't prevent infection, but will decrease the damage
an infection can do.
The best bet is to disable autorun, "which Microsoft makes as difficult
as possible," he said, forcing users to make several Registry edits. That
measure, he said, will give you "a fighting chance" against malware on
the USB device.
Do a Cloud Scan for Malware and Try for a Prize
Is your PC infected with malware? Panda Security says it is, and they're
putting their money where their mouth is. Submit to their free online scan
and be found totally malware-free, and your company could bring in a cool
$7,500. Or, if you're a consumer and you clear the scan, you might win an
iPod nano.
Sound too good to be true? I took the challenge and, unfortunately, I
brought home no iPod trophy. Happily nothing serious was located, but the
scan did locate more than 100 tracking cookies I thought I had already
deleted. (There are two scan options: one takes a few minutes, the other
a few hours.) The bigger point, though, is that "malware" can have a
fairly broad definition.
Ryan Sherstobitoff, who serves as Panda Security's chief corporate
evangelist, told us that the free scan offering, ActiveScan 2.0, came
about after the company noticed the extent to which consumers and small
businesses were infected with malware major and minor.
The company did what Sherstobitoff calls "alarming research" on 1.5
million PCs. "We found that 23 percent had active malware even though
they had paid money to be protected against these types of threats" to
well-known antivirus vendors. "According to our data, it's quite likely
that someone's going to be infected with something that's currently
undetected by current software."
While the cookies found on my machine might be minor issues,
Sherstobitoff said more troubling issues are increasingly common.
"Forty percent of what we're seeing now is 'banker Trojans,'" he said,
where "consumers interacting with their banks have a high chance of
having their credentials stolen and becoming victims of identity theft
because their antivirus solution wasn't able to see that they were at
very serious risk."
Sherstobitoff is confident in Panda's ability to uncover a greater range
of vulnerabilities because the company works in a very different way than
its competitors. "We're using a platform hosted within cloud, like
delivering software as a service," he said. That enables the company to
look for some 3.5 million virus signatures during the scan, he said, as
compared to the roughly half-million signatures from other vendors.
Being hosted in the cloud helps take away one of the big pain points that
those of us with already-struggling system resources have: It doesn't
require users to regularly download more and more signature files. "The
main problem with traditional antivirus is that all the scanners are
incorporating the detection intelligence locally on a person's PC rather
than in the cloud. It takes minimal resources while referencing
information in the cloud to form a scan."
Sherstobitoff noted that even the company's enterprise edition is hosted
in the cloud. "We're benefiting from community knowledge," he said. "If
someone gets hit with a brand-new piece of malware and no one's ever seen
it in the industry, we have the capability of taking information about
that threat and sending it back to cloud, and later on providing that
information immediately to any other consumer connected," a process that
could occur "within minutes."
So take the Panda challenge when you've got some time to spare. It could
put some money in the bank, and at the very worst will let you know how
well your antivirus software is performing.
Fake Subpoenas Drive the Latest Phishing Attack
The SANS Internet Storm Center on Monday issued a warning to CEOs: don't
be fooled by fake federal subpoenas sent by e-mail. The fake e-mails are
part of a phishing attack targeting CEOs of some companies. Such targeted
attacks are widely known as spear-phishing attacks.
"We've gotten a few reports that some CEOs have received what purports to
be a federal subpoena via e-mail ordering their testimony in a case. It
then asks them to click a link and download the case history and
associated information," said John Bambenek, a security researcher at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Internet Storm Center
handler, in an online post. "One problem," he continued, "it's total
bogus."
Bambenek described the attack as a "click-the-link-for-malware" typical
spammer stunt. His immediate advice: First and foremost, don't click on
such links. An interesting component of this scam, he said, is that it
properly identifies CEOs and sends e-mail directly.
Federal courts do not "serve" formal processes by e-mail. While there is
an Electronic Case Management System, the initial contact for a subpoena,
lawsuit or other process is done the old fashioned way - hand delivery.
"Presumably, if you did already get served, you would have a lawyer
handling the case for you. In that instance, the lawyer, not you, would
be getting electronic notices from the court after service has been
handled," Bambenek said.
Cyveillance President and CEO Panos Anastassiadis was one of the
corporate chiefs targeted. The e-mail instructed Anastassiadis to appear
in a U.S. courthouse on May 7, and provided a link to download the
subpoena.
The Web page says the case has been closed and no further action is
required from the visitor. However, clicking on the link will not only
load the page, but also download a Trojan that would not be detected by
the majority of antivirus packages.
"Like many other spear-phishing attacks, the phisher performed research
before launching his or her attack. Specifically, the individual was
able to locate our CEO's e-mail address and the Cyveillance phone number
in the e-mail," the company said on its blog. "This information was used
to enable and build additional credibility for the attack."
Social-engineering attacks typically play on people's emotions and
create a desire to open a hostile e-mail attachment, said Ken Dunham,
director of global response for iSight Partners, but today the attacks
are more often fear-based.
In addition to the subpoena e-mail this week, Dunham points to a recent
IRS spoof as proof that attacks are shifting from interest in love or
pornography to fearful motivations that promise trouble if recipients
don't respond.
"It's interesting that the attacks are now typically more timed and more
focused," Dunham said. "What we are seeing is a flexing of muscles in
terms of frequency and prevalence of these fear-based attacks. I've seen
a lot more of the fear factor in the past year. It's that take-away
concept they are trying to play on at this point."
EO Subpoena Scam Fires up Anew
After tricking several thousand executives into downloading malicious
software earlier this week, online scammers started up their subpoena
phishing scam again Wednesday, but on a much smaller scale.
First reported Monday, the phishers send a small number of e-mail
messages to senior executives within companies, often CEOs, telling them
that they've been subpoenaed for a federal court case. The e-mails direct
the victim to a Web site that is very similar to a legitimate California
federal court page, but ending in "...-uscourts.com," rather than the
"....uscourts.gov" Web domain actually used by federal courts.
Although they end with the same letters, the domains used in this scam
are actually different from and not connected with the uscourts.com Web
site, which offers access to court records in some jurisdictions.
The e-mail sent to executives is specially crafted to appear legitimate,
a tactic called "spear-phishing." The emails include the executive's
name, company's name and even the correct phone number.
Executives who click on the link in the e-mail are then told that they
need to download a plug-in in order to read the subpoena. That plug-in
is actually malicious software.
Although the U.S. federal court system uses email to communicate
information about cases, subpoenas for new cases are not served via
e-mail.
Verisign, which estimates that about 2,000 people were tricked by the
scam on Monday, believes that Wednesday's attack was on a much smaller
scale. Late Wednesday the company's iDefense group had tracked only about
100 infections, said Matt Richard, director of iDefense's Rapid Response
Team.
Security experts have been fighting the phishers. By Tuesday they'd
managed to get the first phishing Web site taken down, only to have the
second one pop up on Wednesday.
Because the attack targets such a small number of victims, anti-spam
companies have had a hard time filtering the e-mails and antivirus
companies have been similarly pressed to block the malicious software
that the attackers are using.
Late Wednesday, antivirus companies were not blocking this latest version
of the malware, said John Bambenek, a security researcher at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and volunteer at the SANS
Internet Storm Center.
EU To Punish Incitement to Terrorism on Internet
EU states agreed on Friday on tight laws against incitement to terrorism
in order to clamp down on militant groups' use of the Internet.
EU justice and interior ministers also agreed in Luxembourg on an action
plan to try to stop groups getting explosives.
Police say the Internet has taken on huge importance for militants,
enabling them to share know-how, plan operations and spread propaganda to
a mass audience.
"The Internet is used to inspire and mobilize local terrorists ...
functioning as a virtual training camp," a text agreed by ministers said.
"Each member state shall take the necessary measures to ensure that
terrorist-linked offences include ... public provocation to commit a
terrorist offence, recruitment for terrorism, training for terrorism."
States may also consider attempts to train and recruit as terrorist
offences, but are not obliged to do so, an EU official said.
Spain's secretary of state for justice, Julio Perez Hernandez, welcomed
the move.
"The battle to anticipate (terrorist acts) is crucial for Spain," he told
reporters. "One should not wait for smoke to know there is terrorism."
In an effort to assuage civil rights campaigners, the law says that the
new measure may not be used to restrict freedom of expression and freedom
of the press.
Before entering into force, the law still needs to be confirmed by
ministers after a number of national parliaments have discussed it.
A European Commission official said countries like Spain and Italy
already punish public provocation to terrorism but others, like
Scandinavian countries, would have to change their legislation to apply
the new EU text.
Under the plan to enhance the security of explosives, ministers agreed to
establish an early-warning system on stolen explosives and detonators by
the end of the year.
They also agreed to create by the year-end a "European Bomb Data System"
that would give police and governments permanent access to information
on incidents involving explosive devices.
PayPal Plans To Block Older, Unsafe Browsers
The name PayPal is almost synonymous with phishing scams. According to
anti-phishing service PhishTank statistics from last year, PayPal was the
number-one target of scams - more than twice as often as PayPal's parent,
eBay, the second most popular target.
On Friday, PayPal announced it was taking an unusual step to combat
phishing abuse: blocking old and insecure browsers from its site. It is
"an alarming fact that there is a significant set of users who use very
old and vulnerable browsers, such as Internet Explorer 4," the company
said.
PayPal now supports only the use of Extended Validation SSL
Certificates. Browsers that support the technology highlight the address
bar in green when users are on a legitimate site. The latest version of
Microsoft Internet Explorer supports EV SSL certificates. Firefox 2
supports them with an add-on, but Apple's Safari browser doesn't.
"By displaying the green glow and company name, these newer browsers make
it much easier for users to determine whether or not they're on the site
they thought they were visiting," said PayPal.
"While refusing to do business with people who don't use one of these
browsers may seem disruptive," said Andrew Storms, director of security
operations at nCircle Network Security, "it is actually a rather old
technique used by software vendors." Just as software vendors specify
approved and required components, "providers of services not only protect
their bottom line by making such demands, but also in the long run
protect the consumer," Storms explained.
The problem is that it's relatively easy to impersonate browsers.
"Exactly how and if PayPal attempts to act on this initiative will be
interesting. Apple's iTunes Store is in essentially the same situation.
If someone wants to use the iTunes Store, they need to use iTunes. So
far, that limitation hasn't seemed to limit Apple's revenues," Storms
noted.
The next major step in providing security - both for the consumer and the
provider - will be single-site browsers, Storms said. "This will be a Web
browser, like client software, that can do nothing but be used for a
single Web site."
"Think of this as a traditional client/server application. If you need to
use your financial system, you launch browser X; then, if you need to use
the enterprise resource-planning system, the user launches browser Y."
While this might seem like a huge step backward in user productivity and
IT management, in the future we might still use a single browser that
"locks all network traffic into a single known and trusted site one at a
time," Storms said.
Under this scenario, a user would need to log off and switch between
different systems. "All the while, the browser ensures no errant
information gets transmitted to any other system," Storms said.
Watchdog Wants Global Drive Against Online Abuse
Hundreds of child abuse Web sites around the world could be shut down if
countries worked together to tackle the problem, an Internet watchdog
said in a report on Thursday.
The Internet Watch Foundation said it had made the first attempt to find
out how many sites peddle abusive images and videos of children.
Its researchers found about 3,000 sites, with more than three-quarters
run as commercial operations, typically by criminal gangs trying to make
money out of the images.
"This is the first time any organization has revealed the true scale of
this issue and been clear that the problem is something that can be
solved," the watchdog said in a statement.
Chief Executive Peter Robbins said the new figure would help build the
case for a global drive to eradicate the sites.
He said: "A coordinated global attack on these Web sites could get these
horrific images removed from the Web.
"Speculative figures can create a distorted picture of the scale of the
problem of child sexual abuse websites."
The number of child abuse sites has remained static over the last few
years, despite the growth of the Internet, he added.
The watchdog's annual report called for a worldwide campaign by
governments, police and the Internet industry to investigate and disrupt
abusive sites.
Computer networks in Russia and the United States host the most child
abuse images, although many other countries are involved, a watchdog
spokeswoman said.
It can be hard to shut illegal sites because operators constantly switch
countries, temporarily close them or hop between different Internet
hosting companies.
The victims come from many countries, although it is hard to pinpoint
exact locations, the spokeswoman added.
"Child identification is an extremely difficult process," she said. "We
often find that new material will surface in a non-commercial area ...
and those same images will appear on the commercial Web sites a year or
so later."
Since 2003, less than one percent of child abuse content has been hosted
on UK computers, down from 18 percent in 1997, the report says. Sites
hosted in Britain are closed within hours.
During 2007, the majority (71 percent) of global sites were "live" for
less than 50 days of the year, the report said.
It also highlighted a significant problem with pedophiles sharing images
between themselves online.
Set up in 1996, the Internet Watch Foundation is a self-regulating
charity funded by the European Union and the Internet industry. Its role
is to remove child abuse, criminally obscene material and racist content
from the Internet.
Security Experts Split on "Cyberterrorism" Threat
International experts called on Wednesday for greater cooperation to
fight threats to computer networks but they differed on the definition
of cyberterrorism, with a top British security official describing it as
a "myth."
Estonian defense ministry official Christian-Marc Liflander said
sustained electronic attacks on his country last year came both from
crude hackers and from sophisticated "cyberterrorists" remotely
manipulating zombie computers known as botnets.
"I would say we have entered an era of cyber terror and perhaps even of
cyber war," Liflander told a London security conference at the Royal
United Services Institute.
Estonia has said it believes the Russian government was behind last
year's attacks, which came amid a diplomatic row over Tallinn's decision
to relocate a Soviet-era war memorial.
But Liflander said the botnet attacks came from computers in 76 different
countries and it was hard to prove who sponsored them. "What we have is
just a gazillion IP (Internet Protocol) addresses that don't prove
anything."
The effect was to paralyze websites and cause severe disruption to key
services such as banking, in a country with one of the highest levels of
Internet usage in the world.
But not everyone agrees that "cyberterrorism" is the best way to
describe such electronic attacks.
Stephen Cummings, director of the British government's Centre for the
Protection of National Infrastructure, said he had seen no evidence to
suggest terrorists were bent on using cyberattacks to generate the same
devastating impact as their physical attacks.
"I think discussion of cyberterrorism distracts our attention from the
more pressing terrorist threats, which are still physical," he said in a
presentation which included a slide saying "Cyberterrorism is a myth."
Talk of cyberterrorism could distract people from addressing the real
risks from malicious electronic attacks, he said. "Who knows, if we all
talk about cyberterrorism enough, maybe the terrorists will twig on to
its potential in a way we wouldn't want them to."
Despite the differences over terminology, officials stressed the need for
international collaboration.
"No one country can stand alone in facing cyberattacks and threats.
Cyberspace is borderless and the attack usually does not originate from
within," Husin Jazri, director of CyberSecurity Malaysia, told Reuters.
He said governments and their computer emergency response teams needed
to set up "pre-emptive arrangements" to cope with potential attacks.
Estonia, following last year's crisis, has urged the European Union to
harmonize laws against cyberattacks to make it easier to prosecute those
behind them.
Liflander told Reuters it would also unveil a national cyberdefense
security strategy in the next two weeks, aimed at better protecting key
infrastructure and networks by "putting in place minimum standards that
all enterprises have to adhere to."
He described the defense against last year's cyberattacks as a game of
cat and mouse.
"The attacks were very rapid and there's a tendency to mushroom, so you
have to be very agile in your response to them. And your response is
only limited if you do it on a national scale - it has to be
international as well."
Most Computer Users Repeat Passwords, at Their Peril
Using the same password for multiple Web pages is the Internet-era
equivalent of having the same key for your home, car and bank
safe-deposit box.
Even though a universal password is like gold for cyber crooks because
they can use it to steal all of a person's sensitive data at once,
nearly half the Internet users queried in a new survey said they use
just one password for all their online accounts.
At the same time, 88 percent of the 800 people interviewed in the U.S.
and the U.K. for the survey by the Accenture consultancy, which is to be
released Thursday, said personal irresponsibility is the key cause of
identity theft and fraud.
Researchers say the findings suggest that many users underestimate the
growing threat from organized cyber criminals who can reap big profits
from selling stolen identities.
"There's a lot of confusion out there - a lot of people don't think
there's a problem," said Robert Dyson, a senior executive in
Accenture's global security practice. "There's still the kind of
head-in-the-sand situation: 'My identity hasn't been stolen. I don't know
anybody who's had their identity stolen. So it must not be happening.'"
Dyson said the problem with repeating passwords is that a hacker who
successfully breaks into one account then has an easy time guessing how
to get into all the user's other accounts.
Many users repeat passwords so they don't forget them, which shows in
another finding that 70 percent of survey respondents in the U.K. said
they don't write down their passwords, versus 49 percent in the U.S.
Only seven percent of the respondents said they change their passwords
often, use password management software or use a fingerprint reader to
access their machines and accounts.
The survey looked at people who used a computer at home, have high-speed
Internet access and go online at least twice a week for something other
than checking e-mail. The respondents were selected at random and
questioned over the telephone. The mean age was 46.
The survey's margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 percent for the total
sample and plus or minus 4.9 percent for U.S. and U.K. samples.
Accenture noted that the results represent the behavior of a random
sample of this subgroup of Internet users, not the overall general pool
of U.S. and U.K. consumers.
Users Fight To Save Windows XP
Microsoft Corp.'s operating systems run most personal computers around
the globe and are a cash cow for the world's largest software maker. But
you'd never confuse a Windows user with the passionate fans of Mac OS X
or even the free Linux operating system. Unless it's someone running
Windows XP, a version Microsoft wants to retire.
Fans of the six-year-old operating system set to be pulled off store
shelves in June have papered the Internet with blog posts, cartoons and
petitions recently. They trumpet its superiority to Windows Vista,
Microsoft's latest PC operating system, whose consumer launch last
January was greeted with lukewarm reviews.
No matter how hard Microsoft works to persuade people to embrace Vista,
some just can't be wowed. They complain about Vista's hefty hardware
requirements, its less-than-peppy performance, occasional
incompatibility with other programs and devices and frequent, irritating
security pop-up windows.
For them, the impending disappearance of XP computers from retailers,
and the phased withdrawal of technical support in coming years, is
causing a minor panic.
Take, for instance, Galen Gruman. A longtime technology journalist,
Gruman is more accustomed to writing about trends than starting them.
But after talking to Windows users for months, he realized his distaste
for Vista and strong attachment to XP were widespread.
"It sort of hit us that, wait a minute, XP will be gone as of June 30.
What are we going to do?" he said. "If no one does something, it's going
to be gone."
So Gruman started a Save XP Web petition, gathering since January more
than 100,000 signatures and thousands of comments, mostly from die-hard
XP users who want Microsoft to keep selling it until the next version of
Windows is released, currently targeted for 2010.
On the petition site's comments section, some users proclaimed they will
downgrade from Vista to XP - an option available in the past to
businesses, but now open for the first time to consumers who buy Vista
Ultimate or Business editions - if they need to buy a new computer after
XP goes off the market.
Others used the comments section to rail against the very idea that
Microsoft has the power to enforce the phase-out from a stable, decent
product to one that many consider worse, while profiting from the move.
Many threatened to leave Windows for Apple or Linux machines.
Microsoft already extended the XP deadline once, but it shows no signs
it will do so again. The company has declined to meet with Gruman to
consider the petition. Microsoft is aware of the petition, it said in a
statement to The Associated Press, and "will continue to be guided by
feedback we hear from partners and customers about what makes sense
based on their needs."
Gruman said he'd keep pressing for a meeting.
"They really believe if they just close their eyes, people will have no
choice," he said.
In fact, most people who get a new computer will end up with Vista. In
2008, 94 percent of new Windows machines for consumers worldwide will
run Vista, forecasts industry research group IDC. For businesses, about
75 percent of new PCs will have Vista. (That figure takes into account
companies that choose to downgrade to XP.)
Although Microsoft may not budge on selling new
copies of XP, it may
have to extend support for it.
Al Gillen, an IDC analyst, estimated that at the end of 2008 nearly 60
percent of consumer PCs and almost 70 percent of business PCs worldwide
will still run XP. Microsoft plans to end full support - including
warranty claims and free help with problems - in April 2009. The
company will continue providing a more limited level of service until
April 2014.
Gillen said efforts like Gruman's grass-roots petition may not
influence the software maker, but business customers' demands should
carry more clout.
"You really can't make 69 percent of your installed base unhappy with
you," he said.
Some companies - such as Wells Manufacturing Co. in Woodstock, Ill. -
are crossing their fingers that he's right. The company, which melts
scrap steel and casts iron bars, has 200 PCs that run Windows 2000 or
XP. (Windows 2000 is no longer sold on PCs. Mainstream support has
ended, but limited support is available through the middle of 2010.)
Wells usually replaces 50 of its PCs every 18 months. In the most
recent round of purchases, Chief Information Officer Lou Peterhans
said, the company stuck with XP because several of its applications
don't run well on Vista.
"There is no strong reason to go to Vista, other than eventually
losing support for XP," he said. Peterhans added that the company
isn't planning to bring in Vista computers for 18 months to two years.
If Microsoft keeps to its current timetable, its next operating
system, code-named Windows 7, will be on the market by then.
=~=~=~=
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