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Microsoft PC Satisfaction Trial

Arnaudt   on 31 January 2003 - 21:52 · 9 comments & 800 views

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Some lucky testers just got this email from MS:

The PC Satisfaction Trial team would like to thank you for joining the PC Satisfaction Trial technology test! Our records indicate that you are willing to install and use this service on a WindowsXP computer in your business. Within the next week, you will be receiving an email with the location of the secure server where you can register for and download the PC Satisfaction Trial. In order to give you access to this server, we need a valid .NET Passport ID. We very much appreciate your participation in this trial!

The PC Satisfaction Trial test team


Given that a patch was available, Microsoft should not have both feet held to the fire. Gates and company are extremely serious about removing the stigma attached to the level of security in its products. With customers looking to cut costs and Linux initiatives cutting into Microsoft's dominant share across multiple markets, having a reputation for defective, insecure products is not helpful in convincing customers to stay the course.

As part of the year long focus on security, the company claims that it retrained 11,000 developers--at a cost of more than $200 million in lost productivity--to make its products more secure. Tools like the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer, which scans systems for common misconfigurations across most of the company's products, are popping up.

But it's the customers who are also stuck with escalating costs to deal with vulnerabilities from Microsoft and many other vendors at a time when cost reduction is crucial IT priority. Sticking customers with the cost of maintaining the security of products is unacceptable. System administrators who fail to apply patches are certainly to blame in cases where a fix was available, but it's not that simple.

Applying patches can have unintended consequences. Because patches that fix one problem can create new ones, system administrators are understandably conservative when it comes to deploying patches without rigorous and time-consuming testing. Microsoft is trying to address the problem with its Software Update Services (SUS), which allows customers to download relevant patches to a SUS server and test the patch before deploying it in a live environment. But the cost of running those compatibility tests is borne by the customer, and the test isn't going to replicate exactly the live production environment in which the patch must live.

And, as Microsoft's own problems with the Slammer worm point out, keeping up with the stream of patches required to stay ahead of hackers is not easy, especially in an environment with downsized IT departments. In light of this situation, I have simple proposal. Microsoft makes products that have defects. It may be the result of a complex eco-system in which making millions of lines of code invulnerable to hackers is a Sisyphean task. Still, the cost to implement patches is a financial burden to Microsoft's customers.

With more than $40 billion stashed away, waiting for a good use besides providing a dividend for shareholders, Microsoft should use a small amount of those cash reserves to pay customers for the cost of testing and installing patches that address specific vulnerabilities. You don't pay to have your car repaired when a manufacturing defect is found.

Microsoft may be the biggest culprit because of the huge Windows market, but it's obviously not alone. The Red Hat Network, for example, routinely posts patches to address security vulnerabilities with its Linux distribution.

Any vendor whose products need patching due to security vulnerabilities can cut you a check for the labor associated with installing patches. And who should foot the bill for downtime and lost business due to a security breach in a specific piece of software? Maybe the vendor should help to pay your hacker insurance premium.

It will take time to sort this out, but the cost of keeping your network and systems secure should be a shared burden, not just a cost of doing business.

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(5 replies) #1 Total_CDRW on 01 Feb 2003 - 00:21
Am I satisfied with my PC? Never! Only once Linux become #1
#1.1 JaggedFlame on 01 Feb 2003 - 00:38
I like this logic. You won't be satisfied with your Linux-running PC until you have the approval of the market. It just goes to show that some people run Linux for the stupidest reasons.
#1.2 Rambo2000 on 01 Feb 2003 - 01:42
I'm satisfied with the PC as it is now with windows XP, don't really have much problem with it, but I have to admit, I'm looking foreward to seeing Linux take it's rightful place at number one
#1.3 Kestrel on 01 Feb 2003 - 03:26
Ha - you're funny... and you've not got long to wait - only 'til hell freezes over.
#1.4 werejag on 01 Feb 2003 - 05:42
tell lucifer to get a snow blower becuase at the current rate it wont be long till snowballs are the thing one sees in hell!!!! bill duck!!! ( lucier is throwing snowballs again)
#1.5 Rambo2000 on 01 Feb 2003 - 16:39
You are funny too, the Roman Empire fell, the British Empire fell even thought the people thought it would never fall, simple put, anything that gets the top spot ends up getting draged down by the rest, the same is likely to happen to the US by the rest of the world, but they wont fall apart, as for Linux, in a few years from now, probaly about 3, Linux will likely be as good as the latest windows, now windows you have to pay for, Linux is free, who do you think people will choose? All this say is that Linux will take the number one spot, it's a garanteed fact, theres no if's or but's, Linux as a small amouth of support as it stands right now, but it's getting bigger and bigger all the time, do you honestly think Microsoft, one company can compeat with the rest of the worlds companys, goverments and people?, thats like saying that Apple could compeat with the PC when we know they never really can. I think by around 2010 that Linux will have a fairly big share on the PC, the simple fact is, no companys, people and goverments are going to let Microsoft or any other single company have so much control over something as inportant as the PC will be in the future, thats where Linux comes in, it's the perfect OS for the PC, nobody owns it and controls it, it's free, it's shared which will make development much faster and cheaper, and the PC is open in hardware and it worked there so it will with Linux, and don't forget, the PC is only a succes because no body controls it, the same with the internet, if someone controled it, it would be no where near as big as it is now, Linux is the next logical step for the PC.
#2 acidbrnd on 01 Feb 2003 - 00:22
Yeah I got the invite a while back. Just got that same e-mail now.
#3 iczman on 01 Feb 2003 - 08:27
i don't feel so "lucky" tho, and I have no idea what this beta testing is all about, can someone fill me in? hee
#4 Lock on 01 Feb 2003 - 09:24
still not recvd anything

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