H

[greatscot]

H

[Calum]

well, i look forward to a certain poster's inevitable reply to the effect of: "why are you only concerned with microsoft's dodgy practices and not those of the linux vendors?" (i'm not allowed to mention names, or it might be construed as insulting somebody)

in any case, here's what i have to offer, though it may not be entirely of use to you:

http://www.polytheism.org.uk/openopen/files/

there you will find a lot of articles about linux and open source software, and so on, this probably doesn't interest you, but what might interest you is the directory full of end user licence agreements. it includes the windows media player 9 licence, the microsoft xp licences, and the licences from recent versions of MSN messenger and microsoft office.

Some of these licences are quite hard to get hold of, so i am led to believe, which is why i keep them handy in this directory in case i want them..

I think the EULAs stand on their own as examples of the outrageous things microsoft requires their users to agree to in order to use the software that they pay for.

also: http://web.archive.org/web/20031210234328/www.belg88.com/faqman/

that's the old MES FAQ, now down, but it lives on on the wayback machine's servers, you might find one or two interesting articles on there.

good luck etc.

[MrX]

i wonder what muzzy is going to say. he certainly has a fruitful knowledge about all microsofts mal-practices and wrong doings.

Mr X :beos:  :beos:

[Kintaro]

Hi all,
 I am currently writing a webpage for the purpose of spreading information about the M$ Windows OS. I need information and proof (such as articles, data, etc.) that M$ Windows is insecure, unstable and that the Microsoft Corporation lies, steals and cons people.

This "proof" should be in the form of websites or articles that contain information that can be proven - simply stating that "Windows sucks" isn't going to be enough. Items related to how Microsoft has broken the law or contributed to FUD would be good also. I have a long list of people who have told me that they will switch to another OS if I can provide such proof.

So, I look forward to your posts and I thank you in advance

I have for you the following evidence...

[muzzy]

Does modifying kernel to not kill misbehaving stupid office95 count? I hear the leaked w2k sources reveal a piece of code, where the kernel should kill a process because it did something invalid regarding memory management. However, the comments state that since office95 does it too it cant be done. A workaround in kernel level to support old applications.

Or how about SHIM? Microsoft's userland patcher, which gives processes different set of winapi call implementations if they need them to work. Some apps depended on undocumented, implementation specific or totally wrong behaviour of old winapi implementations. The apps wouldn't work if it wasn't for the application compatibility patching engine. you can google about it, "shim" should be good keyword.

These acts are done in name of backwards compatibility, yet you could say they're quite unfair. I don't really mind the userland patcher, but I wish the jerks would have their priorities different way around. Properly working kernel should be more important than supporting applications that are written wrong. However, it's obviously a marketing decision, and unfortunately it's a good marketing decision too.

[WMD]

Office 95?  That's quite funny.  MS Office didnt become dominant until 97.  Seriously, I know ONE person that uses 95, and they use it on Windows 95, anyway.  Heh.

PS: MrX = pwned. :p

[muzzy]

Yep, office95. Apparently Office95 tries to free a pointer with uninitialized (practically quite random) value when you start Word95 from a desktop shortcut.

I asked someone to search the leaked sources for references to "Office", and apparently the windows kernel has hacks for Corel's Perfect Office v6, WordPerfect, and various other things. So, these hacks aren't there just for microsoft's own apps, they've been implemented so that third party applications wouldn't stop working either.

There's another hack in wow32 code, to fix PerfectOffice. The application had a bug where it expects wrong return value, and would infinite loop if one api function had a proper implementation. However, win3.1 implementation returned some garbage in return value even though it did what it was supposed to, so it broke the loop. Had the bug merely been fixed, PerfectOffice would've stopped working.

So, there are hacks in windows internals, even today, to keep these insanely ancient applications running. Instead of having proper implementations, there are "compatibility" implementations in some places. From marketing point of view, this is definitely good. Personally, I kind of dislike it, as it still prefers the big players while small guy's code breaks as bug workarounds aren't there. However, had these competing apps just stopped working in new version of windows, I'm sure there would've been plenty of conspiracy theories about it...

[toadlife]

Unfortunately, if you want accurate information about Windows, you have come to the wrong place. If want propaganda, half-truths, opinions, and even a few outright lies, you've hit the jackpot.**

How's that for a first post!

**I'm planning on addressing this in another post.

[muzzy]

Nice first post. There's indeed a lot of anti-microsoft FUD here, but I wouldn't call them outright lies. I'd say the people here just don't know better.

[MrX]

for instance, like me.

Mr X :beos:  :beos:

[Aloone_Jonez]

So it's complete bullshit that Microsoft have made newer versions Windows incompatable with old programs to force people to upgrade!

So Microsoft has bent over backwards to ensure old programs work on newer Windows is one of the things that's fucked it up.

[Calum]

H

you cowardly fucking arsehole.

how dare you remove a post that people had replied to?

no wonder scotland's still under the heel of england, the majority of scots are all as cowardly as you.

vote for a bloody english party, and guess what? you get an english government.

go on, somebody delete this, i am sure it breaks some rule or other.

[Kintaro]

1. God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us;
God save the Queen!

2. O Lord our God arise,
Scatter her enemies
And make them fall;
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix,
God save us all!

3. Thy choicest gifts in store
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign;
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice,
God save the Queen!

4. Not in this land alone,
But be God's mercies known,
From shore to shore!
Lord make the nations see,
That men should brothers be,
And form one family,
The wide world over.

5. From every latent foe,
From the assassins blow,
God save the Queen!
O'er her thine arm extend,
For Britain's sake defend,
Our mother, prince, and friend,
God save the Queen!

6. Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the King!

[muzzy]

So it's complete bullshit that Microsoft have made newer versions Windows incompatable with old programs to force people to upgrade!

So Microsoft has bent over backwards to ensure old programs work on newer Windows is one of the things that's fucked it up.

Indeed. Having a proper security model for default windows installation would easily lead to a lot of old applications just simply not working at all, because these applications expect a lot of things from the system. This is the reason microsoft is providing a retarded setup for everyone.

I wish they'd provide edition in which they configure things THE WAY THEY SHOULD BE, and call it "developer edition" or something, and not target it for home users. This way we could have the good windows system we want, and applications developed on it would work on both proper configuration and the fucked up home editions. Once enough applications have been fixed, reconfigure the home edition.

I'm sure a lot of you guys have seen the XP SP2 related rants about how microsoft is purposedly breaking other people's applications. Conspiracy theorists just never learn, eh? XP SP2 has been one of the boldest steps by microsoft, because it purposedly broke backwards compatibility for a lot of applications, to make some things the way they ought to be. Microsoft's own apps broke too.

However, people are now bitching that SP2 sucks because they have to run some legacy apps and simply can't upgrade. Running old version of oracle perhaps? Tough luck, no patch available, either pay $100k for new version or don't install SP2. That's what happens when backwards compatibility is sacrificed for security. Fix design and you do wrong, let broken design live and you do wrong. Lovely situation for them, huh?

[Aloone_Jonez]

you cowardly fucking arsehole.
how dare you remove a post that people had replied to?

greatscot getshot :fu:

Ban this jerk!

no wonder scotland's still under the heel of england, the majority of scots are all as cowardly as you.

vote for a bloody english party, and guess what? you get an english government.

They aren't as cowardly as the Irish

go on, somebody delete this, i am sure it breaks some rule or other.

It must be on the someone's cache get it re-posted I don't see why everone who has bothered to reply should be penalised because of this dicklick.