ZDNET.COM
10-06-08
Jason Hiner

THE TOP FIVE REASONS WHY WINDOWS VISTA FAILED

On Friday, Microsoft gave computer makers a six-month extension for offering Windows XP on newly-shipped PCs. While this doesn’t impact enterprise IT — because volume licensing agreements will allow IT to keep installing Windows XP for many years to come — the move is another symbolic nail in Vista’s coffin.

The public reputation of Windows Vista is in shambles, as Microsoft itself tacitly acknowledged in its Mojave ad campaign...

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ZDNET.COM
08-04-08
Christopher Dawson

WOULD YOU GIVE THE FEDS YOUR COMPUTERS?

The Frederick News Post reported Sunday that FBI agents seized two computers from one of the Frederick County, Maryland, public libraries this weekend.

Darrell Batson, director of Frederick County Public Libraries, said two FBI employees came to the downtown Frederick library either Wednesday or Thursday. The agents removed two public computers from the library’s second floor. They told him they were taking the units back to their office in Washington, D.C., Batson said.

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ZDNET.COM
07-07-08
Dancho Danchev

APPROXIMATELY 800 VULNERABILITIES DISCOVERED IN ANTIVIRUS PRODUCTS

In what appears to be either a common scenario of “when the security solution ends up the security problem itself”, or a product launch basing its strategy on outlining the increasing number of critical vulnerabilities found in competing antivirus products, the IT/Security consulting firm n.runs AG claims to have discovered approximately 800 vulnerabilities within antivirus products based on exploiting a standard malware scanning process known as “parsing”...

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ZDNET.COM
06-26-08
Ryan Naraine

ZERO-DAY FLAW HAUNTS INTERNET EXPLORER

An unpatched cross-domain vulnerability in Microsoft’s flagship Internet Explorer browser could expose Windows users to cookie hijacks and credentials theft attacks, according to a warning from security researchers.

The zero-day flaw, which has been reported to Microsoft, is a variation of Eduardo Vela’s IE Ghost Busters talk:

Do you believe in ghosts? Imagine an invisible script that silently follows you while you surf...

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ZDNET.COM
06-12-08
Mary Jo Foley

MICROSOFT WARNS WEB SITE OWNERS TO PREP FOR IE 8

Although Beta 2 of Internet Explorer (IE) 8 isn’t due out until some time in August, Microsoft is cautioning Web site owners now that they need to be prepping now for possible problems the new, more standards-compliant browser may cause.

As part of this week’s IE June Security Update for IE8 Beta 1, Microsoft introduced a new tag, “IE+EmulateIE7″ — which it is counting on to head off some of the incompatibilities the company is anticipating could occur, based on feedback it received from IE 8 Beta 1 testers.

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ZDNET.COM
05-23-08
Rupert Goodwins

10 MOST ANNOYING PROGRAMS ON THE INTERNET

The Internet has brought us many joys. It's rewritten the rules of business and pleasure.

And pain. For it allows what may have seemed like bright ideas at the time ('let's use it to make sure our customers have the latest software', for example) to turn into a stinking pit of misery - usually, but by no means always, after marketing gets its fangs in.

Here are just ten of the guilty parties who try to do the impossible: to make us hate the internet and wish it had never been invented - and who very nearly succeed...

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ZDNET.COM
04-14-08
Ed Bott

MAKING SENSE OF WINDOWS' IRRATIONAL PRICING AND LICENSING

A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced it was cutting the price of retail, shrink-wrapped copies of Windows Vista. The new suggested price for an upgrade edition of Windows Vista Ultimate is $219, down from $299. The cost of an upgrade edition of Vista Home Premium drops to $129 from $159. Those price cuts were effective with the release of Vista Service Pack 1 in mid-March, and the actual prices that people pay (the so-called street price) will invariably be lower: Amazon, for example, is offering discounts on the upgrade editions of Vista Ultimate and Home Premium for $195 and $95, respectively. The full versions are $300 and $216...

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ZDNET.COM
04-04-08
Robin Harris

VISTA FIASCO CONTINUES WITH RETREAT TO XP

Fall back! Fall back!
Microsoft’s announcement yesterday of the “Extended Availability of Windows XP Home for ULCPCs” is more evidence that the Windows Vista fiasco is still growing.

Microsoft is scrambling to stay relevant in a world where they are no longer the only game in town. Can’t let Linux become the default OS for low-cost systems, can we?

Why doesn’t software get cheaper?
My 1978 Apple II cost over $3,000 in today’s dollars - with no disk or display - and a primitive command line OS...

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ZDNET.COM
03-10-08
Ed Burnette

FIREFOX 3 BETA 4 IS 5x FASTER THAN IE7

The almost-but-not-quite-final beta of Firefox 3 (FF3 beta 4) is now available for download. The most noticeable improvement is speed. In some tests, it’s three times faster than Firefox 2 (meaning the test completes in 1/3 the time), and a whopping five times faster than IE 7...

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ZDNET.COM
01-18-08
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

WINDOWS 7 DEBUT IN 2009? ANOTHER REASON TO SKIP VISTA

If Windows 7 really is scheduled to make an appearance during the second half of 2009, does this mean that making the move to Vista is now a pointless effort?

TG Daily claim to have uncovered a roadmap for Windows 7 whichWindows 7 debut in 2009? Another reason to skip Vista suggests that Windows 7 is being fast-tracked:
Several industry sources have confirmed to TG Daily that a very early version of Windows 7, previously code-named Blackcomb Vienna, already has been shipped to “key partners” as a “Milestone 1? (M1) code drop for validation purposes. A roadmap received by TG Daily indicates that the new operating system will be introduced in the second half of 2009...

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