Hey Microsoft, Were You Ready For This?

Before I even begin to comment on this specifically, understand that Microsoft does this to itself. Not because of a poor security (not this time anyway), but because it makes a huge deal about how secure or “hacker proof” something is. It’s stupid behavior and it costs its users real money. This is not an opinion, it’s an economic fact.

Microsoft made an appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” It was a fun piece and Bill Gates handled it well, I think. I think it was a wise move and humanized the new release for all of us. All in all, he was a good sport. Then we had this “interesting” concept of marketing Vista’s release. Whatever, it’s Microsoft’s money to waste, I suppose. Then again, Pirillo has an offer that, after watching the same thing on TV he did, I think may be a better choice for Microsoft’s next release? Anyway, moving on.

Then we have this issue. Ouch, not great timing. Now to be fair, this could have happened to any OS I suppose. Regardless, what makes this such a problem is really twofold: the widespread use of Windows products and preventively, the “we dare you to hack us” attitude that STILL comes from the company.

Now some of you must be thinking that of course it is, after all, more secure than XP. I agree, however, knowing it remains a target, going on and on about how it is more secure does not help. For one thing, duh. Of course it is going to be more secure. Even Microsoft is not going to be foolish enough to make the OS less secure! So really, toning this down would have been a good place to start. And finally, when it teamed up with Novell, it ticked off a LOT of people with the skills to make Microsoft’s day very unpleasant. Obviously there will always be those who choose to make a target out of Microsoft based on its success, but why egg it on? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.

[tags]microsoft, xp, vista, security, hack, dare[/tags]