Reasons to Avoid Microsoft

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These pages are a compilation of links and quotes to news articles and others sources that might help convince you to switch to Linux.

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Hotmail Vulnerability Being Exploited by Spammers (Chrome Switch, 2003.06.07)
Microsoft often protects their systems with a security technique called the we'll keep it sooper sekrit and maybe the bad guys won't figure it out security method. It appears this may be the method they used to protect the Hotmail servers from breaches in the DAV interface. Well, guess what? The spammers cracked the interface, and are now using it to programatically generate a metric buttload of spam.
Microsoft pushes for weakening of anti-spam law (The Seattle Times, 2003.02.26)
[A] proposal pushed by Microsoft ... would weaken Washington's tough law against unwanted e-mail... [and] carve out a broad exepmtion [for] Internet service providers -- including Microsoft.
Hotmail pushes for revenue (Eastside Journal, 2002.May.16)
[Hotmail] has changed users' 'personal profile' settings... [but] the MSN Statement of Privacy still asserts that 'Hotmail will not share your e-mail address with (Microsoft's) business partners...' At the same time Microsoft is giving its partners the green light to send spam, the company is pitching Hotmail users to pay $19.95 a year for 10 megabytes of extra e-mail storage.
New Hotmail settings might share your info, addresses (Eastside Journal, 2002.May.14)
Microsoft has changed the privacy settings for Hotmail What that means for subscribers ... is that the company can share a Hotmail address with its partner Web sites. Microsoft has given itself the right to share your e-mail address and other data with outside companies -- even if you explicitly told Microsoft not to do so when you signed up. It was done ... without anyone's knowledge or consent... 'It was done without our knowledge and consent in a secretive manner in violation of Microsoft's own terms of service'...
Stealing MS Passport's Wallet (Wired, 2001.Nov.2)
By cobbling together a handful of browser-based bugs with flaws in Passport's authentication system [a technique was developed] to steal a person's Microsoft Passport, credit card numbers -- and all, simply by getting the victim to open a Hotmail message. The attack raises new questions about the inherent security of Passport, which is being positioned by Microsoft as the linchpin of its .NET e-commerce service initiative. ... According to a notice at the service's site, the Passport wallet enables users to store credit card and address information 'in a secure, online location. Only you have access to the information in your .NET Passport wallet.'
Expert hacks Hotmail in 1 line of code (USA Today, 2001.Aug.30)
Twice this month, [a security consultant] poked gaping security holes in Hotmail and Passport... [The] second time it took just one line [of code]. 'It's easy ... to dream up very, very bad scenarios'... Hotmail [and] Passport have from time to time been hacked and patched. Next year Microsoft will introduce Web services, dubbed HailStorm...
Hackers Discover Hotmail Hole (TechTV, 2001.Aug.20)
Hackers have discovered a security hole in Microsoft's free Hotmail email service that could allow intruders to read other people's messages.

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