Reasons to Avoid Microsoft

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• Office 2003 Rights Management Bug Locks up Files (Technologizer, 2009.12.11)
  It's a nightmare scenario: Imagine coming into the office and not being able to access any of your organization's vital documents. That scenario became reality today for an untold number of Microsoft Office 2003 customers who use Microsoft's Rights Management Service (RMS), a technology for controlling access to documents.
  

  
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• Microsoft Anti-Spyware Deleting Norton Anti-Virus (Washingtonpost.com, 2006.02.12)
  Microsoft's Anti-Spyware program is causing troubles for people who also use Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus software; apparently, a recent update to Microsoft's anti-spyware application flags Norton as a password-stealing program and prompts users to remove it. ... When Microsoft Anti-Spyware users remove the flagged Norton file as prompted, Symantec's product gets corrupted and no longer protects the user's machine. The Norton user then has to go through the Windows registry and delete multiple entries (registry editing is always a dicey affair that can quickly hose a system if the user doesn't know what he or she is doing) so that the program can be completely removed and re-installed.
  

• Upcoming [Microsoft security] Advisories (eEye Digital Security, 2005.05.05)
  A vulnerability in default installations of [Internet Explorer, Outlook and other Microsoft software] allows malicious code to be executed, contingent upon minimal user interaction.
  

• Worm Prompts Temporary Shutdown of Reuters Messaging (Reuters, 2005.04.14)
  Reuters [...] has temporarily shut down a privately controlled instant messaging service after a computer worm affected some of the network's users... The Kelvir worm and its variants have been identified as a threat to those using instant messaging services since the beginning of the year. ... The worm can jump between e-mail and messaging.
  

• New URL spoofing bug in Microsoft Internet Explorer (SecurityFocus BUGTRAQ, 2004.10.28)
  There is a security bug in Internet Explorer 6.0.2800.1106 (fully patched), which allowes to show any faked target-address in the status bar of the window.
  

• Microsoft software caused air traffic shutdown (Silicon.com, 2004.09.20)
  A bug in a Microsoft system compounded by human error was ultimately responsible for a three-hour radio breakdown that left hundreds of aircraft aloft without guidance on Tuesday... Nearly all of Southern California's airports were shut down and five incidents where aircraft broke separation guidelines were reported. In one case, a pilot had to take evasive action.
  

• File and Printer Sharing Insecure in XP SP2 (Slashdot.org, 2004.09.18)
  German magazine PC-Welt has discovered a major security flaw in Windows XP SP2 when installing over SP1. The article says that 'with a certain configuration, your file and printer sharing data are visible worldwide, despite an activated Firewall.' The magazine claims they were 'able to discover private documents on easily accessible computers on the Internet' and that the configuration is fairly common.
  

• XP SP2 Can Slow Down Business Apps (Slashdot.org, 2004.09.17)
  Mobile PC magazine installed XP SP2 on a bunch of notebooks and benchmarked them, finding that SP2 caused a 9-percent performance reduction in business productivity apps.
  

• Windows Fails 8% of the Time (Slashdot.org, 2004.09.16)
  About 8% of Windows sessions require a machine reboot... The study was originally made by Acadys and Microcost and gathered data from 1.2M machines belonging to about one thousand companies over a period of one month in seven different countries.
  

• Microsoft's War on Bugs (Wired, 2004.09.01)
  These days, every Windows computer is a war zone of viruses, Trojans, spyware, and other malicious code trying to exploit security holes in Internet Explorer. One of the scariest of all, Download.Ject, discovered in late June, worked to log keystrokes (usernames, passwords, PINs). All this despite Bill Gates' 2002 declaration that security is his top priority.
  

• Drag-and-drop flaw mars Microsoft's latest update (ZDNet, 2004.08.20)
  An Internet Explorer vulnerability could turn drag-and-drop into drag-and-infect, even on computers updated with Microsoft's latest security patch. ... Security information company Secunia believes the program that takes advantage of the issue could be simplified to only require a single click from the user. Secunia rated the flaw as 'highly critical,' its second-highest rating of vulnerability threats.
  

• Windows XP Service Pack 2: Install With Care (CRN, 2004.07.23)
  The real surprise with Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 isn't potential compatibility issues, but the mayhem that can occur when SP2 is downloaded onto a system. CRN Test Center engineers evaluated a release candidate two (RC2) version of SP2, and upon completion of the install on three out of five systems, the machines blue-screened. A message stated that 'winserv' was missing. The blue screen occurred on both Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel platforms, and all systems were running Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 1 installed. Every possible avenue to get back into Windows failed.
  

• Windows XP Bedevils Wi-Fi Users (Wired News, 2004.06.04)
  [There is] a problem that many Windows XP users know all too well: the sudden and inexplicable loss of their wireless Internet connections. [Based on] the flow of support calls, there's little point in trying to find a permanent solution to the problem. ... To some, the most infuriating part is that the wireless network connection icon in the XP taskbar doesn't display any indication at all that something's wrong.
  

• Microsoft criticises third party code for Windows crashes (ZDNet Australia, 2003.08.13)
  Microsoft has laid the blame for half of all Windows crashes on third-party code.
  

• Windows Update is a dog, again! (Windows NTBugtrag, 2003.05.14)
  Windows Update has been providing consumers with false information. ... the scan would complete and inform the user their system needed no patches. Wonderful, a clean bill of health, or so the consumer thought. In reality, some flaw in the Windows Update process has led it to conclude that a system, in need of critical security patches, is instead clean and good to go on the Internet.
  

• Just fix what you have, Bill (SF Gate, 2003.01.13)
  A self-described technically capable legacy MS Windows user attempts to update his system using the latest and greatest tools from Microsoft...and ends up destroying his hard drive. There is a long litany of inherent dangers in Microsoft's methods (and that's without mentioning revisions to EULA terms), confusing analysis tools, and botched updates.
  

• Win XP Update Crashes Some PCs (PC World, 2002.Sep.20)
  Users who forgo recently released SP1 risk a major vulnerability ... Some Windows XP users are having trouble installing the operating system's first service pack, bulging with bug fixes and updated drivers--and are judging the cure worse than the disease. Although SP1 plugs a major hole in the OS, the fix has been painful for [some] users who have downloaded the update... 'I'm in the process of communicating by e-mail support with Microsoft, an enormously inefficient and time-consuming process that has yet to yield a solution, despite promises to the contrary' [said one user]
  

• 'Phantom Menance' typing just a Microsoft speech feature (Computer User, 2002.Mar.12)
  Random words and characters mysteriously appearing on the screens of some Windows XP and Office XP users ... [is] just Microsoft's voice recognition system running slightly amok... Merely unplugging or turning off the computer's microphone does not correct the random-character problem ...
  

• Game site recovers from Passport glitch (CNet, 2001.Dec.12)
  In a notice posted on the Zone home page, Microsoft had informed people that they must sign up for the Passport online identification service, a controversial element of the company's .Net online services push. ... 'All I got was a whole load of 'server overload' and other kinds of error messages ... That's what I'm hearing from everyone I know--they can't get through to link Passport to their Zone account.'
  

• FiXbox (Gaming Age, 2001.Oct.23)
  Multiple resets also failed to resolve the problem. Soon after, a screen appeared that said the Xbox needed customer service repair. The screen provided a list of customer service phone numbers to contact. Several Toys R Us employees did not know what went wrong with the Xbox demo unit that now carried a 'Out of Order' sign. The store received their unit on Tuesday. The in-store demo units are believed to be actual finalized hardware that consumers will see at launch. [Another] Xbox unit [...] is reported to have 'freezing' problems that requires employees to open the kiosk every 75 minutes to reset the console.
  

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