Cringely: MS To Hurt Linux Via USB Enhancements 877
frogspit writes "In this article, Cringely suggests that MS's proposed enhancements to USB to address security issues have the added benefit (for them) of hurting Linux."
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Cringely: MS To Hurt Linux Via USB Enhancements
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"A car is just a big purse on wheels." -- Johanna Reynolds
bad presumption.... (Score:2, Interesting)
What about legacy auto/component players?
Here's to hoping the OpenBIOS project can workaroud some of this junk.
Enhancements (Score:3, Interesting)
Not Practical (Score:5, Interesting)
More likly, Longhorn will by default allow standard behavior from usb devices.
If and only if the administrator of the OS flips a switch will the usb port be (Disabled / Read only / {Custom USB Writeable})
So while they may require a Longhorn only usb drive, in certain scenario's, regular ones should still work in most situations.
This is of course only conjecture, only time will tell for sure what will happen.
Re:Wow, just wow.... (Score:2, Interesting)
And, as far as Cringley's statement about Microsoft going after people who reverse-engineer it to allow for compatability w. open-source software, that's a non-starter for 95% of the world's population, where such reverse-engineering is okay - and in the US, the justice department would probably frown upon yet another monopoly action by the Beast from Redmond.
In other words, this is more of a brain fart than a brainstorm.
But USB is an open standard... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm suspicious of this too... (Score:5, Interesting)
Heck, he could just email the data to himself at home!
And let's be serious, how many employees really have access to valuable and confidential information?!
When I first heard about this alleged security problem I immediately thought, what's Microsoft's real purpose? Cringely might be on the right track.
Intel (Score:3, Interesting)
In any case USB is definetely an important piece of hardware and ubiquitous at that. I don't believe that the home users will care about the security of their USB devices more than they care about security of their browsers and email clients. If the new standard is released it maybe picked up by very security minded folks, like the security services, but MS will have tough time convincing most companies to switch to yet another hardware platform (at least within the next 5 years.)
Re:I usually find Cringely interesting, but this t (Score:5, Interesting)
I vote: not so crazy. I am of the opinion (and have been for a couple of years now) that they have a top-secret lab in an underground bunker where they are secretly working on a Windows desktop environment running on a Linux kernel, as well as Linux versions of Office and all their main applications.
Why?
That's what I'd be doing if I were them. They can afford to hedge their bets on this one if they are really as scared as everyone says they are. One of the serious advantages of FOSS platforms is because the up-front costs are so low, you can start development before you decide if you have a product or not.
Bias (Score:5, Interesting)
That's why neither this nor NGSCP (Palladium) are of any concern.
Everyone wants to FUD about how Microsoft is going to make a BIOS that "locks out linux", or a USB standard that locks out old devices. It's not going to happen. 5 years from now, you're still going to be able to run Linux on your computer, and you're still going to be able to access your USB devices in Longhorn and Linux.
Now, certain devices - music players, primarily, will probably be "secure" (DRM encumbered). But you'll probably still be able to use them in Linux, so long as someone writes the drivers. The new Microsoft USB-spec is just a way for media players to confirm to the OS (and DRM framework) that they will obey the DRM restrictions.
It's pointless to debate this anyway. It hasn't happened yet. Remember back in 2001 when Slashdot was spreading FUD about Palladium? As it turns out, we can still run Linux on our computers, and we will be able to do so for the immediate future.
Several different scenarios (Score:5, Interesting)
IMHO, i think that manufacturers will just package generic USB drivers with there devices.
Why am I not surprised? (Score:1, Interesting)
After this Wednesday's "critical" security update what scrambled the BIOS on my notebook, rendering it trash (according to Toshiba, it cannot be fixed, but replaced by buying a new notebook), I know Microsoft is in the business of fucking over everyone in the world. Yes, it took this long for me to figure it out.
I DO have a fix, though. Before I spell it out for you, I want you to know that I have been a Solaris user since the late '80s, been working with Linux since the mid '90s and have been using computers since Microsoft Xenix was sold by Tandy.
My personal solution: I'm sick of this shit. I am using my employer's computer (thanks for the use of the T3 line) to sell off my existing computers. Afterwards, I am cancelling my DSL subscription.
I've had it and Microsoft is the reason. Now, don't think I'm going to go live in a forest somewhere, roasting squirrels over an open fire, no. I'm just removing one source of stress in my life. No more email or spam. No more blue screens of death. No more "This dosen't work in Linux because Microsoft won't allow it to." All gone. This is also my last Slashdot post (sniff).
I'm sure that the removal of so much stress in my life will allow my blood pressure to go down and for me to spend more time with my children. Wish me luck.
r.
Re:I usually find Cringely interesting, but this t (Score:2, Interesting)
Why is that even a little crazy? Microsoft has been quietly writing Mac applications for a long time now, and will for the forseeable future. Granted, Windows won't run on Mac hardware, so it's not a direct comparision. However, if Linux does make a deep market penetration with Joe Homeuser or makes it to the desktop of MyCorporation LLC, why wouldn't MS want to offer it's Office suite and other products for those platforms? With Linspire PCs now being sold at Walmart, is it such a large extrapolation to see home users chosing to go down that road in ever growing numbers?
If that does happen, wouldn't it make financial sense for MS to start writing Office, Outlook, etc. for Linux?
Re:I'm suspicious of this too... (Score:3, Interesting)
More than you would think apparently. Sysadmins, DBAs, developers... depending on your business model of course. At the very least, your organization would have sysadmins who would have full access to all the systems. Not one guy, but a group of sysadmins.
Even if MS gets all those hardware manufacturers on board with DRM, TCPA, etc, I am not concerned. There will always be that one company who makes a system which doesn't comply with MicroSofts TCPA. That one vender will be made into a very profitable company overnight.
Microsoft can flex its muscles all it wants. They've tried it for years. Like MSN blocking all but IE (failed), Sender-ID (failed), IIS not working with anything but IE (failed). MS Office is their only real stronghold, but that happened over 10 years ago (noting that wordpad was formerly known as MS Word 3?). I still run a windows 98 game for gaming. Mainly because it isn't as bloated. Windows 95/98 still run win32 binaries just like XP. There have been a few nice updates with 2000 (better SMB auth), but nothing worth upgrading for. What sheeple don't realize is that Microsoft can't break the binary compatibility of thier last OS version without cutting off tons of people. In order for TCPA and this USB lockout to work, there would have to be a MAJOR shift in PC hardware and most vendors won't cut off their customers.
Microsoft is just not big enough. By that I mean, there will always people out there who do not conform and succumb to marketing hype.
Re:DMCA (Score:2, Interesting)
Voilà, problem solved!
Re:Thank god for firewire (Score:3, Interesting)
Oracle has released software to allow multiple Linux boxes to share a Firewire hard drive in a "poor man's SAN" arrangement.
Firewire (IEEE-1394) has many advantages over USB -- including speed (USB 2's theoretical 480 Mbps in practise comes in slower than 1394a's 400 Mbps, and far short of 1394b, which goes to 800 Mbps now and 1600 and 3200 RSN), and the fact that it isn't a MS/Intel standard.
Re:and foreign complacency (Score:5, Interesting)
But beyond that, our current political climate is pro-FreeSoftware, anti-USofAn-monopolies, anti-MS, very, very strongly. The country and the politicians (mostly) agree with Peru's Congressman Edgar Villanueva (see here [gnu.org.pe]) arguments in favor of Free Software as a mean to save money in dollars that escape our borders when they go to MS, as a mean to protect our national security because we don't know the possible backdoors in proprietary-closed-sourced-software, as a mean to generate jobs in services, as a mean to generate know-how inside the country, etc.
And, on top of it, many many techs like me are ready to get "in arms" in the case DMCA-shit/Software-patenting-shit creeps into our legislation -- we're watching it!
Cringely topic (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I'm suspicious of this too... (Score:2, Interesting)
Extrapolating from your limited experience to the rest of the world is fun and easy! You too can make ignorant comments regarding things you know nothing about!
I work at a place where signing hard drives in and out of safes when you want to boot a computer is a standard procedure. Visiting other businesses is just as cumbersome. Just try and visit Lockheed or Boeing or a military base. Cell phones, USB memory sticks and (frequently) laptops are held at the lobby or the security office.
I went to a meeting a month or two ago with my laptop. We were all sitting around working with our individual machines around a table. Someone wanted a file from me, so I went to burn it to a CD for them. The host company had conveniently provided a stack of blank CDs for our use.
I pulled a disk off the top of the stack and popped it in my drive. It turned out to have data on it already. I said this out loud and everyone in the room froze. Fortunately, the data was innocuous, so I got to keep my hard drive. But for a moment there, I faced the real possibility of having my drive confiscated and either classified or destroyed.
Yikes. (Score:3, Interesting)
To think that at some companies there is at least one immediate-termination violation here is frightening. My company seems to love the fact that I take stuff home; as an hourly employee, I don't get paid for the work I do at home!
Re:Best reason to vote Bush out (Score:1, Interesting)
I fit your description exactly, but came to a different conclusion.
In my mind, Bush turned the Repbulican Party away from the small-government principals it used to stand for, and into the party of "claim the oil in the mideast", "let China and Europe lead in stem cell research", and very very big government. That, and the fact that Bush is an irrational war-monger who goes around killing the wrong people (hint, his buddies the saudis were more closely related to 9/11 than iraq ever was) prevent me for ever voting for Bush.
After seeing the Clinton surpluses and the Bush deficit it seems that the parties flipflopped on fiscal responisibility for the country.
However for other reasons I can't bring myself to vote for a democrat, and especially a big-government democrat like Kerry.
So I'm voting Libertarian, and hoping Bush will lose just to drive the Republican party back to it's original small government principals which I agreed with.
Re:and foreign complacency (Score:4, Interesting)
Moreover, the USA has a legal principle called "jury nullification". Most accusations of crime can be argued before a jury of people, overseen by a judge. The jury decides the guilt of the accused. In the event that a jury decides the accused has broken the law, but that the law is unjust, the jury can find the accused "not guilty", and nullify the law, which is a less-strong precedent if it is cited in later defenses. The nullification is independent of any "constitutionality", which can be decided only by judges in high courts.
But that's just the law, and the legal principles. American justice is a game, a vast complex one, highly circumstantial and procedural. Juries are usually never instructed about their option to nullify, and recently such instruction from defense lawyers has even been prohibited by some judges. And until a substantial case has been brought through a succession of lower courts to the Supreme Court (or just below it), its constitutionality is not evaluated. So if it the case doesn't make it, perhaps through success on grounds other than unconstitutionality, such an additional finding about the law (in addition to the accused's guilt) is never explicit.
It's difficult, time consuming, expensive and risky to pursue the unconstitutionality of a law, so it rarely happens. Only the lawyers always win the game of American justice.
Re:Not a chance (Score:5, Interesting)
Just like a presidential candidate, MS has been promising to take security seriously for about 4 years now and yet, nothing ever seems to get better. Candidates make all kinds of bold promises, knowing full well that when it comes time to deliver, excuses can easily be made. Bugs get fixed reasonably well, but the rate new exploits show up has, if anything, increased. Linux is real competition, but MS's main strategy seems to be FUD and flexing their monopoly (see the USB story today).
I often spend more time trying to get MS software to work than I spend writing my own code from scratch, so if I troll against MS now and again, it's for reasons like that.
Jaded Overreaction? (Score:3, Interesting)
Microsoft has historically bent over backwards to make their software backwards compatable. You can run all sorts of outdated hardware on the Windows OS. The only reason that current versions of Windows won't install on a 386 (via software lockout) is because MS doesn't want your computing experience to be ruined because of hardware issues. ("Hey, W2003 is crappy because it runs too slow on this 386!")
Think about it, you still can run crusty old 16 bit apps on windows. Unless they had pressure from customers, why not do away with them, amd make people use software that would be more stable in a modern OS? So, my first point is, MS would get real heat if the tried to aggressively obsolete things. (gad-I just verbs a noun again.)
Second, don't forget that MS lives under the shaddow of the DoJ case. While they got off with a wrist slap, no sane manager at MS (Yes, I know...) is going to suggest a course of action that causes them to tangle with anti-trust issues again. BG has stepped down as #1 cheese. Why would he do that? Because he wants to get back to working with coders? Or, because his leadership style was percieved as too agressive? That is a pretty big step to take unless you REALLY have an issue with leadership.
While MS would like LINUX to go away, they aren't about to do anything that could get them into another round of lawsuits. Litagation is expensive and risky, even to Bill. Most companies with an ounce of brainmatter use it only as a last resort.
The big C writes some interesting stuff, but this strikes me as a little too reactionary. The sky isn't falling on LINUX (yet).
Re:Best reason to vote Bush out (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Not a chance (Score:5, Interesting)
I stand corrected however. Kudos to Microsoft.
Re:bad presumption.... (Score:2, Interesting)
There could also be a free internet or free media. Why not?
Yeah, it's paranoid, yeah it's probably unlikely, but this is where we are headed whether we like it or not.
What? You just said it was unlikely, then you said it was the way were heading.
Regardless, you're assuming the general public is much more sheepish than they actually are. Do you really believe that average joe user is going to put up with this? It's not like this is going to just happen unnoticed. It'll happen, and the public will through a huge shit fit.
Re:Marketing hype? No, unfortunate reality. (Score:1, Interesting)
Yay for the free market! Nuke Microsoft before it's too late.
Whatever... (Score:2, Interesting)
So we stop using Universal Stupid Bus devices and go back to Firewire.
Carry on, nothing to be see here you insensitive clod.
Re:Not the end of the world... (Score:4, Interesting)
Really? I suggest you try to find a soundcard that isn't Secure Audio Path (SAP) compliant. Practically none of then advertize that fact because SAP is an anti-consumer intentioanlly crippling of the soundcard, however every Windows Compatible soundcard has it. They all have it simply because Microsoft announced that they HAD to have it to be Windows Compatible. If you try to play certain flagged WindowsMedia format files Windows will pop up an error message and refuse to play the file unless the soundcard is SAP compliant. Anyone who attempts to complain about the problem to Microsoft will simply be told that the problem is that their incompatible soundcard.
It just isn't possible to survive in the PC hardware market if your product doesn't work with Windows. How many people will buy a USB-product that doesn't work when you plug it into a Windows PC? How many support calls and returns would they get when the product doesn't work and Window pops up a message saying there is something wrong with the product?
Every BIOS maker is making a Trusted Computing BIOS simply because Microsoft dictated that only a Trusted Computing BIOS will be fully compatible with the next version of Windows. The expectation is that Trust chips will be standard on ALL motherboards in a few months simply because Microsoft dictated that only a Trusted compatible motherboard will be fully compatible with the next version of Windows.
Microsoft now has the power to dictate virtually any hardware they like because any manufacturer who does not comply will be driven out of the business by those competititors that do comply and have their hardware shipped with every new Windows PC.
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Re:Not the end of the world... (Score:3, Interesting)
Microsoft is not in the business of offering a better product, that has always been what IBM, DEC, Honeywell, Sun and Apple have tried to do. The cost difference has meant, as an example, that if you are publishing books only those that do the typesetting have historicaly used Apples, while everyone else uses a PC with as old a version of MS operating system they can get away with.
Re:bad presumption.... (Score:2, Interesting)