>>>>This is an interesting article if we are to understand why M$ is so flawed. The article suggests the flaws are by design to allow our betters access to our systems and purchasing decisions.
>>>>
>>>>The Article also offers a simple method to secure Windows (FDISK).
>>>>
>>>>Check it:
>>>>http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/10/298702.html
>>>
>>>now there is a paranoid person.
>>
>>I guess that's what MS (and the gov't?) likes people to conclude when reading such stuff.
>>
>>There is that old phrase... "Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get me.".
>>
>>Microsoft is supplying less and less real "documentation" for its systems and their features. Microsoft is letting other people publish their own "documentation" on how they (the publisher) imagines a MS system (component) to actually work.
>>
>>Personally I'm more inclined to be VERY WARY of Microsoft than to "trust" it!!!!!!
>
>i am not saying i am trusting MS. I am also not saying that there are no bugs (or hidden fetures) in MS products - show me one app without any bugs.
>
>i am just saying that the authors intepretation of those bugs are those of a paranoid person. i (personal opinion) do not belive that those bugs are intentionaly build in, in order to 'spy' on us. is there some feedback from our machines to ms - most likly yes. but thats where it ends. its not a conspiracy to get us or to freely foreward that data to the federal government. and thats what he is trying to make us belive.
>
>'those' open source people always crack me up. they complaine about the unsecure/dangerous MS products - but yet open source are the most unsecure programs by definition itself.

Gunnar,

Those "open source people" may crack you up, but it is a fact that anything that is "open source" is intrinsically - in the longer run - safer (i.e. more secure) than ANYTHING hidden or secret or obfuscated.
There's the issue of the "slippery slope" - once a certain option is accepted in even a strictly and severely limited way (Euthanasia or ethnicity-tracking as examples) it doesn't take long for other "applications" to worm their way into "the system". The government (U.S.) is already on record as wanting all keys to all encryptions "for national security purposes". With the reception that has garnered, do you really expect them to come right out with their next 'desire'?????

I noted about a year ago that Microsoft changed the words on their Windows Update site as regards the 'click here so MS can learn what updates you need' button. I still wonder why and have not a shred of trust that they don't use anything transmitted for any other purpose.