After years of making its users feel insecure about viruses and worms, Microsoft has finally achieved what was until now hardly imaginable: making the companies dedicated to its own security feel insecure.
It seems that in its new operating system, Vista, scheduled for release in early 2007, the software giant has been unable to restrain itself from its storied monopolistic tendencies and has dared to include its own security system.
Under pressure by such newly trembling companies as Symantec, maker of Norton Antivirus software, and McAfee, another major player in Windows security, Microsoft has relented and said it will allow users to have the option of selecting security providers other than itself.
It has, however, insisted that it would now be a breach of security to allow the companies access to its precious “kernel,” or the very center of its operating system, which they had always had access to and which they feel is necessary to be able to provide their users with reliable security.
Microsoft, however, never hoping to gain an unfair advantage, continues to insist that their exclusion is simply necessary to preserve the security of Vista.
The insecure providers of its security are continuing their challenge to its never monopolistic practices, but their own vista is now hardly cloudless.
Tom Attea, humorist and creator of NewsLaugh.com, has had six shows produced Off-Broadway. Critics have called his writing "delightfully funny," "witty," with "good, genuine laughs" and "great humor and ebullience." |
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