logansfury opened this issue on Nov 11, 2005 ยท 44 posts
lmckenzie posted Sat, 12 November 2005 at 2:19 AM
Unix/Linux was designed to run in a networked/multiuser environment from the beginning, Windows wasn't. Microsoft has been too slow in adapting. As an applications programmer, I love the fact that the ease with which you can integrate applications and build powerful solutions with scripting and other technologies but clearly security in a hostile environment wasn't high on the design specs. At the same time, one can't simply dismiss the market share factor. The original internet worm ran on Unix because that was a fat target. Hitting Burroughs mini-computers wouldn't have been nearly as much fun. Today, where else can you create 20,000 zombies except Windows--unless you hack Google's server farm where everything is under one security policy and a customized kernel at that--not an easy task. All DRM sucks but it's the way things are going to go. No company wants people making perfect digital copies of their products and giving them away. The only alternative I see is a tax on internet useage which would be unfair to those who don't copy material. Of course some would say school taxes are unfair to those who don't have children. You can bet the artists would probably never see their fair share of the money though.
"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken