full-disclosure - CyberInsecurity: The cost of Monopoly

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From: jonathan at nuclearelephant.com (Jonathan A. Zdziarski)
Subject: CyberInsecurity: The cost of Monopoly

> I can't recall ever speaking to someone who actually bought a new
> application from a vendor simply because their old version of the
> application from the vendor was insecure or buggy. In fact, that would tend
> to push them to look elsewhere. 

Well Microsoft expects you to buy it for those reasons:

>From http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy/windowsnetsupport.asp

"Customers running applications with SQL Server version 7.0 and MSDE 1.0
should consider evaluating and upgrading to SQL Server 2000 and MSDE
2000 respectively with SP3 on Windows Server 2003 to achieve a more
secure operating environment."

From
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/professional/evaluation/whyupgrade/default.asp

"Top 10 Reasons to Move to Windows 2000"

"#2: Reliability. An essential requirement for business users is a
personal computer they can count on."

>From http://www.bcentral.co.uk/drive/default.asp
"Compare Windows XP with Windows 98"

Windows XP and Windows
98 compared

Find out for yourself just why
Windows XP Professional proved to be
more reliable than Windows 98 in
independent tests."

Security

Windows XP Professional and Office
XP Professional are our most secure
ways of safeguarding your most
confidential data from unauthorised
use, viruses and hackers.

And my personal favorite:

>From http://www.microsoft.com/resources/desktop/smallbiz.asp

"Windows XP Professional is at least 10 times more reliable than Windows
98."

I can also recall several of the Windows upgrade pictures claiming "More
Reliable" and "More Secure".  So apparently to Microsoft, their software
being reliable and secure is something they expect you to upgrade for.

Also Microsoft passes their "bugfixes" off as enhancements.  I'm sure
you've seen "Better ..." or "Faster ..." when in reality they just fixed
problems with the old versions.

> Microsoft in particular is huge for adding new features.

There were just soooo many features from 95 to 98 to ME.

None of these constituted a new product.