The Cult of Microsoft : Blindly Following

So many people use Microsoft's software without critical analysis of its functionality or even its morality. By Everett Griffiths, Feb. 2005

If you're like most people, you've got a personal computer running some version of Microsoft Windows and you use its imbedded browser Internet Explorer (IE) to surf the web. How many hours of frustration has Microsoft's code cost you? How many of you consciously choose to use this software? Were you even aware that you have a choice when it comes to operating systems and browsers? The majority of computer users are not. They simply use computers to do three things: surf the web, write email, and for word processing. Any operating system can allow you to do these simple things, but only Windows brings with it such severe and repeated threats of viruses, system hacks, and spyware.

For a company of its size, Microsoft has released egregiously bad software. It has an income larger than the GDP of most countries, yet it struggles to achieve mediocrity when it comes to security and stability. How many viruses does your computer have? Microsoft will try to tell you that because it owns the lion's share of the market, it is targeted for the majority of malicious attacks, but this is only half of the story. For comparison, I turn to the market of web servers. Apache web server software runs on 70% of all web servers, yet Microsoft's IIS web server is what's targeted by almost all attacks. Why? Because it is more vulnerable. Shoddy code. Poor programming. Whatever Microsoft's glistening advertisements may say, not a single variant of Windows has made Netcraft's list of 100 web servers with the longest up-time. The fact that Windows is so vulnerable to exploits and that it is on the majority of computers makes it a brilliant choice for those wishing to spread viruses.

If you are running Windows and you haven't heard of Lavasoft's Ad-aware (www.lavasoftusa.com), you have spyware on your system. You probably have hundreds of these small programs running that track your surfing habits, purchases, passwords etc. and report them to the mothership. Even if your computer is fresh out of the box, you have at least one of these unsavory parasites on your system. How do I know this? Microsoft put it there. Until Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows shipped with Alexa spyware pre-installed, and that's not all. Microsoft has gone as far as to censor internet search results to make sure that we loyal netizens can read only those pages which carry "approved" messages. As recently as this past summer, typing in "Linux Windows" into a search field on google.com yielded close to nine million results. The same phrase on msn.com yielded exactly twenty-five, and most of these were either broken links or articles that Microsoft had penned itself attempting to discredit the Linux operating system. This unethical behavior bears more than a passing resemblance to what I experienced firsthand while living in Communist China: my letters were opened, web sites were blocked, and "editorials" in the local paper were meticulously fabricated by loyal comrades.

Those of you who love pop-up ads and a web browser that enables viruses to bring down your system, by all means, continue using IE. For the rest of you, download a real browser like Firefox (www.mozilla.org). It blocks pop-ups, does not run the potentially dangerous ActiveX code, and it uses tabbed browsing -- a time saving feature conspicuously absent in Microsoft's IE. And since this is an on-line version and I don't have to worry so much about word limits, let me just say that Steve Ballmer, the Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, is a total mecrab sucking whore. What kind of dimwit extolls the virtues of Internet Explorer to thousands and thousands of customers when he won't condescend to use it himself? Thanks, I needed to get that off my chest...

Can't get by without Microsoft Word? Think again. OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org) and Abiword (www.abisource.com) do the same thing without the viruses, and they're free.

If you are in the market for a computer, think before you buy. There are alternatives. Any computer can run Linux, and it's available at no cost. If you have need of commercial applications, Apple offers computers with OS X, an operating system that is years ahead of Windows. Critical flaws in Microsoft's XP operating system were discovered and circulated in technical circles within the first month of its release in 2001. Three years and thousands of exploits later, Microsoft finally addressed them with SP2. The next version of Windows, code named "Longhorn," is struggling to achieve features by 2006 that Apple and others implemented years ago. This past Autumn, I removed four thousand instances of spyware and close to three hundred viruses from Windows computers in our department. During that same time period, our Macintosh and Linux computers saw zero viruses and zero instances of spyware. Oh, and by the way, only 20% of my department's computers run Windows. Mmm... Still convinced Microsoft is "looking out for you?"

Surprised you haven't heard about this? Did you really think you'd read about it on MSNBC.com? How can we possibly take Microsoft seriously when it says it wants to enter the arena of "Anti-Spyware" and "Anti-Virus" software? Stop being Microsoft's pawns. This company doesn't deserve our respect or our money.