Anti-Microsoft Group Aims to Block Windows Vista

[Uraniun235]

Source

A public interest lawyer who is also intending to run as a Republican in the 2006 Illinois gubernatorial race is taking his fight to Microsoft in hopes of preventing the company from releasing what he calls "bad code."

Andy Martin of The Committee to Fight Microsoft on Tuesday announced his intentions to block Microsoft from releasing Windows Vista. Martin intends to ask Microsoft for an unconditional warranty that the operating system is free of bugs that could result in security vulnerabilities.

"Bill Gates sells the public defective products, and then expects us to spend years being his guinea pigs, while he corrects the myriad of defects and vulnerabilities in his defective code. This is mass consumer fraud." Martin argued.

"It is unacceptable corporate behavior. Over four years after Windows XP was released I still receive regular 'updates' and 'bug fixes,' which reflect a product that was originally scandalously defective."

Windows 95 was a "disaster" and Windows 98 only created new vulnerabilities, Martin said. He argues that no company in America gets away with selling a "defective" product the way Microsoft does.

Also called into question were Microsoft's claims that Windows XP could run on 128MB of RAM, encouraging the sale of underpowered computers by its partners. "The Committee to Fight Microsoft is launching a legal action effort to bar such practice, in advance, for Windows Vista. Bill Gates, you are on notice," Martin said.

In response to the allegations, a Microsoft spokesperson told BetaNews: "Building confidence and trust in computing continues to be one of Microsoft's top priorities and is crucial to the success of the technology industry as a whole. Over the past three years, Microsoft has implemented a range of new security programs, including the Security Development Lifecycle, which has resulted in measurable improvements in the security of Microsoft's software."

"While there is no such thing as a state of absolute security, Microsoft believes Windows Vista will be the most secure version of Windows the company has ever shipped," the spokesperson added.

Martin is a public interest lawyer from Chicago who has worked on several consumer rights cases, including antitrust lawsuits dealing with network television affliation agreements in 1969 and his own antitrust effort against Microsoft in 1998.

He announced an exploratory committee to run for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Illinois in January of this year.

I realize if we asked politicians to stop talking about things they didn't understand, there would be a deafening silence in the Capitol, but this shit is starting to get absurd.

[Dahak]

Source

"It is unacceptable corporate behavior. Over four years after Windows XP was released I still receive regular 'updates' and 'bug fixes,' which reflect a product that was originally scandalously defective."

If he arguments from there, better stop more, if not all, software, because they publish patches and bug fixes...

[Duckie]

Holy Hemorrhaging Jesus, what a computer illiterate.

Incidentally, restaurants keep improving their menus. Obviously we must not allow eateries that release incorrect food selections to go unpunished!

This news is alarming because as anyone who has played one of their games has known, we need to immediately launch a nuclear strike on Paradox Interactive and burn it with the cleansing flame of the atom until the Swedish land it sits on is barren and despoiled for eternity. Just banning their products isn't enough in this case.

[Praxis]

Source

"It is unacceptable corporate behavior. Over four years after Windows XP was released I still receive regular 'updates' and 'bug fixes,' which reflect a product that was originally scandalously defective."

If he arguments from there, better stop more, if not all, software, because they publish patches and bug fixes...

Geez. I'm all for stopping a monopoly, but with nonsensical arguements like these I don't know who to root for.

[Instant Sunrise]

quoth the EULA

Microsoft and its suppliers provide the Software and support services (if any) AS IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS

They've had their asses covered on this for a while.

[Vertigo1]

As much as I don't care for MS, that idiot has no real arguement. Seriously, bitching because they keep releasing big fixes?! Where I come from, thats called proper maintenance.

[InnocentBystander]

quoth the EULA

Microsoft and its suppliers provide the Software and support services (if any) AS IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS

They've had their asses covered on this for a while.

I think the argument is that they shouldn't be allowed to sell their software with so many flaws.
I understand their case, windows flaws can cost companies untold millions of dollars, but I think what these guys are asking is simply not something that can be delivered, by anyone.

[Solauren]

Someone should point out to the guy that it is impossible to test out an application the size and complexity of the Windows Operating System and find all possible bugs, because you'd have to test it on every possible hardware combination it will ever run on, and every piece of software that could or would be installed on it.

Which is impossible, as new hardware and software are being released on the time.

Off course, Microsoft could always make Windows less complicated, but still...

'bug free software', semi-realistic. Odds of that go down as the program gets more cmplicated however.
'bug free Windows' only happens on houses when you squeey it regularly

[Instant Sunrise]

You want bug-free software, this is about the most complicated app that can be considered bug-free.

Code: Select all

public class Main {
     public static void main(String[] args) {
          System.out.println("Hello World!");
     }
}

(forgive the java-ness of it)

[ClaysGhost]

(forgive the java-ness of it)

Only if the JVM implementation is bug-free!

The smallest piece of code I've ever seen was a two-byte machine coded in assembly that could reset most x86 PCs. Since it couldn't guarantee a reset on some clones, I don't think it was bug-free. So I think there's little hope for many thousands of lines of compiled high-level code.