3. A View of Security from

Microsoft’s Security is often compared unfavorably with Unix. Even if Vista (and Longhorn) actually reach Unix-level security, they won’t be perceived as secure for some time yet. My friend ’Barking’ Eddie has an interesting take on parallels between the development of Unix security and Microsoft security.

Eddie believes that 30 years ago Unix had just as many security flaws as early Microsoft projects such as NT, the biggest difference, according to Eddie, is that Unix hushed up any security bugs, whereas each Microsoft flaw is aired in public. In fact Eddie tells the sob story about how he is the only Unix programmer who was ever sacked.

In a nutshell, Eddie’s job was to fix security and other bugs in early Unix systems. Eddie’s immediate boss could then say, ’Problem - there is no problem.’ It worked well until Eddie’s boss’s boss asked, "What actual does Eddie do? What are we paying him for?" Because the cover up worked so well, it seemed that Eddie never did anything, consequently, his boss’s boss sacked him. I could never separate the truth from Eddie’s bluster, but I do remember his anger at becoming surplus to requirements.

Fortunately, the saga has a happy ending as Eddie formed his own security company and is doing very well. Another of Eddie’s hobby-horses is that Microsoft never learned from Unix’s errors, for example they have been slow to tackle things like stack overflow and buffer under-run, which Unix cured very early on.

With computer security there is an element of always fighting the last battle. As a gross over simplification, Vista will cure all security ills, but only for about 6 months, then the hackers and ’bad boys’ will find new handles to attack. The only consolation is that if you stick with XP then you will be even more vulnerable to their dastardly tricks.

Vista Brings Opportunities

Before showing you an answer to a question I raised last time, I would like to give inspiration to those who see Vista as chance for a career change.

When Windows 95 was launched, my then boss gave me an opportunity. He made me part of his team which learned the new product inside out. This gave me my big break in computing. The launch of Vista reminds me that there will be lots of opportunities for those stuck in a rut to become expert in Vista and thus obtain a higher paid more rewarding job. I am not trying to recruit anyone to Vista. I’m merely making the observation that now is a classic time to have fun, learn a new product and get a better job.