The madness of Microsoft
by Glenn Caleval, August 29, 2007
In an incredibly stupid move the Gods of Microsoft have intimidated a free service into shutting its doors and leaving Microsoft users to fend for themselves against the Gates of Hell.
Autopatcher is (was?) a phenomenal effort by a dedicated group of people to ensure that everyone had easy, effective access to the necessary security patches and bug fixes that accompany the use of Microsoft’s operating systems.
If you are a sane computer user, you quit using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser long ago. You probably use Firefox or a Mozilla derivative.
However, if you are not using IE you also know the hell that Microsoft puts you through if you want to maintain the patches, fixes and security plugs that are required without end.
This is a company that produces a product that is literally subject to repair for ever and ever amen, and has the arrogance to insist that you must use its own insecure tools to access those repairs.
There is no simple download procedure unless you bend to the will of MS and use their Automatic Updates or use their insecure browser. And how about those automatic updates? Why wouldn’t someone want to use that service? Because Microsoft has demonstrated that it will use automatic access to your computer to do what it deems appropriate without regard to what you may want.
Recently Gates was caught “pushing” a secret program onto people’s computers who were connecting through auto update. So it is not a theoretical threat. This time around Gates said the reason for the secret installation of undisclosed software was to ensure people weren’t cheating.
Imagine if the supermarket snuck into your home and installed secret cameras in your fridge and cupboards because they wanted to make sure you were not shopping lifting food? It is bizarre beyond belief that anyone -- anyone -- thinks this stuff is okay. Just because they are entering your computer makes it no less a real entry. What if it’s your television instead of your computer? They could install a facial recognition program that automatically identifies everyone watching cable and if one of them is not registered as a subscriber or guest, the cable shuts down.
Regardless, the fact is that Microsoft has proven with its actions that any act, any policy and any infringement is justified in the name of protecting intellectual property.
For that reason alone it is perfectly understandable why many of us want to have as little to do with web sites or internet connections to Microsoft.
Besides, the way Mickeysoft rolls out updates is just difficult and prone to error.
So Autopatcher was born.
Autopatcher rolled together in one package all the security updates, bug fixes and system patches needed to keep a system current and relatively secure until the next hole was discovered.
One large download, a single executable and voila -- done!
They have been providing this service to the world for absolutely no charge for four years.
Today, August 29, 2007, the demons from the Gates of Hell contacted the web master of autopatcher.com and told them to take down the links to autopatcher downloads or face the fires of the demon. The site posted this statement:
“Today we received an e-mail from Microsoft, requesting the immediate take-down of the download page, which of course means that AutoPatcher is probably history. As much as we disagree, we can do very little, and although the download page is merely a collection of mirrors, we took the download page down.
We would like to thank you for your support. For the past 4 years, it has been a blast. Unfortunately, it seems like it's the end of AutoPatcher as we know it.”
This is an extremely foolish move by Gates. As much as he tries to buy his way out of his continuing sins against reason and basic fairness, no amount of philanthropy makes these acts somehow invisible. It’s not a case of this guy is giving money to good causes so let’s overlook his attacks on the roots of our evolving society.
What is more befuddling is that these actions against good solutions related to his own money making machines appear to be so obviously self-defeating. How is it not in Microsoft’s interest to have third parties distributing the security patches and bug fixes which they themselves distribute for free? At the bare minimum it saves Microsoft the cost of the bandwidth needed to get these fixes onto people’s computers.
By choosing to shut down Autopatcher, Gates is opting to encourage a more insecure infrastructure.
There are only two ways that these actions can make sense that I can think of:
Microsoft intends to allow XP to become so buggy that people are forced to abandon the operating system and thus downgrade to the monstrosity known as Vista. Or they intend to make accessing bug fixes so difficult that again they hope people will just give up and buy Vista. In such a plan it would be very important to close off access to easy updates and even worse, the existence of a community of volunteers who provide easy access to updates could eventually evolve into a community that actually builds independent fixes and patches with no involvement from MS. Best to kill it now. The other possibility is that MS has a plan to make people pay for the repairing the flaws that MS designs into the operating system. This is the real gold mine for MS and the best way to ensure Gates of Hell glitter even brighter. If they want to impose a paid subscription system just to get the software they sell to be safe for normal use, they cannot tolerate anyone who might make such repairs available at no cost. Consider the possibilities. MS will ensure that there are always a good supply of security threats available to ensure continued payment of subscription fees. It’s the perfect con job and it’s probably entirely legal. If it’s not currently legal count on the fellation nation in the U.S. Congress to pass more “intellectual property” laws to ensure it is legal.
I think it is no coincidence that the Gates of Hell spewed forth MS. MS is the abbreviation for Multiple Sclerosis, a horrible degenerative disease, acting against the brain.
MS is leading to erosion of the body politic’s brain, increasingly impaired vision, loss of control over movement and regressive thinking abilities. This is the real gift of Gates, MS for everyone.
In case I have been too obscure, I’m really, really pissed. How dare these suited thugs extort people into closing down?
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