Microsoft proposes Internet Tax to Clean Viruses

[jeff]

http://www.networkworld.com/news/201...s-net-tax.html

Or, in other words, get everybody to pay for security problems created by their software

1. Microsoft creates operating systems full of security holes without any regard to teaching customers good security practices such as not running everything as "Administrator".

2. The Internet gets overrun by viruses, bots, phishing, SPAM, etc... mostly caused by #1.

3. Microsoft wants to charge everyone an "Internet Tax" to help pay for cleaning up the mess they caused in #2 by #1.

[Mergs]

Sounds like they are taking their cue from Congress.

[migopod]

I think I like the idea provided one can obtain tax credits for not using Microsoft software.

[Inquartata]

4. It is one day discovered that Microsoft was really the source of most of those viruses, in order to create a "need" for the tax...

[telkanuru]

Just waiting for Google to come out with a PC OS, totally destroy Microsoft, plzkthx.

[kapunga]

You know, for some reason this reminds me of the corn subsidy. Proposing to tax everyone to hide the true cost of a lousy product.

"Maybe markets will make it work," - yeah, here is how the market will work. We tax Microsoft to clean up the mess they made, they can pass the cost onto their customers, then the market will correct itself.

[Greybeard]

watch for a reverse Internet boom

[Inquartata]

If that happens will Al Gore begin to get younger?

[melensdad]

Buy a Mac, don't pay the tax

[migopod]

watch for a reverse Internet boom

Don't worry. According to Newsweek* this whole internet thing won't really catch on.


*well, in 1995 anyhow...

[kapunga]

Buy a Mac, don't pay the tax

Or use linux. :-)

[I_luv_saber]

Linux is for commies.

Firefox isn't much better.

Capitalist dogs....

[Gav]

Just waiting for Google to come out with a PC OS, totally destroy Microsoft, plzkthx.

Oh god no.... you think it's bad now...

[WGH]

Oh god no.... you think it's bad now...

Remember that scene from Minority Report where they snuck in product placement by plastering the walls with personalized advertising?

Yeah. That'll be GoogleOS.

[telkanuru]

Remember that scene from Minority Report where they snuck in product placement by plastering the walls with personalized advertising?

Yeah. That'll be GoogleOS.

As long as it works, is streamlined, and has no security holes, I'm surprisingly ok with that.

[migopod]

So far according to their documentation it doesn't look all that bad. It's also an open source project, so it's going to be a bit tough to make it into a black-box OS.

[Gav]

As long as it works, is streamlined, and has no security holes, I'm surprisingly ok with that.

OH god no.


<Geek>
KHAAAAAAAAN!
</Geek>

[WGH]

As long as it works, is streamlined, and has no security holes, I'm surprisingly ok with that.

If it manages to have less security holes than Unix systems, I'd be amazed. Though I guess it'd better have massive security if it's going to have access to enough of my personal information to fund an entire desktop OS team with extremely targeted marketing.

Google Calendar already creeps me out when it reads my emails and suggests appointments. Soon it'll try to schedule the appointment, make dinner reservations, pay using my credit card, and provide a link for the exact type of antibiotics I'll need the next day.

[parrythis]

2. The Internet gets overrun by viruses, bots, phishing, SPAM, etc... mostly caused by #1.

Um, no.

Viruses have been around long before the internet and web-browsers, and they have been spread by infecting all kinds of code including code that was created by vendors other than Microsoft. Before the internet I used to participate in Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) and viruses could be found in virtually any program, game, etc. that a virus writer targeted. The vulnerabilities were in the application code, not the operating system. While Microsoft has, indeed, opened more than its fair share of security holes, they are not the culprit.

Bots are programs that do something automatically for someone . Computers are tools that can be used to automate complex or repetitive tasks, so a "bot" just takes advantage of that. A bot (short for roBOT) can be programmed to send out e-mails, post fake personal ads, insert advertising into forums, search for e-mail addresses in web-sites, etc. Basically, a "bot" does the same things that a person could do manually, but it automates the task. A "bot" can be created using any operating system. Once again, Microsoft is not the culprit.

Phishing is nothing more than social engineering. Phishing (as in "fishing for information") is simply an attempt by someone with nefarious intentions to extract personal information from you by pretending to be a reputable resource. Phishing can be done via e-mail, on a web-site, even by traditional snail-mail. It has nothing to do with operating systems. Microsoft is not the culprit.

Spam (I hate that name because the food product Spam is actually not bad.) is unsolicited e-mail. Plain and simple. It is no different than the "junk" mail that you receive in your mailbox at home. An e-mail server can be built to send out advertising via e-mail from virtually any operating system. Once again - not Microsoft's fault.

Don't get me wrong - I do not drink the Microsoft "kool-aid". Given a choice of databases, I will choose Oracle over SQL Server. When choosing an enterprise-quality server, I will go with a variant of UNIX over Windows. But these choices are because of functionality, not a "religious" devotion to one position or another.

So if Microsoft is not the culprit, who is?

Simple - the people who write viruses, bots, phishing texts, and spam. There are people out there that want to take advantage of others. If we tracked them down and cut off their fingers, I bet we would eventually see a lot less of all that annoying stuff.

[Lady Quindecim]

Viruses have been around long before the internet ...

Whoa, wait... There was a time when there was no internet? :shudder:

What did you guys do for pr0n?

Now, back to topic.

I do not feel that MicroSloth should be trusted to cleansing the interwebs of malware. That would be like trying to give an enema to... something that would not react well to have an attempted enema.

The Micro$oft issue is that they try to "put a computer in every home" without thinking about if they should. They make it so "easy" for people by doing everything for everyone. People do not have to know how to use a computer to use a computer. They do too much to be distributed like telephones. And telephones.... what, for mercy's sake, happened to phones that were just for calling people or being called? This may seem like it is completely off topic, but it is not. These parents that give their kiddos fancy phones with internet access.... Do you think they watch everything that their kids do on their phones... everywhere they go? These are the same parents that let kids have unsupervised broadband access in the privacy of their own rooms - and they do not have the discipline or education to use basic security practices.

There should be a "Stupidity Tax" - because there is no Sanity Clause.

Ugh... now I am tired.