Microsoft releases biggest patch on record

Source: Reuters

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp issued its biggest software patch on record on Tuesday to fix a range of security issues in its programs, including the yet to be released Windows 7 operating system.

In a monthly update sent to users of its software, Microsoft released 13 security bulletins, or patches, to address 34 vulnerabilities it identified across its Windows, Internet Explorer, Silverlight, Office and other products.

It said six of the patches were high priority and should be deployed immediately. The patches -- which update software to write over glitches -- are designed to protect users from hackers or malicious software downloaded from the Internet.

Several of the patches affect Windows 7, the software maker's new operating system, which will be officially unveiled next week, but has been widely used in test versions.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE59C5EJ20091013

When will they simply introduce the Microsoft PATCH Operating System?

I would be more concerned if they were not releasing patches. Take a look at any open source project and you will just as many security patches released.

the Apache servers. Get it?

billion dollar operations behind them.

I'm looking forward to a Linux flavor that's user friendly, and it's getting closer and closer.

First Debian Linux and now, Ubuntu. Everything I need is included. For free.

I thought that Ubuntu does not ship with proprietary audio and video codecs, among other things.

You can manually install different a/v players and each seems to come equipped with a variety of codecs. If I can't play a file with one app, one of the other three will work.

All of my a/v applications take a far smaller byte of my HDD than a single installed instance of Windows Media Player or Real Player, and I don't feel I have to worry about any of them being spyware (which I've never been able to say about any of the Windoze products which seem to be online at all time and, I suspect, reporting on every file on the HDD).

If you've got an old PC laying around, check out Ubuntu. My dual boot setup was a bit wonky and MS kept deleting the Linux install with every upgrade (quelle suprise).

The most recent distro, Mint 7, is based on Ubuntu 9.04.

I recently reformatted an Acer netbook, deleting the OEM XP and transitioning to Mint.

Everything worked flawlessly - after installation all I had to do was enter the WEP key for the wireless and I was up and running.

VERY impressive.

http://www.linuxmint.com

It's a normal thing in the software world.

:crazy:

Neener! Neener! :bounce:

Linux ROCKS!! :headbang:

Check it out. It's so fast. If you have a Pentium III with 256MB RAM, it'll load EVERYTHING into RAM! EVERYTHING!!! Operating system, AND applications. It's only 200MB on disk, and screams on old hardware. Check it out at http://www.puppylinux.org
It's my fave distro of Linux.

Free-BSD is essentially Linux, and OS/X is Free-BSD with a shiny X-server in front of it.

and I don't want a Linux ripoff, thank you very bloody much.

CODE OR DIE!!

Everyone is free to do what they want with it.

You can download FreeBSD and do anything you want with it, including reselling it to make a billion dollars the way Apple did. Linux, on the other hand, comes with strings requiring source code releases, restrictions on hardware dependencies, limitations on certain uses, etc. In fact, the GNU GPL license, which makes Linux "free", is twelve printed pages long and is full of rules, restrictions, and caveats. The copyright for BSD, in comparison, is two paragraphs long and boils down to two simple concepts: "1. You are responsible for any damage you do with this software. 2. If you release any derivative source to the public, it must also be BSD licensed"

BSD is a "free" operating system.
Linux is a "greater good of mankind" operating system.
There is room for both, but one shouldn't be confused for the other.

:rofl:

BSD, even Free BSD kernels predate Linux by a considerable amount of time.

-Hoot

BSD predates Linux and is a real UNIX distro that was written by real commercial developers including IBM. Linux was created later by Torvalds as an IP free "clone" of BSD and the other *nixes that would be released under the newer GNU license. Linux was created to imitate BSD, and enforce a more open environment at the same time.

More importantly, Linux would not exist today if not for BSD. The functionality of the modern *nix environment was largely developed within the SunOS and ULTRIX environments, which were both BSD derivatives. Those environments gave us many of the applications and conventions which became standard in the UNIX world, and which were later copied by Torvalds.

Linux is an upstart ripoff compared to the storied history of BSD. Claiming that "Free-BSD is essentially Linux" is both insulting to those who helped to develop the *nix platforms, and displays a serious lack of education about the history of Linux computing.

I knew that, just that BSD and Linux are so similar, it's easy to confuse them.

.. At my age, getting blown by Apple is as good as I can get.;)

But nobody mentions it because everything's free and that's disruptive to the market.

What I want is for WINE to be perfect and game developers to write for OpenGL as well as DirectX. Then we can all walk away from Micro$oft once and for all.

includes Office patches.

And some MS Office Service Packs were bigger.
I will admit that Windoze DOES suck, but it pays the bills.
Oh, and BTW- It was 18 bulletins, not 13.

The truth is, you can't patch poop with poop. It just falls apart, which is why they keep trying to write better software every year and a half or so.

it was 10 megs.... now if you meant to say this patch was one of the more critical patches, than maybe I'd understand.

"34 vulnerabilities.

"In a monthly update sent to users of its software, Microsoft released 13 security bulletins, or patches,{b} to address 34 vulnerabilities it identified across its Windows, Internet Explorer, Silverlight, Office and other products."

Now that sounds bad, but the title sounds worse.

:D

How wonderful to be able to simply plug something in and it works like it's supposed to. But I guess convenience isn't appreciated by everyone.

Ubuntu, Open Suse, and others are just that, plug and play, not plug and pray, as is Windoze.

If you want to slam Windows on something, targeting its vast peripheral support seems like an idiotic place to begin.

at least 100 times, and it says that it needs a driver. I plug it into another Windoze box, and it doesn't... That's what I mean by plug and pray. BTW -- Both machines are of the XP flavor.

I've used OpenSuse 11 as well as Ubuntu.

You won't hear me bashing linux for server applications(especially web servers) but anyone that believes Linux is a good home use solution is lying to him/herself.

And all this hype with Macs is just that, hype. It's why you will find many Mac users having to run windows under a virtual machine.

and nobody has complained that they didn't work, or that something that they plugged in didn't work. True, most of them have only plugged in a USB drive, but as I mentioned in a previous post, I just plugged in a USB drive into one XP box, and it asked me to load a driver. Unplug it, and put it into another XP box, and it doesn't. Plug it back in the original one, and VOILA! no driver needed! Go figure!?

I thought belonging to the Apple cult was the best loony I could get! It's a cheat! You guys are way more insane than us!

I feel like a Methodist in a Pentecostal world.:cry:

One of the Microsoft Office security updates I installed yesterday was more than 250 MB all by itself. How do they expect someone with limited bandwidth to handle that? My 3G connection has a 5 GB per month bandwidth limit. So those Microsoft security updates take a big big chunk of that.

I wish they could just make their products secure in the first place so that they don't have to continuously do these large bandwidth intensive security updates.

I haven't received a patch. :shrug:

If you do not have AutoUpdates turned on, go get them manually at
http://update.microsoft.com

It's version 9.04, am I doing something wrong?