On Wed, 2002-12-11 at 12:21, Elky Grrrr... wrote: > if MS would make software for linux, or make a linux distro... it > would be the best linux suite ever!!!
This conclusion doesn't necessarily follow, given the premise. I doubt this conclusion would hold true _if_ they will resort to the same development patterns that they currently practice should they pursue to diverge into other platforms (if we'll talk about software quality). Mainly I'd put into question the company's software engineering practices (granted already that they've got many very bright and talented programmers in their fold, it amazes me that there had been so many technological as well as security lapses in their software for all this time. I don't know what they were thinking when they designed their APIs or software but I don't buy their explanation as an excuse for the relative lower quality of some of their software compared to others[1] - I doubt it's primarily programmer quality issue but rather more on the corporate SE practices they employ) But I'd say they've invested much on making their system more usable (by sacrificing some technical merits with their decisions in software design) for the common folk who'd not care a damn on technical excellence (but this last assertion irritates the more technically-minded developers/people, which unfortunately, remains a relative minority in the computer userland base). > just think about it, it would be just like mac osX,..... unix based > but everything works!!! unlike linux today, you have to figure out > everything!! It'll be exciting if MS would resume their Unix line (duuhhh, will this ever happen again?) and scrap the current implementation of the Win32 API(duhh - this is as close to the probability of creating a file named 'con' or 'nul' in Windows) --> but then it'll be a very suicidal thing to do. Then again it'll just be exciting. Maybe they can help improve on the usability factor should they resume the Unix line. The Win32 API, due to its complexity of design (given so many factors) has suffered some serious security flaws [2] You need not figure everything - only the things you'll need to use. Even on Linux. It depends on what kind of user you are, or what kind of user you want or need to be to have the necessary motivation on what thing you'll need to learn. MacOSX just hides the seeming complexity via the userland tools, while Windows hides it first via their API, and then by the tools. [1] J. Forrester, B. Miller, "An Empirical Study on the Robustness of Windows NT Applications using Random Testing" [2] C. Paget, "Exploiting Design Flaws in the Win32 API for Privilege Escalation" -- Paolo Alexis Falcone [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fully Searchable Archives With Friendly Web Interface at http://marc.free.net.ph To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
