Gates on Spyware and OS Competition

Ant writes "CNET's News.com has an article that says Microsoft plans to offer its own anti-spyware software." prostoalex writes "Both OsNews and InfoWorld talk about Bill Gates' speech at the Computer History Museum in California. Gates is noting that Linux is taking over, and claims that 10 years forward Linux and Windows will be the only OSs left in the market."

I hate to say it

[OverlordQ]

but if Bill Gates says it too, it must be true:

*BSD is Dying! (And will have died in 10 years)

Just had to get that out of the way.

Oh the cosmic justice...

[rune2]

Hit by his own security vulnerabilities! I can just picture Gates running Ad Aware... heh maybe someone should suggest that he switch to using Linux and Firefox!

Microsoft is planning to offer it's own...

[Anonymous Coward]

anti-spyware software? Does this mean that when it's run that it will offer remove Windows? If so, this will be the first good thing to come from Microsoft.

Optimistic Gates?

[chrispyman]

That's quite interesting that he expects Linux to still exist 10 years from now. I thought that he expected that his SCO henchmen would actually be able to succeed in killing Linux.

...and

[Anonymous Coward]

those two operating systems will be running on Tablet PCs with 64k RAM and DRM. Oh and BOB.

Nuclear Reactor Market??

[civilengineer]

"We ourselves are not going after the e-voting market or the nuclear reactor control market," Gates said.

Who is the leader in the Nuclear Reactor Control market right now ? (I mean, what OS is running in nuclear reactors? I for one hope it's not Windows ME)

oh god ...

[Anonymous Coward]

... here come the mac zealots ...

spyware?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, so MS is going to release a program to erase Windows from my system?

Re:Mac OS?

[heptapod]

If Longhorn is going to be a copy of OSX then won't it be a BSD clone with a pretty interface? The options would be reduced to Linux and a variant of BSD.

Re:oh god ...

[Anonymous Coward]

What?
You got something aginst Macs?
Well do you punk?!

Re:Bill Is ALWAYS Right

[InfiniteWisdom]

You guys are all still using >64k of RAM right?
I think that is quite a safe assumption. Not too many PCs ship with 32kb of RAM these days. Heck many pocket calculators probably have >64k RAM.

Re:Too much control?

[rincebrain]

Submit one meeellion dollars, USD.

Duh.

Finally, Microsoft is thinking clearly!

[Ride-My-Rocket]

Gates said Microsoft will offer software to detect malicious applications and that the company will keep it up-to-date on an ongoing basis.

I don't think people need software to detect these malicious applications; when their home pages get set to http://www.pornomonkeysonmeth.com and their 3.2 Ghz processor is pegged at 100% trying to open up Notepad, I think they're already well aware that malcious applcations are present on their system.


CNET's News.com has an article that says Microsoft plans to offer its own anti-spyware software.

Microsoft has also gone public with their newest strategy: develop software that will prevent maltware from being installed in the first place, instead of merely detecting its presence. They have codenamed this software "Linux", and it will be offered free of charge to all existing customers.

Re:Mac OS?

[mini me]

Maybe he is planning on buying Apple? Which would mean that MacOS would become Windows.

Re:Excellent.

[pmazer]

You should patent it before they get the chance

In other news...

[Binky The Oracle]

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Association of Wolves, Foxes, and Stoats today announced that they would be launching a new initiative, providing security services for hen-houses and rabbit hutches nationwide.

"We're pleased to be able to expand our influence and provide this much needed security," said B. B. Wolf, the association's president-elect. "It's important to recognize that a crisis does exist, and who better to determine appropriate measures than us?"

In a separate interview, Mr. Wolf, accompanied by some of the association's external board members, forecast that given the popularity of coyotes in the western states, wolves, foxes, stoats, and coyotes would be the only mid-range predators in ten years. "Sure, you're gonna have your bears for the big stuff, and we might get some insignificant competition from barn cats and raccoons," said Wolf, "but I don't forsee any other real competition in the field other than the coyotes. And frankly... well, the coyotes show some innovation, but we really don't think they can compete on our playing field. Plus, they have fleas."

For more information on the National Association of Wolves, Foxes, and Stoats, please contact Jack Valenti, press secretary.

Another choice quote from DEC...

[Anonymous Coward]

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home."
-- Ken Olsen (1926- ), President, Digital Equipment, 1977

I have a 21066 myself, I want to get another newer model though. Here's another good one...

"Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 18 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1.5 tons"
-- unknown, Popular Mechanics, March 1949

Re:What an endorsement

[InfiniteWisdom]

building up the OS to do everything short of singing and dancing for you

True. You have to install not just the OS, but MS Office to get clippy.

Re:No Mac OS? What will the Mac Business Unit Thin

[NanoGator]

"I dunno, I'll consult my Magic 8 Ball."

Hey! It says Outlook not so good! Amazing!

Re:oh god ...

[LoadWB]

Could be worse... a bunch of us Amiga-zoids could start preaching about the release of OS4, and how AmigaOS could only get better in the next decade.

Now, please excuse me while I go cry a little...

Re:Mac OS?

[atlasheavy]

I know this is off-topic, but... The Supreme Court of the United States Box? What in the world is that? Some sort of large wooden crate filled with nine elderly law-wranglers?

Spyware

[Anonymous Coward]

Now if we could get the ISV's to put spyware under one tree:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windo ws\Curr entVersion\SPYWARE\Run

Re:800lb Gorilla

[Zorilla]

Sisco? Is that a brand like Sorny, Panaphonics, and Magnetbox? I guess you're lucky it still works.

Crap

[melted]

If _BillG_ has to run anti-malware programs, everyone else is in _deep_shit_.

Re:800lb Gorilla

[DeltaSigma]

Heck, Mr Gates himself faces the very same spyware problem.

Hell, I can fix that problem. Set up XPde on a Gnu/Linux box when he's not looking. He'll never know the difference!

Re:800lb Gorilla

[dlelash]

You should close your tag, or it might get you into trouble out in the real world at some point.

In other words...

[Linker3000]

Let me translate for you: "Our software leaks like a sieve....so we're going to start selling corks..."

Re:Mac OS?

[HyperCash]

Well, it sounds like it was one that came with a Mac.

Re:800lb Gorilla

[GreenKiwi]

Heck, Mr Gates himself faces the very same spyware problem.

Nahhh... He runs OS X and doesn't have to worry about it.

Well...

[pab89]

I asked BonziBuddy and he says not to get an anti-spyware solution.

You, Sir, are a Fuckwad

[Zen Punk]

Who are you, Cheif Asshole at the Global Ministry of Jobs?

Just what is your vendetta against this kid? Why are you resorting to name-calling over some performance reviews?

Methinks you are the one bullshitting Slashdot, although I can't imagine why. This guy actually showed his badge. Why should anyone beleive that you are HR at Microsoft?

Hmmm...well, actually, the readings on the asshole-meter match up quite nicely with the levels for "Microsoft Administration"....

I guess you're the real deal.

Welcome to Slashdot.

[Zen Punk]

Home of the Bad Analogy.

Re:Bill knows he's lying, and heres why

[Grizzlysmit]

As I said in another post, I think he knows darn well Linux isn't going to be the only other arround. He's just trying to get everyone else to gang up against Linux. It is a brilliant strategic move on behalf of MS, and a classic divide and conquer strategy. He's trying to do the same thing between redhat and novell too.

I'm sure this is true, but open sourcer's need not worry, so long as you have a strong FOSS community about your OS, it will live, so despite the periodic articles *BSD, and all the other non-linux open source OS's look plenty strong to me.

But don't worry we should still see lots of X is dying stories :-P.

Re:800lb Gorilla

[BurritoWarrior]

Heck, Mr Gates himself faces the very same spyware problem.

He uses Firefox.

Re:OS X and FreeBSD

[vettemph]

Well, I predict that competition itself will be dead 10 years from now. Mac and linux will co-exsist in a peaceful rainbow filled future.

PS. I also predict that Mac OS X will be dead 10 years from now, but before you get your aqua colored panties in a bunch, Mac OS XV will be going strong.

Re:Mac OS?

[Jesus_666]

Meh. Until OS X those were just toy revolutions in toy industries, inferior even to cave paintings.

Re:800lb Gorilla

[DuctTape]

9/10 people I met didn't know what they were doing, but they were too good at political maneuvering for it to matter.

Gee, sounds like Dell. Most of the business cards people there had that I ever saw during my short stint at Dell were from fellow Dell employees. I think they traded them like baseball cards. I would have gotten promoted there before I left, but I didn't have enough Dell business cards.

Seriously, tho, not enough people that mattered knew me. At least I got out before the first layoffs came.

DT

Re:oh god ...

[Binky The Oracle]

Funny... the Mac folks probably think of themselves as the troopers... a small, elite, well-equipped group with expensive gear hopelessly defending themselves against the onslaught of a giant, expendable, (spam) zombie horde with better market share.

When you then factor in how the brain bug sucked all of the knowledge out of the humans... well, I guess the question becomes who among the MS management is the brain bug?

STOP ME BEFORE I CONTINUE THIS HORRIBLE ANALOGY ANY FURTH....UNNNGGGggghhhaaaaaaa!