Wojtek Zlobicki wrote:

<RANT>

Nothing other than anti-Microsoft propaganda. You cannot blame Microsoft for high market share. The main reason that *Nix hosts are generally more resilient to these type of worms is that it is less likely for a non informed administrator to administer a *Nix sever. If everyone that had a IIS box available on the big I, installed all related patches, worms like Code Red would never propagate very far.

No.... That's not true. The reason *Nix are generally more resilient is because most of the MUAs and other code on *Nix boxen don't run arbitrary code from the internet without requiring specific intervention from the user to cause the code to be accepted and run. (No ActiveX, no Virus Building Script (VBS), no OLE will run other software and activate hostile macros embedded in the code, etc.) Additionally, various *Nix hosts are usually built from code that has been subject to a fair amount of public review (in source form), and the manufacturers of *Nix code have generally been more open and forthcoming about the problems in their code. There is a complete mindset difference towards quality among most of the *Nix manufacturers vs. Micro$oft. Yes, there was a fair amount of anti-Micro$oft propoganda and rant in the article. However, most of it was backed up with documentable factual data on the shortcomings of Micro$oft products. Further, his statements about the mindset of how Micro$oft determines priorities in coding are as good a hypothesis as anyone, and certainly represent a plausible explanation for the current state of Micro$oft products.

Raw socket support in NOT a bad thing. I wonder if Robert Cringely and Steve Gibson are friends.

True, Raw socket support alone is NOT a bad thing. Raw socket support on hundreds of thousands of hosts that have well known exploitable holes that can easily be used by any script kiddie to generate widespread DDOS attacks in a completely anonymous fashion little more than a downloaded script are a bad thing. You'll notice he didn't rail against raw socket support in NT, *Nix, etc. He railed against an OS with all the security of Win3.1 being given raw socket support.

Has Robert studied TCP at all. Does he realize that there are already about 400 varieties of TCP, with many hacks and alterations. MS/TCP ?? A proprietary MSFT network/transport protocol !!

Most of those 400 varieties interoperate with current IP. If you look at the history of VINES IP, as in his example, I think you will find that his concerns are not as far off as you would hope.

My favorite part of the article

"Say goodbye to TCP/IP and to anonymous connections of any kind. Hello to Hailstorm, tracking everything down to the last mile, and a more business-friendly Internet with prioritized packet-handling. "

Mine too. Hopefully, folks will pull their heads out of Micro$oft sand long enough to realize just what this could mean.

</RANT>

I really encourage anyone with a tough skin, and looking for a good laugh to read this article.

I really encourage anyone running Micro$oft products in a production or connected environment to read the article with an open mind and attempt to truly consider the security model implemented in the various Micro$oft operating systems and the history of Micro$oft on the internet. Owen

----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Hough" <rch@acidpit.org> To: <nanog@merit.edu> Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2001 12:23 AM Subject: The Death of TCP/IP

...

Felt like sharing this most amusing article that I discovered in my Inbox this morning:

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20010802.html

-- Robert Hough (rch@acidpit.org)

-- *********************************************************************** "Every time you turn on your new car, you're turning on 20 microprocessors. Every time you use an ATM, you're using a computer. Every time I use a settop box or game machine, I'm using a computer. The only computer you don't know how to work is your Microsoft computer, right?" - Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, Inc., from an April 1997 interview in Upside Magazine *********************************************************************** "One World, One Web, One Program." - Microsoft Promotional Ad "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer" - Adolf Hitler