April 2007 Archives

Yup. I just said it: Windows is a perfect platform.

Obvious counter argument: go out there and search for "windows virus scanner" and check that out: 1.38 million results on Google. 53,000 if you include the quotes.

Either I'm wrong, or Google is lying to me. That's a lot of results for a virus scanner. "Windows virus" turns up 134 million. Clearly, Windows is anything but the perfect platform. My reasons as to why it is regarded as an imperfect, shoddy, spyware-ridden platform are very clearly written in a packet I got ahold of recently, concerning a website which is used extensively at work. The website in question will be launching with a new version soon, and to inform their customers of the upcoming changes and needed alterations to your OS (read: Windows and Internet Explorer) in order for this website to work.

Quoted directly from this thirty page packet: ... "you will need to download a new control from the [XX] site, this requires that you be administrator of your machines for that 1st export only. Unless it is a big company with an IT department, you are likely administrator already."

Let's put this in linux terms. "You are required to run as root in order to get this piece of software to work. You are already running as root, so don't worry about it."
The problem with Windows isn't Windows. The problem with Windows is the absurd number of poorly written software packages, all of which require administrator rights. This is a website, not a system reconfiguration utility. "I know! And, so, I only require administrator rights the first round!" One of these days, I'm going to go find out why it requires administrator rights at all.

This packet then proceeds to outline all of the needed steps to get this new website up and running on the individual computers. This process must be repeated for every user on every computer. For me, this means driving between three buildings, located in Sandy, Salt Lake, and Bountiful. For the curious, that's a half-hour drive. The total machine count is 37. Total miles driven will be just over 50. Time spent in transit will be roughly an hour and a half, all things considered. Once I hit the first building, however, the real work begins. This packet outlines that the following changes need to be made:

1. Adjust the settings of the popup blocker to whitelist said website.
2. Ensure that the cache settings are set to check for new versions of pages automatically (and then clean the cache out).
3. Add the website to the "Trusted Sites" security zone.
4. Adjust the security settings for the "Trusted Sites" zone to allow/do the following: Enable automatic prompting of ActiveX controls, enable binary and script behaviors, download signed ActiveX controls, download unsigned ActiveX controls, initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe, run ActiveX controls and plugins, script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting, enable automatic prompting for file downloads, enable file downloads, and enable font downloads. (These are the instructions for IE6. IE7 also includes enabling Loose XAML, XAML browser applications, XPS documents, allowing previously unused ActiveX controls to run without prompting, and oddly, disabling video and animation on a webpage that does not use them.)
5. Go ahead and re-read point number four there. I even put the relevant points in bold for you, so by all means, have at it.
6. Check the computer for any of the following toolbars, and if they are found, reconfigure them all individually to also allow popups from the website in question: Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, "or anything besides Standard Buttons, Address Bar or Links."
7. The remaining pages are dedicated to disabling or reconfiguring any other possible popup blockers.

It should be noted that not one of those steps included instructions that told me how to download and install said unsigned, marked not safe for scripting, "I need admin rights to continue" ActiveX control.

So, come the Monday morning that this launches, I get to drive around more than I care to, tweaking more settings that need tweaked, decreasing the default system security, installing ActiveX controls as administrator.

There is nothing wrong with Windows; there is everything wrong with the average software package (and/or website, as is this case). Because of this, Windows doesn't even have a fighting chance. If a website you loaded up suddenly popped up a box stating that it wanted your root password to continue, what would you do?

Why don't you do the same thing on Windows though?

Oh, right, the software requires it.

The operating system isn't broken, just all of the third-party software is.