No matter what, MicroSoft will never really close all of the "backdoors".

Eaker

EXACTLY! The big news here really should be that anybody who runs the new XP software and uses the Explorer browser AND hooks up to any MS website can have their hard drives READ by Microsoft and that info can be pirated or sold or given to the government. Now, I'm told that this can be defeated by using another browser like Netscape. Still, I'm paranoid enough to wonder if something so easily "defeated" is really defeated. Am I making any sense?

And the proof for your assertions is............

Sursum Corda

Nah. Go figure.

I got all ready to install my copy of Windows XP. Just to be sure, I ran the "compatibility advisor". It printed out 4 single-spaced pages of warnings in its "Upgrade Report."

These reported no fewer than nine hardware element incompatibilities, including:

Nikon Coolpix Imaging Device
Peracom USB-Ethernet Adapter
Brother PT-2500PC printer
USB Finger Print Device by Persona
Universal Serial Port Bus Controllers
Creative NOMAD II
USB Compact Flash II
USBAT Mass Storage Class Adapter
HP ScanJet Source

It then went on to list no fewer than 12 software items which are not supported by XP:

Application Paths Applet in Control Panel
Caere Scan Manager 5.0
Clock
Disk Detector
Iomega Active Disk
Java Plug-In 1.3.1
Ram Idle
System Information
U.are.U Control Center
VirusScan (!)
Creative Labs Soundblaster Accessories
Xteq X-Setup

Finally it advised me that the following programs "might not work":

Audio CD Player
Adaptec EZ-SCSI 5.0 CD Player
Norton Disk Doctor (latest version!)
Norton Image Disk
Norton Registry Tracker
SiSoft Sandra 2001se Standard
Norton Speed Disk
DVD Movie Player

Under "Software that Might Not work with Windows XP", it listed:

Instant Updater
NOMAD II Detector
Pop-Up Stopper

It then stated that the following software "must be re-installed after the upgrade":

Creative Nomad II Manager
Creative Playcenter 2
DirectCD 5.0
Easy CD Creator 5
Intel Processor Serial Number Control Utility
Logitech Mouseware Drivers (!)
OmniPage Pro 10.0

Needless to say, my "upgrade" has not occurred.

I assume that the U.S. government is taking steps to ensure that Microsoft software is always hackable, by the government.

Good reason to go buy yourself 50 copies. I think the only sales for this XP turkey was from systems already loaded on new computers.

XP = Extra Penetrable

Microsoft latest OS underwhelms us yet again. Win 3.0, Win95, Win98, WinNT, Win2000, WinME (I'm sure I forgot a few), and now WinXP. None have ever been stable. I quit upgrading OS's back with Win98. In another year or so when I get a new machine I'll take whatever microsoft OS is bundled with it and learn to live with it.

Meanwhile on the job Ive used the robust, reliable, truely multi-tasking Unix OS for near 20 years, and expect to continue to use it for real computing work until I retire.

Microsoft just makes toy OS's, stubborn, fussy, and immature. Treat it as such and you wont get too pissed off about it.

Win 3.0, Win95, Win98, WinNT, Win2000, WinME (I'm sure I forgot a few), and now WinXP. None have ever been stable.

Did you mean to omit Windows for Workgroups? Or was that intentional since it was actually pretty stable?

And until the source code can be audited by a disinterested third party, like people from other countries, that would be a safe bet.

Linux is from Finland, OpenBSD is from Canada and FreeBSD is from the Peoples Republic of Berkeley, but it doesn't matter because trying to hide a backdoor in the OS is almost sure to be found. There are far too many young, bored programmers that have way too much time on their hands that would love to blow the whistle on such a defect.

Microsoft keeps their source locked up in a safe, so only they and the NSA know what's in it.

Knitebane

Tell you what...why don't YOU go research this and prove me wrong. I was told this by a former student who now majors in computers...and he's a guy I trust. But it makes perfect sense to me. Look forward to hearing the results of your research. Although the rest of us would probably be better served by acting as if it is true on the face of it and increasing our level of awareness and security.

~SIGH~ "Live and Learn....or you don't live long."

Yes, my upgrade to Windows 2000 pro would have been a nightmare if I had installed it a year ago (when my friend from microsoft gave it to me). I avoided installing because my computer lives on the edge anyway, and that kind of upgrade has always been a real pain for a few weeks afterwards.

Anyway, I installed it only because my win82-2 became so unstable that I decided to re-install it, but somehow I had lost the disk. So I had no choice but to break the seal and put in win2k.

It wouldn't work worth beans once I installed it (random hangs) and I determined it was probably a video card problem (rage 128). Anyway, I went into safe mode, logged onto the MS download site and found two patches. Each one included a fix for incompatibility to hardware I owned, INCLUDING my particular video card. I loaded the patches and my computer is virtually 100% stable. I have never experienced this kind of rock-steady performance and didn't really believe it was possible. However, if I had loaded win2K before the fixes came out, I would have been screwed.

My whole point is this: Never buy a Windows operating system until it has been in the hands of the general public for at least six months. And don't replace the one you have unless it is not meeting your needs. I have discovered and confirmed, more than once, that what microsoft calls "beta" is what other people call "alfa," and what other companies call "beta" is what microsoft calls "final release." So wait a few months and let other people be the beta testers.

Unless you have the time to kill…

Microsoft keeps their source locked up in a safe, so only they and the NSA know what's in it.

Is that as secure as that Social Security Lock Box everybody's talking about?

Did you mean to omit Windows for Workgroups? Or was that intentional since it was actually pretty stable?

I omitted it because I never heard of it. Like I said, I'm sure I missed a few. They have all have different degrees of stability, but none of them are solid.

The upgrade adviser isn't always accurate. Most if not all your hardware will work after installing Windows XP and reinstalled applications work fine. I'm even running that Java Sun 1.3.1 Runtime Environment the upgrade adviser says is NOT compatible with Windows XP with NO problems whatsoever! Its the stablest operating system I've ever tried and when it crashed it came right back up and running again like nothing happened. Try doing that with Windows 9X.

On top of this huge security flaw they are suing a small upstart software company because they are afraid of any serious competition that is in "their" domain.

Microsoft sues Linux start-up over name

GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE WINDOWS XP FIX

I AM A DIEHARD MAC-USER THAT CONFORMED TO A Piece OF Crap non Mac (PC) regretably.BUT.....some of the iMacs first out were junk.

BUMP so all who need it download the patch!!!

And...the only time I went to the microsoft web site was TO download a fix....

Great..... :-( I miss Mac's firewall.