Hi, I'm a PC: How Microsoft Is Setting Itself Apart With Windows 8

[Steve Williams]

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wi...-post-pc-world/story?id=17559817#.UIlJJGmcV_g

 

[audioguy]

Assuming this new product is significantly technologically better than the iPad, there is no guarantee for success. I think the problem that MS faces is not so much technology but image. Apple has for it's entire existence (since the introduction of the original Mac), defined itself as a different kind of computing company. And now it has phones and music playing devices and desktop computers and laptops and tablets and the App store and iTunes and software to make them all play nice with one another. And it has great marketing. Will this new MS product make a dent in iPad/Apple sales. At some level, I'm sure it will.

But I firmly believe this is way more than about product. Time will also give us a view of how the new CEO responds to these kinds of situations. Should be fun and we, the consumers, come out the winner.

 

[amirm]

I really don't understand the "no compromise" tag line Microsoft is using. About 10 years ago when I was at Microsoft, we were competing with Apple for streaming audio/video. They came up with a completely separate "media player", the iTunes, to drive the iPod. We added the same functionality to windows media player. We thought, as with Windows 8, that a single media player was a better path as it served all needs. Problem was, we had millions of lines of code we were dragging behind us. A simple release would take us an entire year, during which Apple would do three revisions of iTunes. We once got ahead of iTunes with real-time album/song search (you typed the characters and the tracks/albums would filter out). That took us two years or so to get out. Apple I think copied us in three months! Even internally I was so frustrated with slow pace of innovation for us due to that bundling "no compromise" stance.

I think Google and Apple will race ahead much faster than Microsoft in mobile world precisely because they did not try to merge legacy desktop and mobile. Yes, I think using "itunes" to manage your mobile devices is overloaded and apple needs a more native approach than that. But from computer science and product development point of view, they will maintain nimbleness that Microsoft cannot afford. Their slow pace of OS releases of on every 2-3 years will be a major challenge for them.

 

[dafos]

Will windows 8 be finally immune or at least more difficult to infect with viruses?

 

[amirm]

It does have a suite of new security features. It stars with security boot where Windows authenticates the signature of the system underneath it before it starts. This reduces the risk of so called 'rootkits" and other software which installs itself between the hardware and Windows (and hence more or less can do whatever it wants without Windows blocking it). The system borrows some IE features like checking the "reputation" of file downloads and URLs. A file that is very infrequently downloaded for example will get you a warning (other browsers like Chrome also have this feature). There is a new Windows Reader that opens all files including .pdf which should (for now) reduces the attack vectors that sloppy Adobe software and its pdf reader let through. The kernel (core operating system) has more memory randomization to make it harder for viruses to exploit code bugs that force them to do things they are not supposed to do.

These and the fact that the installed base of Windows 8 will initially be small will mean a more secure environment. Over time though, people will get smarter and find new holes and the advantage will be reduced but for now, it should be better than Windows 7.

 

[dafos]

I've long wondered, therefore, is the seeming absence of viruses plaguing Macs due to it's much smaller installed base or is the nature of the OS itself more difficult infect?

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

I'll let Amir address the last part of your question, but I firmly believe the smaller Mac user base is the primary reason. If you're wanting to create havoc, may as well inflict it where it has the greatest impact.

 

[amirm]

It is both the small installed base but also the fact that many times these are done to get bragging rights and doing that against Microsoft meant more.

The threat however is just as serious if not more so on the Mac. Everyone reads about exploits of Windows. What is not read is that Microsoft has had 10 years of training to get good at responding. Apple has been sitting here, mostly complacent, thinking all is well. Worse yet, bragging about them not being victims. The exploits are coming and will spell disaster for Mac users if Apple and them don't take the threat just as seriously as Windows users. Here is a short and good read on that: http://readwrite.com/2012/06/18/why-...reatest-threat

So please put protections in place. After three decades of not doing so on my own Windows computer, I had no choice but to install the same. These guys are just getting too good.

I am very fearful of what is happening in mobile devices. So much of our personal data is on them. Yet the world is mostly sleep on what could happen there.