[LINK] Schneier on Storm Worm

[Stilgherrian]

On 6/10/07 8:05 AM, "Howard Lowndes" <lannet at lannet.com.au> quotes Schneier:
> "Redesigning the Microsoft Windows operating system would work, but
> that's ridiculous to even suggest."

I was about to write "I don't actually think it's ridiculous. It's just a
matter of will. Apple re-wrote their operating system stack when moving from
MacOS 9.x to OS X and it all went quite smoothly, considering."

But then I thought... Is that a reasonable comparison? Or is there something
fundamentally different about the way Windows and MacOS 9 are constructed
that makes them different classes of task?

I agree that there might be factors that make the Windows re-write harder.
Perhaps there are more and messier low-level program hooks to deal with. But
is that something fundamentally different, or just more "stuff" of the same
kind? If the latter, then what's stopping them getting on with the job?

"It would cost a lot of money" shouldn't be an excuse. If I sell 100,000
cars and it's later found that my design isn't fit for the public roads, I
still have to fix them.

Yes, there might be a big impact on the US economy, because Microsoft is a
major company. But diddums. Having to deal with these constant problems
ain't exactly cheap either.

I'm sure once I have another coffee I'll see the fundamental flaw in my
reasoning. :)

Stil
 

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