Rightfully, this issue of Microsoft charging for its security protection, has got a lot of press play. Wrong-headed and repeating the Microsoft company line has been the offering of so called “expert pundits”. They are way off the mark. Microsoft should embrace Open Source to help rid itself of its open wound – chronically defective and insecure software.
There is a clear path that Microsoft should take here – it should be funding a not-for-profit, open Windows Security Group that releases its products and services to all the Security ISVs and services for free and in Open Source format. The Security firms can charge whatever they choose for packaging and delivering the goods – but since everybody gets access to the code, exhorbitant costs will not be possible. And because the source is open, getting fixes wont require waiting for the monthly patch go-round. And Microsoft owes it to an IT community that it has profited to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars while dishing out defective and insecure code for over 20 years while promising secure, trustworthy computing and New New New More Secure Than Ever Before Software.
No admission of guilt required – just do the right thing. Or have they utterly forgotten how in Redmond ?
(c)JBSurveyer 2006