On Tue, 2017-05-16 at 11:03 +0100, Richard Melville wrote: > Have you missed the worldwide condemnation of Microsoft where Windows > has allowed crackers to cripple systems, including our own NHS here > in the UK? Admittedly, much of this has been possible because > (unbelievably) Windows XP is still in constant use, however, any > proprietary system controls the user, and not the other way around as > it should be.
I don't think blaming Microsoft for that is particularly fair. As I understand it, they released patches for still-supported Windows versions more than two months ago - and someone told me that as a special case, they even released an XP patch this week, despite XP being long out of support. Personally I blame the NSA and friends, since this attack is built on leaked exploits that they've been taking advantage of for years. But no, protecting global IT infrastructure against crime and terrorism clearly isn't a priority for the 'intelligence' services... :( > Recently, I saw Windows XP on a consultants terminal at a local > hospital. When I expressed my concern, and disbelief, he just threw > up his hands in a helpless manner and said that that was what he was > stuck with. Now we've seen the results of that folly. My understanding is that that has little to do with Windows, and more to do with the nature of the healthcare IT industry - lots of small companies that sell something useful, but go out of business quite quickly due to an inability to make money out of it. As such, hospitals are full of unsupported old software - often tied to specialised hardware - that can't easily be made to work on a newer OS. If the same companies released software for Linux, they'd be in the same position... a binary-only solution that only works with a specific RedHat version dating to 2005 or so. Simon.
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