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Create crappy software and then charge a subscription model for protection from it. Love it!!!

do you think microsoft might start writing viruses that only affect non-subscribers?
then it would be a proper protection racket!

Smells like good old maffia-spirit!

You have to pay for protection or...

don.t mean to burst anyone.s bubble, but doesn.t Apple do the same thing with Virex in .Mac? Sure Virex isn.t NEEDED AT ALL, and .Mac offers many other features, but it still always seemed a little shady to me especially because my mom got suckered into buying it for that protection alone (windows switcher)...

Yeah, because Apple would NEVER offer a subscription service...cough (dot Mac) that included virus protection...cough...cough (Virex.)

The gull of MS, just where do they come up with these ideas?

ummmm...Virex is NO LONGER PART OF .Mac..check your facts...

.Mac v.3 doesn't bundle Virex -- since the release of Tiger, it has been discountinued.

Besides, the virus protection was more to protect our Window's counterparts..not really for the Mac.

And it won't be long now before we'll start hearing from the "objective" media outlets that this is a "good thing"...

Let me get this straight...

Microsoft sells it customers its OS with security holes in it - AND THEN is now gonna charge the same customers for security/anti-virus software via monthly subscription to fill in the holes of the OS that Microsoft should have softed out anyway!!!!

WTF!

WHAT BLOODY CHEEK! - Talk about milk the customer for EVERY RED CENT!

IF Microsoft had actually written a decent OS in the fscking first place customers would never need this other software!!!

I pity anyone who uses Windows because you guys are being taken for a ride by the biggest ripoff merchants of the 20th century and are being screwed big time!!

Get the fsck away from using Microsoft products!!!

Windows users ARE TOTAL MUGS!!

MS makes the virus themselves, leaving holes open in their back door so they can charge for this protection services.

edit said: "Besides, the virus protection was more to protect our Window's counterparts..not really for the Mac."

Right. And as MDN said let people stupid enough to buy a Windows machine suffer. I'm not cluttering my Mac with unneccessary software just to protect Windows users from the consequences of their own bad choice.

MW: why Why should I protect them?

Mark as you yourself pointed out .Mac is more than Virex, much more. Your mother did not get suckered into anything. Look at all the benfits of .Mac, seriously. Backup is the most important thing in .Mac. Also Homepage. Not even talking about email, addressbook backup/lookup, bookmark backup/lookup. so many things.

Jefre

now, we have an interesting situation. microsoft as the Don. could have seen THAT coming. after all, microsoft is in dire need of money. and this will result in a "Fix the Symtom" and not the problem. delete viruses instead of fixing IE (for example)... mark my words hehe.

WE ARE MICROSOFT, BEND OVER AND PAY.

Add "thugs" to the list of descriptors for Microsoft.

Copycats, pilferers, philanderer, crooks, thieves, etc....you get the picture.

Ironic that my MW is 'wanted.' As in, 'Microsoft is wanted for high-tech crimes. Reward: Bill Gates' house."

Typical Microsoft. Let's blackmail our users in buying protection against there own software which they have not fixed! Let's make more money on our already crappy insecure operating system on top of what they charge to buy it initially. Way to go Microshaft!

Now is a really good time to switch to a Mac.

I simply CANNOT BELIEVE that MicroShaft would be able to get away with this. Where are the torches? Where are the pitchforks? Where are the villagers storming the monster's hideout? This is by far the most hideous abuse of monoply power in existance AGAINST THE CONSUMER! In the past, Frankenshaft has wielded its monoply power against other companies, but now it's against the consumer. THIS IS MONSTROUS!

MDNMW is view - as in: The view from my Mac is clean and clear.

SUCKERS OF THE WORLD: BEND OVER! I DRIVE

Bill Gates - May 2005


Can't believe Windozers are so friggin idiots. As Seahawk here repeated it many times: they drink PEE and MS tells them it is champaign for it has the bubbles, it is yellowish, and tastes funny. So it *has* to be good enough to be champaign.

Drink your pee Windows suckers!


UAUAUHAUHNAUHUAHANUHUHHUHUAHAHAHHAHAHUHAHUHAUHA

MAFIASOFT

Pay or we unleash the virus on you on the holes we know about, reveal in the public and put a patch when enough damage has been done, so to get more suckers in our nets.

MAFIASOFT

Car company makes cheap cars. They sell a ton. Brakes are faulty. Give out every other day. Somebody else offers to fix brakes every other day. Car company figures, hey we can make money not just fixing the brakes, but making your car honk a lot louder too

Can I set up a Direct Deposit account?

And as long as this is a profitable venture, MS will have no impetus to fix the holes.

Dear lord, this is just plain MEAN. They know HOW to make the OS secure, but instead of doing that, they'll rent you a plugin to do that? I can't even defend this one.

Bottom line...Micro$in succeed at taking advantage of stupid people once with their lame OS...why should they not do it yet again with another package. The door is wide open and it will be a moneymaker. That is what it is all about for them anyway, making money. The end user/consumer never has and never will be in the priority mix.

"Mafiasoft?"...Careful what you say there MDN, we don't want to be assosiated with M$, they deal in viruses.

The nerve!

Sell a license to shit software that exposes people to the world's sleaziest degenerates for exploitation and then sell them the supposed fix!

That's it, now I HAVE seen everything.

"We're designing the service so it will continually update and evolve over time," Ryan Hamlin, Microsoft's general manager of the Technology Care and Safety Group said in a statement.

Translation: "Instead of building you a new dam, we're just gonna hire a little Dutch boy to put his thumb in whatever hole is leaking today. It'll never actually hold water properly -- we'll just move the Dutch boy from place to place as long as you keep paying us. Thank$ for your cooperation, suckers."

and the suckers on the windows platform will line up to once again line the pockets of Microsoft...... or WILL THEY?

After 4 years and many promises Microsoft are done with making OS's...

..so of course they have to find another route to skin their customers!

"Sure Virex isn.t NEEDED AT ALL, and .Mac offers many other features, but it still always seemed a little shady to me especially because my mom got suckered into buying it for that protection alone (windows switcher)..."


One of the features of that virus protection is that it also finds Windows viruses and eliminates them. No big deal for the Mac user but a big deal for all the PC users that would receive a frowarded email with that virus attached.

I remember when news like this would affect me, but since i work for Apple now and not Dell, replaced my Dual proc Precision workstation with badass Dual proc powermac G5....use post production software made by apple....with an awesome OS, things like this just make me laugh.....i do turn my dell on sometimes to get online just for kicks, but turn it off quickly after i get bombarded with spyware........took me a while to let go of the pc, i defended it like a battered wife.......no longer..

Everyone has a certain amount of 'want' in their 'heart'. But, Microsoft's level of greed is sad.

When will Microsoft have enough money? It would be great to know.

Maybe we all could have a whip-round to help 'poor' Bill and Ballmer out!

> MacDailyNews Note: First of all, it's really Apple Computer Incorporated, not Limited.

Well, if MacDailyNews' world view was larger than, um, the country in which you live, you would see that the Reuters article is from the UK (.uk domain and UK logo on the page), in which there are no "Inc.s" but rather "Limiteds".

Yes, I agree that Microsoft is doing some ridiculous things here, but your tone is so 12-year-old-ish it's embarrassing.

The Mafiaoft Migration kit:

http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/450.html

s

Like a car company not putting locks on its doors.
Then to stop people from breaking on your car, the car company will sell add-o, after market locks (at an outrageous price,)plus theft insurance....

---------

Or stove maker that makes stoves that catch on fire, then goes into the fire extinguishing business...

-----------

Or food maker sells food that makes people sick, then starts selling medicine for those that get sick....

---------

Or every time you go to the doctor he injects you with a new sickness so you can come back he will fix you right up for that sickness, while giving you a new one....

----------
more examples anyone.....?

Here's the thing that really pisses me off:

In the one-on-one meetings with the Reuters article, some flunky from MS dropped in that line.

MDN is correct that they are clueless, so clueless they would of never known to put that line in unless some shill from Microsoft fed it to them.

I expect it from Microsoft. They are shit.

But the media is just a bunch of stenographers.

Maybe you should consider this "consider this"....

maybe it wasn't Apple the influenced your mother into buying .Mac for the virus protection... maybe it was her extensive and painful experience with using Windows that made her believe that all OSs were as vulnerable.

If you slowly raise the temperature in a room, you never realize how hot it's become until you step outside into a normal environment. I think Microsoft way have raised the temperature a little too quick on this new plan.

I am a .Mac subscriber and never have once felt the need or the benefit from using the anti-virus software that comes with it. It's just not necessary for me or the majority of Mac users.


For Gackle the Great,

very politically incorrect statement to follow:

Or a crack whore starting to sell her Johns the cure for AIDS..

so MicroSnot iis now going to sell you vaseline with sand included. What a royal scr3wing - anyone who goes for this is either a charter member of the masochist' society or just flat out deserves what they get.

mw - income as in- just think of the income MS is going to get from all the idiots

MDN, your headline says "subscrption" not "subscription"

Only Microsoft could turn a feature in Windows 95 into a series of massive vulnerabilities in Windows 98, 2000 and XP and then into a revenue stream in Windows XP and Longhorn. They will kill off all of their Anti virus rivals then let the product die like IE did.

Anybody who goes for this deserves what they get!

I deleted Virex from my Mac a long time ago. It seemed cool to get a free virus checker when I first got .mac. But then I came to my senses. Why should I tax my processor even a little to protect dimwit Windows users from themselves?

I have a builtin anti-virus in Mail. It is called BOUNCE.

"PC sucker: Hey, I sent you an email and it came back with a virus. My PC is all bonkers now"

"Sorry sucker, I have a Mac. Dontcha know viruses bounce off Macs? You sent it, you got it back. It is all yours. Enjoy your Wintel PC."

Gackle the Great wrote:

"Like a car company not putting locks on its doors."

There's a major car company that makes vehicles with mediocre-to-putrid crash-test ratings, and offers these vehicles with a subscription-satellite service that summons help when you've been in a crash. Um, if the vehicles were built better I might not NEED help automatically dispatched....

smegdude wrote:

"do you think microsoft might start writing viruses that only affect non-subscribers?"

They might try, but it takes years to get any code out the door so PC users have a while yet.

The biggest danger is subscription-only licensing for future Windows versions (again, assuming any see daylight). You check in with the mother ship and pay up, or your PC quits working. Wouldn't that be sweet....

What is really sad about all this is that all the other security/anti-virus companies out ther trying to make an honest buck are now competing with Microsoft.

The VERY bad news for all these companies (including Mcafee, Symantec, Sophos etc) is that in a couple of years time they are gonna out of business!

This is bad for everyone - but as usual it's Microsoft using it's monopoly to get in a market and totally destroy it.

"one care" "one care" "one care".... say it enough times and you'll go blind.

This should really bring about an avalanche of viruses now.

These guys really have no shame. None whatsoever.

It's actually quite remarkable.

My daily visit to MacUpdate found this iTunes plug-in...

RhapsOGL 2.5
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/18077

-
But for more fun check out the bottom of their page.

http://www.rhapsoft.com/

Note to MDN,

As a PC user who finally made the switch (converson?) to Apple this week let me offer a piece of advice:

Don't insult PC users (eg. by calling them suckers); all you'll do is alienate them and make them dig their heels in even more. They are not the problem - Microsoft is.

However, insult Microsoft all you want.

Mac Mini rocks by the way. iPod Halo Effect? It exists all right - I'm living proof.

Look, I love my Mac, but let's look at the facts. For a Mac you have to PAY to let QuickTime edit files or even play full-screen. Windows XP has that for free.

Windows XP comes with a great movie editor with tons of features. This comes with Windows XP for free.

For less then $20 a year, you get cross-platform email with 2GB storage. This is way cheaper and way better then the email you get for $99 a year.

Those who use both platform, I mean really use both, know that Windows XP was a lot to offer, including some things that must be purchased for an extra charge with the Mac OS.

I love my Mac, but let's try and understand the facts.

And what do you get for those $20 a year besides the email?
google mail is free by the way.

.Mac is not *just* the email, or *just* the web publisher, or *just*... you got it. You do not get email for $99 from .Mac .
If you divide $99 by all the products you get the mail part comes at few bucks per year.

Usually you get more than you need with .Mac and to get the same from other single vendors you add up more than what you pay for .Mac .

It is like CDs vs iTMS. If you want the whole thing and booklet and the rest get the CD. Otherwise get the one or two tunes you really like.

If you get .Mac *just* for the email and not making use of the rest you are of course throwing money away.

For QT Pro. They might make it available as regular QT, but then again, especially now with QT7 and H.264 we are talking 'bout products on different leagues.

Crap PCs also cost few hundred bucks, does that mean Apple is stealing your money when you get a dual G5?