Submitted by A Microsoft patch meant to fix critical security flaws in Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 is causing trouble for some users, the company said Friday.
Critical Windows Patch May Wreak PC Havoc
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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65 Comments
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2005-10-15 3:26 pm
ma_dI don’t think I’ve heard of this big a break on a kernel that wasn’t marked mm (the test kernels). The worst I’ve ever had, on an mm kernel, was that it randomly sucked up CPU cycles… Didn’t slow me down from rebooting and selecting an older kernel
.Of course, I now upgrade kernels all of about every YEAR so I’m not too worried
.I don’t think this is that big a deal. People will have to click 8 spots and reboot (oh noes, the poor morons!). But it is a lesson for Microsoft: Increase your number of test machines and play with permissions on them…
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2005-10-16 4:26 pm
This reminds me of the time I “fixed” ssh across a network. Yeah, I fixed it alright.
This quote made me chuckle:
Even if users experience PC trouble after installing the patch, they will still be protected against any attack exploiting the Windows flaw, a Microsoft representative said.
And if you bury your computer in concrete, it’s pretty secure too.
As long as it isn’t plugged into the inet.
Off topic, but the nice thing about ssh is that the current session stays running through a restart of the daemon, so as long as you leave the current session connected, you can test logging in to a new session and if it doesn’t work, you can still fix it
…. just as long as you don’t lose connection 
Windows software causing more harm than good? THE HELL YOU SAY?!
NO…NO…I WILL NOT LISTEN TO THIS…THIS IS JUST…TOO BIG A SHOCK
of the cure being worse than the disease.
How about the title being shortened to “Windows may wreak PC havoc”?
Two weeks ago one of our win2k prof computers, who had automatic updates enabled, lost nearly all tcp/ip connectivity. Ping did work, but DHCP and DNS name resolution were no longer working.
Automatic updates can cause trouble, but are – in general – a good thing, and Microsoft does a good job most of the time. De difficulty lies in the fact that there is not enough time to test each security update: wait too long, and too many computers get hacked.
Well, possibly, you’re using an insecure operating system? If you used a secure operating system from the start…you wouldn’t need all of this “patching” would you…
Dave
There is an OS that does not require patches or security updates?
Can you provide us a link to it please?
Cool! I thought it was just me. Since that patch, my anti-virus started taking 100% CPU usage and I had to disable it.
A few days before, I had also gone to the WindowsUpdate page and updated the recommended patches as well: sound card, network card and Windows Media Player 10. Unfortunately, my sound card stopped working and I had to rollback to the previous driver. And now Windows Media Player looks completely different.
hehe. Fun & games. Never had a problem before.
I have to admit I am finally also fed up Windows and Microsoft’s lies about security and decided I will switch to Linux. I have been putting this off for the longest time and feel that now the time has come that Linux has become the better way to go. I’ll try out Ubuntu which I have to admit looks really good.
Welcome to the darkside, young Anonymous. You will have good times here and in time, you will learn to sneer and poke abuse at other, lesser mortals………
anyway, in seriousness.
DO NOT SWITCH if this is the only reason ! You need to do some research first…
Can Ubuntu let you access all the files you have on your computer ? I mean, mp3, divx etc ?
Do you know where to look to sort this out ?
What about a distro that has these out of the box, like Mepis ?
Doh man!
ALL linux distros lets you have access to mp3 divx whatever [he might have to look aroung to get it].
If you want access, then nothing gives you so much access as linux does.
If he knows how to write something in this forum, he knows how to surf in google, or posting in mail-lists.
Take it easy, raver31
Of course Linux is a better choice for apps for MP3, Divx, WMV.
What my post was saying, was this guy decided on Ubuntu. Ubuntu does not legally support these codecs out of the box. The guy is moving over from Windows, so he is bound to have a collection, which are usable on his Windows system.
It could be a bad first look at Linux, if he cannot do the same things under Linux as he can under Windows.
Now, the original poster might be an uber-geek who knows about http://ubuntuguide.org and how to add the repositories to sources.list to enable codec downloads, or he might be the usual Windows user, expecting a setup.exe for everything, I don’t know, but I was telling him to check other distros………… much the same way you did in your post to him 8^)
Welcome
And a wise choice. But before jumping, take a look at the distros, to make sure you’ve chosen one you think you can live with.
I have to admit I am finally also fed up Windows and Microsoft’s lies about security and decided I will switch to Linux. I have been putting this off for the longest time and feel that now the time has come that Linux has become the better way to go. I’ll try out Ubuntu which I have to admit looks really good.
Comeon! Be a man! Choose Slackware or Debian. Ubuntu is for hide-under-mama’s-skirt fruitcakes.
Debian is for lilly lagging lolly gagging georges. Real men use LFS
Real geeks write their own OS from scratch… in assembly… in the dark…
Seriously though, whilst I used to agree with the grand parent, I soon realised not everyone wants to get dirty with the CLI, compiling kernels and so on. Ubuntu is so far the best distro for people coming from Windows IMHO, as most of it does Just Work(tm) and lets most users just get stuck in and use their PC.
Ooooh, ya beat me to it….
Yes… slackware… it’s wonderful spending time editing a config file to get the scroll wheel on my mouse to work.
–Former slackware “user” (i.e. file editor) / Ubuntu convert now getting actual work done
Choose Slackware or Debian. Ubuntu is for hide-under-mama’s-skirt fruitcakes.
All right thinking geeks recognize that unless you use Linux from Scratch you are a girlie-man. Not even Gentoo is geeky enough!
{o^$|>
[u]All right thinking geeks recognize that unless you use Linux from Scratch you are a girlie-man. Not even Gentoo is geeky enough! [/u]
LFS is one step short of using Windows, they supply init scripts and everything.
Real geeks use DIY Linux and their imagination
“[u]All right thinking geeks recognize that unless you use Linux from Scratch you are a girlie-man. Not even Gentoo is geeky enough! [/u]
LFS is one step short of using Windows, they supply init scripts and everything.
Real geeks use DIY Linux and their imagination
”
I recode my own operating system from scratch everytime I reboot my computer. In Visual Basic though.
“Comeon! Be a man! Choose Slackware or Debian. Ubuntu is for hide-under-mama’s-skirt fruitcakes.”
Not all users want to start editing config files on their first attempt; they just want an experience that works as much out of the box as possible. This is his choice. No cracks about my distro is better than yours; and the I am so 133t because I use this distro.
Check out distrowatch; the majority of the most popular distros are the ones created for the new user. The other most popular distros cater to the other side of the house. This is a learning curve and it doesn’t have to be as difficult the first time around. You want the new users to stay around? Right? Don’t push.
PS: I am FreeBSD and Debian user.
Anonymous (IP: 24.128.50.—)
1) Start with your distro of choice
2) Sign up to mailing lists, web forums; be active; do some reading (never hurts).
3) Stick with it and you will do fine.
4) Best of luck and welcome to FOSS
mmmm..yesssss..not slitherin…. thannnn..UBUNTU!!!
Seriously..huge online community.. lots of n00bs.. but still lots of vets who just got tired of dealing with debian installer.. over 17000 packages, a great philosophy. But after installing Breezy(5.10)i had to figure out how to install an alternative java, manually install flash(no biggie) and just yanked realplayer from apt(sudo apt-get install realplayer).. i now have a fully usable system.. and openoffice 2.0 beta.. is schweeet.If you are willing to roll up your sleeves for maybe a week…yeah..try it. If not, ide say get a Mac.
49 yr old non IT Mac and Ubuntu user.
The guy who lives down the hall from me was a Debian developer, but now is a Ubuntu Developer and hands out Ubuntu cdroms.
Macs are cool, as long as your willing to get a new system. Otherwise you can make use of your current hardware with your choice of BSD/Linux/Whatever-nix.
I’m using Windows only for games, everything else is Ubuntu. I also use PClinuxOS, and in older machines, ZenWalk (formerly MiniSlack).
But do try some distros first, then decide which one you shoould use. Hey, you can even use a couple of them in multi-boot.
Just try them out. That’s the fun part.
Advice:
1) Go to a dual boot system. You will find yourself using Windows less and less with time, but you’ll always have a way back when you need it.
2) The best way to do dual boot is by installing a separate hard drive.
3) When you do this, make sure you put /home on its own partition.
4) Look at Suse and Mandriva as well as Ubuntu. And the suggestion to try Mepis, rather than Ubuntu, if you want a Debian based system, is a good one.
I’ve installed several systems for new linux users, and installed earlier versions of Ubuntu also. Ubuntu may have improved lately, but Suse, Mandrake or Mepis all strike me as better bets for a new linux user. Good luck.
/home on its own partition, or own drive is always the way to go.
also, I said earlier that Mepis would be a better choice than Ubuntu for multimedia codecs out of the box, but one of my tests for any distro has to be this;
http://www.apple.com/trailers/
if it plays them from the browser straight off, then it is a good start.
Hi,
“1) Go to a dual boot system. You will find yourself using Windows less and less with time, but you’ll always have a way back when you need it.”
This is the best bit of advice I’ve seen all week.
I’ve got several computers, and about a year ago wanted to setup a web server. I put Gentoo and Apache on one of them with the intention of leaving it running in the corner and not really using it for anything else.
Now I only really use the Windows machines for playing games – if they crash or get infected by the plague I can fdisk them and have them back working in an hour without worrying about losing important things.
The only real problem I’ve had with Gentoo is that it doesn’t come with a free UPS (power failures suck).
-Brendan
Windows is a relict of the past… I cannot imagine any serious business running their production servers on this piece of crap.
GNU/Linux | *BSD all the way baby…
My God. It’s amazing what you WinTel users put up with. If this was anything thing else you would have thrown it in the trash by now. I pity you; like watching a little kid get beat up by the school bully.
Here you go my foolish friends. Salvation.
http://www.apple.com
Who says “WinTel” anymore? Nobody. You do know that Apple is switching to Intels too, right? I don’t even know why I bother replying to trolls…
It’s still is WinTel. Have you forgotten that Intel is doing the hardware based DRM which is being tied to MS.
Intel’s New Pentium D Equipped with DRM Capability
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121027,00.asp
Intel quietly adds DRM to new chips
http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=4915
Microsoft Palladium Next Generation Secure Computing Base
http://www.epic.org/privacy/consumer/microsoft/palladium.html
MP3s Get Copy Controls
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115055,00.asp
Just because Apple is switching to a different processor means what exactly? The operating systems will both become as vulnerable because the run on Intel? And the term is need more now then before because Apple is moving over to x86 and when people start asking questions it will be easier to define one from the other with less tech speak.
Troll? It’s not like I’m wrong or anything! WIndows is a huge pile of sh*te. If it was Apple that had something like PATCH TUESDAY!! Wake up! Would you have any doubt in your mind that it’s time to try something different. How about you think alternatively here!?! Apple or linux or Apple, whatever just leave that pile of stinking trash that is Windows where it belongs. Maybe Vista will be different maybe it wont.
Here you go my foolish friends. Salvation.