If you're keeping score at home, Microsoft needs to bring
two heavies to a fight with Google, but it can lay the smack down on an AV software firm like Sophos all by itself. Richard Jacobs, chief technology officer and master of inflammatory rhetoric at Sophos, points out that Windows 7's
XP Mode makes computers vulnerable to attack due to it operating independently from the underlying OS and therefore not having the same firewall and anti-virus protection. For those who actually go to the trouble of buying and updating security software -- like say, most businesses -- this essentially doubles costs for each new Windows 7 machine. Microsoft has countered with the fact that big businesses will be using its MEDV management software, while smaller shops will be able to update the
virtualized XP in the same fashion as they would a physical PC. Storm in a teacup, then? Absolutely, but you'll want to give these a read if only for the passive aggressive silliness that ensues.
[Via
The Register]
Read - Richard Jacobs on XP Mode
Read - MS chief security adviser for EMEA Roger Haibheer retorts
Read - Jacobs retorts to the retort
Read - MS developer James O'Neill threetorts
posted August 24th 2009 6:14AM
What's a Sophos?
Sexually Oriented PHallic Operating System
You see, Sophos is trying to take over the Operating system market with their OS optimized for Porn usage. Its supposedly immune to viruses and made in every way to enhance your Porn experience. Just google it.
Sophos:
Its a good AV, but it's also a piece of crap in the sense, that it'll break your websites, and stop your programs from working.
I'd care about this message more if it came from Symantec... and thats saying alot.
LOL Symantec... Bloatware producing dimwits.
@Mike-
You're right about it being a pain in the ass...we roll it out for clients as our standard AV software now (no more Endpoint Protection, thank god), and while it's EXTREMELY customizable on a very granular level, nobody really has the time or patience to drill down to that kind of level for a simple small business roll-out. That's why it seems overly restrictive and inhibits a lot of functionality for the user. Personally, i prefer Avira and E-Set products.
I totally work for Sophos.
@mattclarkie
So you don't partially work for Sophos then?
exactly
People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones...or complain about the security of other peoples products when they produce amongst the worst security products I've come across...
Majority of businesses will continue to run XP and wait for Win8, whenever that may be.
Looks like Win7 has failed like Vista again.
This 'comment' is based upon no facts or knowledge.
@XP User
And you quote a report that cites a poor report and fails to look at what the survey actually asked. If you search for the ScriptLogic survery you should be able to figure out that it's actually 40% of businesses planning to upgrade within a calendar year. The other 60% just don't have plans to do anything that soon.
40% of businesses in a year is a HUGE success.
northerngeek @
You're wrong. Only 54 companies out of 1000 will buy Win7 this year. Read it again.
Below is the quote:
"In a survey of over 1,000 companies by Scriptlogic Corp., only 54 companies said they will implement the new OS by year end".
XP mode?
Its Windows.
Ugh.
Why God, Why?
Because God hates iTards?
Because we need an OS that actually gets stuff done?
Windows 8? 2015?
ummmm New Windos OS's are like ever 4-5 years I thought?? lol
2 years (1.0 to 2.0)
3 years (3.0)
2 years (3.11)
3 years (95)
3 years (98)
2 years (ME)
1 year (XP)
5 years (Vista)
3 years (7)
So, it looks like 8 should come around in 2012.
And this is also a reason why:
1- You can disable internet access on XP
2- Microsoft is in the works with it's own A/V software which is free for XP, Vista and Win7.
You may be able to disable the XP internet access, but if you use it for business-critical backward compatibility then it defeats the purpose.
I would expect Microsoft to pipe all the networking back through a virtual NIC into the standard Win7 network stack. That's the touchy subject because how do you KNOW for fact that's what's happening? In a hardware virtualized environment the whole point is for the OSes NOT to know about each other... to act like two separate computers sharing the same box. How do you KNOW that virtual XP doesn't have a virus in RAM and how would you prove it? Run two copies of anti-virus?
Frankly it's sloppy PR. Sophos should be answering the question from their internal testing. At this point they should have a Win7 product in beta. So the question is a) do they not know what's going on... as an anti-virus company they should have hackers employed that can figure that out or they're not worth buying from. or b) have they identified that virtual XP has it's own stack with no way to isolate it or to install anti-virus services (but they would have said THAT if they knew it) or c) they've had Win7 betas for how long and just woke up with last week's news about hardware virtualization support in CPUS and realized Microsoft didn't spell out what they need to test for anti-virus and they don't have "any pants" or a product to put on the shelves now.
We do have Win 7 products, and have been testing on it for a while. But VMs are not an area we really deal with, and our main product isn't actually the AV.
Sophos do not hire hackers or virus writers. They hire people better, hacking and virus writing is easy compared to protecting a computer from such things.
Of course 54 of 1000 companies say they will not be implementing Win 7 this year. FFS it just came out in RTM. You seriously think intelligent corps would upgrade in only a few months?
I know the company I work for will be upgrading to win 7 but not till late next year, because the time and testing needed to push an OS upgrade. It's not something you want to take lightly.
I would also think that the economy has much to do with companies not upgrading. Many companies are just trying to stay alive and keeping all costs at a minimum.
It's not a bad OS (I've been running it on a machine here for a two weeks). It's just not the right time for many companies.
The OS comes to the public in OCTOBER.
Late October at that.
Of course only 54 of 1000 companies are crazy enough (or small enough) to push out a new OS to their entire business in less than two months time.
Idiot.
In the link "Jacobs retorts to the retort", he states "Roger Halbheer, Chief Security Advisor for Microsoft EMEA posted a defence yesterday, explaining how Windows 7 is more secure than XP" Should we be taking directions from someone who can't spell defense?
And besides he does realize for consumers, its VIRTUALIZED? What a dolt.
'Defence' may not be the correct spelling in American English, but it is in English English.
Vladislav ,
Thanks for clearing that up for me. I like the update, O'Neil made at the bottom of his very last retort. Sophos doesn't seem to understand the differences between having to use MEDV and a user who only manages one to 2 machines at the most. Why is he attacking MS when Apple and Linux in general use virutalization, oh GOD how did we live all these years without Sophos when its the exact same thing that has transpired for years! Should we pick up torches and pitch forks and storm to VM Ware'es door to yell at them for VMware fusion???
maybe he meant defenestrate?
Well, I guess if you're nervous about XP mode, you can always NOT USE IT. Then you're no worse off than if MS didn't put the feature in the first place.
Does that company of imbeciles just heard of Virtualization? What, they have been using ziontel's Hypervisor-free CPUs in their servers/workstations? Honestly you idiots are made of fail. I hope to see your Chapter 11 soon. With a dipshitted, ziontel-drone CTO like that, I don't think it will be long before that happens.
I guess it's fair to say that the Microsoft Squad of Drone Noobs will be ready to dispel any indications that Windows Vista 7 will be nothing but sheer win, right?
Fact: There's a security hole that some AV company (even as small or bad as Sophos) found and it might as well serve MS to patch things up. This is nothing new, Windows has had it's flaws and will continue to have them. No need to spill some hate towards a company that says that the product (as "more secure" as it might be) is not secure enough yet.
We, as tech-savvy-people that we are, often assume that whatever we like is better and those who go against it are our sworn enemies, and that's a notion that not only hampers development but also creates a more negative, and very much unneeded after the Vista fiasco, press towards a product.
Is Windows 7 better? Maybe. It's XP mode needed? They should have ditched support for XP altogether, that is, if you need XP then you get XP, and if you need 7, then you get 7, that's it.
Is 7 a flop? It's still not in the market and of course many will voice their opinions and whatnot about it (how good/bad it is, et al) but in the end we will see when we see it. That is, give it some time and then say if it's better or not, and if it's adoption rate is better or not.
Now then, if I have to pay for a custom application overhaul so it runs in a new OS... then I have more options at hand than just Windows 7, and this is the REAL reason that will drive customers (business or not) to or away from Vista 7.
Doesn't matter. Free AV software is a crappy as paid AV software....like Sophos.