Save Windows XP

Steve Ballmer can't hear you, so let's turn up the volume

Source: InfoWorld

Last week we almost broke out the champagne. At an event in Belgium on Thursday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that the company might reconsider its decision to stop selling Windows XP on June 30. An Associated Press report quoted him as saying: "If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter."

This news broke after we spent three months of campaigning for a stay of execution for XP, and we were elated. Microsoft was finally listening to the outcry over the unnecessarily disruptive effects of customers being pushed to upgrade to Vista. Victory was at hand.

Our joy lasted only a couple of hours. According to a subsequent report from Reuters, the second half of Ballmer's quote was: " ... but right now, we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments." A Microsoft spokesperson later confirmed that (aside from already existing exceptions), the June 30 end-of-sale date was not going anywhere.

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Superior Alternatives to Crappy Windows Software

Source: Lifehacker

It may be the year 2008, but a whole lot of sucktacular software still rears its ugly head on PC's everywhere, even when better-behaved options are freely available. Whether it's molasses-slow bloatware, shameless adware, anemic default apps, or "Your trial period has expired!" nagware, it's time to replace stinky Windows software with its superior (but lesser-known) alternative. Last week we asked what software you should never install on your PC, and over 200 comments later, you compiled quite a list. Today we're going to take a walk down the Crapware Hall of Shame, point and laugh at the worst offenders, and highlight some better choices.

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Firefox reached 29% share in Europe

Source: Mozilla Links

XiTi Monitor has released the latest numbers on browsers utilization in Europe and the rest of the world, announcing it has reached about 29% in March 2008.

Finland, Poland and Slovenia keep leading the pack with 45.9%, 44% and 43.7% respectively. Considering other browsers including Safari and Opera probably have a strong presence in Europe as well, it could also mean that Firefox is used even more than Internet Explorer in those same countries.

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PayPal to ban unsafe and old browsers

Source: Mozilla Links

In a white paper released last week by PayPal, it announced that it will start showing warnings to customer who access its site using browsers that don’t support some way of web site identification and phishing protection.

“In our view, letting users view the PayPal site on one of these browsers is equal to a car manufacturer allowing drivers to buy one of their vehicles without seatbelts”, reads the white paper authored by Michael Barret and Dan Levy, PayPal’s Chief Information Security Officer and Senior Director of Risk Management for Europe, respectively.

The white paper also suggests financial institutions to encourage its users to use the most recent version of their web browsers by warning users of the immediately previous versions and blocking those users with even older releases, since these are most likely to have unpatched vulnerabilities addressed in more recent versions.

With all the main browsers Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera available for free download it is very hard to argue with this proposal. One disadvantage could be OS incompatibility. For example Windows 95/98 users and old Mac OS X versions users will not be able to upgrade to Firefox 3 as Windows 2000 is the minimum requirement. These same users wouldn’t be able to access financial web sites if PayPal’s advice was followed.

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Microsoft: Many Users LIKE Spyware

Wide gap in spyware identified, versus spyware removed...

Source: BroadbandReports.com

According to Microsoft, some of you actually like having adware on your system. The company's free Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) is currently installed on 450 million systems worldwide, and provides the Redmond giant with some interesting data. Of the 129.5 million potentially unwanted programs detected by the MSRT, only 71.7 million were removed by users. Judging from this Information Week report, it's not clear if the users actually "like" having spyware like WinFixer (3.4 million instances) on their systems, or if they're just not tech savvy (or bright) enough to know it should be removed.

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Windows' Genuine Disadvantage

Recently it emerged that Microsoft is removing the "kill switch" from Vista.

Source: BadVista

When you install Vista, Microsoft claims that you consent to being spied upon, through the "Windows Genuine Advantage" system. This system tries to identify instances of copying that Microsoft thinks are illegitimate. This system includes a "kill switch" which allows Microsoft to remotely deactivate your copy of Vista. This deactivation, whether deliberate or by accident -- as has been the case in some 500,000 cases already according to a study last year -- locks you out of your computer, and forces you to contact Microsoft to get access to your files.

While they may have now ostensibly removed the kill switch from Vista, they have not updated the hostile license they say you must agree to in order to use Vista. Vista still restricts your freedom, because freedom at the whim of someone else is not freedom.

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Save Windows XP! The clock is ticking!

Microsoft plans to end most sales of Windows XP on June 30, despite a deep reluctance by many business and individuals about moving to Vista. InfoWorld believes such an expensive, time-consuming shift with problematic benefits should not be forced on Windows users, so we have decided to rally XP users to demand that XP be kept available.

Source: InfoWorld

Microsoft will end OEM and shrink-wrapped sales of Windows XP on June 30, 2008, forcing users to shift to Vista. (System builders, meaning those who do white-box PCs, can sell XP through December 31.) Don't let that happen!

Millions of us have grown comfortable with XP and don't see a need to change to Vista. It's like having a comfortable apartment that you've enjoyed coming home to for years, only to get an eviction notice. The thought of moving to a new place -- even with the stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and maple cabinets (or is cherry in this year?) -- just doesn't sit right. Maybe it'll be more modern, but it will also cost more and likely not be as good a fit. And you don't have any other reason to move.

That's exactly the conclusion people have come to with Vista. For most of us, there's really no reason to move to it -- yet we don't have a choice. When that strong desire to stick with XP became obvious in spring 2007, major computer makers such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard quietly reintroduced new XP-based systems (but just to business customers, so as not to offend Microsoft). Come June 30, however, even that option goes away.

So what to do? Let Microsoft decide where your personal and enterprise software "lives"? Or send a loud and clear message that you don't want to move?

We're going for the loud-and-clear option. Join us, and tell Microsoft that you want to keep XP available indefinitely. Not for another six months or a year but indefinitely.

And ask your friends and colleagues to join in, too. Just point them to SaveXP.com for a quick link to this page. And if you'd like to publish our countdown animation on your Web site to help promote this petition, e-mail Executive Editor Galen Gruman for the code snippet.

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ThreatFire™ AntiVirus protects when others can't

PCs are under constant attack from viruses, spyware and identity theft. Every day you hear about a new threat to your PC. They're coming faster than ever before, they're getting harder to stop and traditional antivirus products are not able to keep up.

Source: http://www.threatfire.com/

Will your antivirus software catch the latest malware that just came out today? In most cases, no, because it simply does not know how to detect it yet. But ThreatFire's ActiveDefense technology does, and has proven to provide up to 243% more protection when combined with traditional AntiVirus products.

If I already have antivirus software why do I need ThreatFire?

ThreatFire is dramatically different to traditional antivirus software. Normal antivirus products usually need to have first identified and seen a threat before they can provide adequate protection against it. The protection is then provided via a signature or fingerprint update, which must first be written by an antivirus researcher. This creates a large window of time where threats are undetected and can therefore infect your PC even when you have antivirus software installed.

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