Microsoft has just released a close-to-final version of the second major update to their Windows XP operating system, which adds new, much-anticipated security tools to the heart and soul of their virtually ubiquitous commercial operating environment.
Windows XP Service Pack 2 — due out some time in the second quarter of 2004 — includes a number of positive changes to key operational security aspects of Internet Explorer (including a configurable pop-up blocker that will now be turned on by default); a much improved Windows Update service that is intended to make it significantly easier for the end user to automatically install critical updates to the operating system to keep viruses, Trojans and worms at bay; and the creation of a Windows Security Center, a new tool that not only simplifies access to security settings in various Windows components, but includes as well a powerful new firewall and one-stop, centralized access to all necessary security components (firewall, antivirus, spyware control, and more) that your computer, and your family, requires to surf the Net safely.
And that’s all just for a start. There’s much more to come.
In an address to the recent RSA Security Conference that was held in San Francisco, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates provided the first public introduction to Windows XP Service Pack 2. To view his informative and quite fascinating address on Windows Media Player video, click on this link.
Be afraid, be VERY afraid.
I live a scant twenty miles from Redmond. I know these engineers — they are the most inept group of n’er-do-wells I know. (one of them is my son)
The more they add, the more there is to break. My son’s suggestion? Follow his lead and stick with Win2000. And he is on the WinXP Dev team.
I had heard that Microsoft was going to dump Outlook Express (really, Outlook Distress), and switch XP users to MSN Messenger, with the release of Service Pack 2, but haven’t seen that confirmed recently. Microsoft had also promised a complete re-think of Windows XP, so that hackers couldn’t infiltrate the OS with Trojans and worms; but nothing on that, of late, either.
Yes, Windows XP suffers from code bloat, comes packaged with a bunch of stuff most people won’t / don’t use, and is insecure as all get out. But, with the penetration rate of Windows XP, other than Windows 2000 (product life end date early 2005), what are the alternatives out there?
Still, I imagine, Linux will emerge as the OS of choice within 2 – 3 years, as Dell, Gateway and Wal-Mart switch to this FREE OS for the machines they sell. General consumer usability of Linux will have to be achieved before Linux becomes the default OS, of course, but that’s achievable.
Thanks for writing.