Microsoft Windows Design Flaws

Bill Gates should be awarded a Nobel Prize in both Medicine and Economics, because he was the first to manage to sell Pain In The Ass.

There are many problems with Microsoft as a vicious monopoly, but there are many more problems with Microsoft products. My Windows programming experience is limited to Common Lisp (even Windows do not suck, when you use Common Lisp) and Java, so the following is just the impressions of a user, not a system programmer.

Instability

daily crashes of winnt4sp6 on a Pentium200 with 80MB of RAM (a good laptop for 1999). Yes, I run Emacs, Exceed, Netscape, Outlook and several xterms all the time, so what?

Single tasking

Face it, the Windows UI was not designed with multitasking in mind. The following flaws stem from the fact the applications handle their windows themselves, i.e., the application decides whether I can do something with its windows, not me.

• When you start a MS application (things are better with applications from other vendors, I have no idea why), the window appears almost instantaneously, but you can do absolutely nothing with it until much later - you cannot close it, iconify ("minimize" in MS parlance) etc. All it does is blocking the desktop.
• The window manager thinks that whatever application is opening a window is the most important application and instantly gives it the keyboard focus, instead of letting me decide what I want to do now. So, when I type into my editor and another program running in the background decides to ask me something, its pop-up will grab my next keypress. And NO, this is not a feature, this is a fundamental design flaw - everything assumes that it is running alone. When, say, Netscape finishes downloading a file, the "Saving Location" window just silently disappears - if "instant notification" were the goal, I would have been told something.

The Right Way, of course, is to have the system manage windows (X window system has a dedicated window manager program just for that) just like the system manages window decorations.

Delusions of Grandeur

Windows seem to think that it exists alone in this world, which has been created specifically so that Windows will run on all PCs.

• Installing new hardware and/or software requires a reboot.
• Fixing anything requires a full re-installation of the OS, followed by re-installation of all the software - because all the system information is kept in a one huge pile called registry.

Security by Obscurity

Nothing is kept in plain text, so if something is corrupted, there is no way to figure out what, when, how, there is no way to fix anything - except for formatting the hard drive and installing Linux there.

Proprietary Protocols

Instead of using open public protocols, like IMAP, they rely on proprietary closed protocols, like MAPI, whose only purpose is to lock the users into using MS products. MS Outlook (which uses MAPI) is incredibly slow over a modem link, while Emacs + Gnus (which uses IMAP) delivers very good performance; demonstrating the tale of technical superiority of MS products to be a blatant marketing lie.

Microsoft Innovations

• Installation of new software requires a reboot
• System recovery requires an OS re-install
• Insecurity by design

Relevant links

• 
• The MSBC superlist
• Microsoft... It's a Problem...
• General Anti-MS Links
• Linux and daily use - reporting from the desktop of a "normal" user - by Sigurd Rinde
• Microsoft violated the Sherman Antitrust Act.
• Court Finding Of Facts: This is a history is blackmail, intimidation and ruthless suppression of all opposition. This reminded me of the KGB.
• Internet Explorer "Open Cookie Jar" - Any Web site that uses cookies to authenticate users or store private information - including Amazon.com, HotMail, Yahoo Mail, DoubleClick, MP3.com, NYTimes.com, and thousands of others - could have cookies exposed by Internet Explorer and intercepted by a third-party Web site (CNN)
• Microsoft's Kerberos shuck and jive
• MS Clippy - a security nightmare
• users are unhappy about MS's medialess policy
• IE 5.5 angers Web standards advocates
• New Outlook Exploit Until now, victims had to willingly open an e-mail attachment, or at least view a specially formed e-mail message, to be attacked. [2000-07-19]
• Why Bill Gates is Richer than You [2000-08-02]
• Get one, pay for two - Microsoft Uses Windows License Compliance Confusion to Drive New Revenue
• Microsoft says: "All your data belong to us" [2001-04-03]; within a week they amended the terms due to a public outcry [2001-04-11]
• Microsoft Admits To Backdoor In IIS and they did that before too (discussion) [2001-05-15]
• Why "Shared Source" sucks? [2001-05-18]
• Insurer Considers Microsoft NT High-Risk [2001-05-31]
• New Windows XP Feature Can Re-Edit Others' Sites [2001-06-07]
• Blue Screen Of Death - the screen Windows shows when it crashes - can be seen in many public places now [2001-06-13]
• Microsoft Uses Open-Source Code Despite Denying Use of Such Software [2001-06-18]
• Uncleared disk space and MSVC - executables compiled with MSVC6 contain chunks of your hard drive, so if you distribute them, you are distributing your deleted files with potentially sensitive data [2001-07-13]
• David P. Kormann and Aviel D. Rubin, Risks of the Passport Single Signon Protocol [IEEE Computer Networks, volume 33, pages 51-58, 2000] - a technical review of the failings of the MS Passport service [2001-08-05]
• Dead people write in support of MS, also in in Seattle Times [2001-08-23]
• Using MS products hurts your freedom and your pockets [2001-09-20]
• Linux as a Replacement for Windows 2000 [2001-09-20]
• Gartner recommends dumping MS IIS in favor of Apache for security reasons [2001-09-24]
• The devil is in Windows' details It's the little things, like "registered file types," that allow Microsoft to maintain its monopoly. [2001-10-08]
• A strategic comparison of Windows vs. Unix The real question is not 'which is cheaper' but 'which is smarter'? [2001-10-25] version 2.0 [2003-02-27]
• Amazon: Linux saved us millions In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the e-commerce giant said it was able to cut technology expenses by about 25 percent, from $71 million to $54 million. [2001-10-31]
• MS promotes Linux from threat to 'the' threat [2001-11-12]
• Constructing A Windows-Less Office [2001-12-03]
• Office XP Error Reporting May Send Sensitive Documents to Microsoft [2001-12-17]
• Latest Windows versions vulnerable to unusually serious hacker attacks [2002-01-02]
• .Net vote rigging illustrates importance of Web services "This is not the first time Microsoft has been caught using dubious practices" [2002-01-09]
• Open Source on the business desktop -- a real world analysis [2002-01-25]
• Judge Robert Bork on the Microsoft Settlement: " Acceptance of the proposed settlement in U.S. v. Microsoft would clear the road for the company to extend its monopoly to most if not all aspects of computing" [2002-01-25]
• Check the fine print: "You acknowledge and agree that Microsoft may automatically check the version of the Product and/or its components that you are utilizing and may provide upgrades or fixes to the Product that will be automatically downloaded to your Workstation Computer", i.e., "all your computer are belong to us", no privacy, not security, no nothing. [2002-02-11]
• Deciphering the open-source war by Bruce Perens: "this is not to say that the main benefit of Linux and other GPL software is lower-cost. Control is the main benefit--cost is secondary" [2002-03-11]
• Microsoft, Sun, Sony and Linux [2002-03-14]
• Microsoft/Unisys anti-Unix site runs Unix [2002-04-02]
• Microsoft convicted of software piracy - talk about hypocrisy! [2002-05-14]
• Reasons to Avoid Microsoft [2002-06-10]
• Microsoft accidentally distributes virus with the Korean-language versions of Visual Studio .Net [2002-06-14]
• Microsoft Makes An Offer You Can't Refuse - by accepting a security patch, you give up control over your computer! [2002-07-02]
• TCPA / Palladium Frequently Asked Questions [2002-07-15]
• Forbes Linux Special Report [2002-07-19]
• Linux waddles from obscurity to the big time Momentum builds as upstart operating system proves it can compute [2002-08-06]
• "Unfixable" flaw breaks Microsoft's Windows [2002-08-08]
• Win32 API utterly and irredeemably broken [2002-08-24]
• Microsoft EULA asks for root rights - again [2002-08-24]
• Microsoft: "Our products aren't engineered for security" [2002-09-06]
• MS paper touts Unix in Hotmail's Win2k switch [2002-11-26]
• Understanding the Windows EAL4 Evaluation: Security experts have been saying for years that the security of the Windows family of products is hopelessly inadequate. Now there is a rigorous government certification confirming this. [2002-12-07]
• Windows XP passwords rendered useless - Anyone with a Windows 2000 CD can boot up a Windows XP box and operate as Administrator without a password, even if the Administrator account has a strong password. [2003-02-15]
• Microsoft WinXP Update spies on other PC software, Windows Update keeps tabs on all system software [2003-02-26]
• Microsoft pushes for weakening of anti-spam law: they want a broad exemption in the law for mail sent by companies the recipient has done business with, and completely exempt Internet service providers - including Microsoft.[2003-02-26]
• Microsoft reveals Windows code to China a year after Jim Allchin swore under oath that disclosing the Windows operating system source code could damage national security - go figure! I guess we are dealing with a Fifth Column Billionaire. [2003-02-28]
• Crashed Computer Traps Thai Politician - WindowsCE crashes and neither the door locks, power windows nor air conditioning systems would function, leaving the Minister and his driver trapped inside the rapidly heating vehicle. [2003-05-17]
• What's So Bad About Microsoft? [2003-06-26]
• Do not be a Sharecropper; Do not buy from a Sharecropper [2003-07-13]
• Microsoft admits critical flaw in nearly all Windows software - one day after the Department of Homeland Security announced that it awarded a five-year, $90-million contract for Microsoft to supply all its most important desktop and server software for about 140,000 computers inside the new federal agency [2003-07-17]
• What Differentiates Linux from Windows?: "...addition of new layers of kludged code intended to maintain some semblance of backward compatibility with previous kludges" [2004-03-11]
• Annual Cost of Microsoft Monopoly: $10 Billion [2005-07-26]
• Build your business with open source [2005-08-10]
• Windows delete command can fail silently: If a central and critical piece of the Windows operating system, such as the command shell, can't get the above logic right, what are the chances of having in the system a secure TCP/IP stack, web browser, or firewall? [2005-10-06]
• Microsoft watch [2007-07-30]
• A History of Microsoft's AntiCompetitive Behavior [2009-04-22]
• Windows Vista/7 : SMB2.0 NEGOTIATE PROTOCOL REQUEST Remote B.S.O.D.: An attacker can remotely crash without any user interaction, any Vista/Windows 7 machine with SMB enabled. [2009-09-08]
• With Windows 7, Microsoft is asserting legal control over your computer and is using this power to abuse computer users. [2010-05-12]
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Sam Steingold <sds@gnu.org>

created: 2000-01-19