By Jo Best, 15 July 2004 15:45
NEWS 'Keep your patches updated' has been one of the mainstays of Microsoft's security advice to its users. It seems the Redmond behemoth is having trouble with the timing of its own patching, however two of its software offering designed to make the patching and updating process easier will be delivered months late.
Windows Update Services (WUS) and Microsoft Update Service (MUS) were meant to be released this summer but are now likely to be released much later.
WUS is a patch management tool designed to help businesses automate patching. It's now likely to be available in mid-2005. MUS updates a wider spectrum of programmes and products like Office and SQL server, as well as Windows itself it will now be released in the same timeframe both up to a year later than promised.
Mike Nash, corporate VP of the security business and technology unit at Microsoft, said that the delays were in part due to the effort the development team was putting into the final features into Windows XP Service Pack 2. SP2 has itself been subject to a series of delays - originally meant for June or July, it is now to be released in August.
Comments
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1. anonymous
I've always been an MS man, nothing against open source or MAC but just my choice. Sadly, I am getting more and more dispondent with MS and their inability to stick to their promises. All the Linux/Unix/MAC guys I work with have a daily humourous exchange about the delays and I sit right in the middle of them. There isn't much I can say really...!
2. Joe Whitehead
Well as a hint: All computers, oh wait, all companies, oh wait, everyone has problems with their computer software, but MS just seems the one that has the most impact, with all its users. Not only that, but for a lot of people, MS Windows is the first OS they've run! That means they most likely don't understand security precautions at all.
Also, their bugs tend to be of the "I told you so" style. Example: Outlook Express opening/interpeting scripts automatically, without user intervention. You should actually have to save the attachment, and run it, and even then at least it's the user's fault. Only in recent versions has that really been dealt with. Of course, I turn the preview window pane off, so I don't get anything from my hotmail inbox. That prevents 99 per cent of email viruses. Or you can just use another email program, and use HTTP interface to hotmail.
3. Joe Ciccone
I have also been a Windows man. I started out of DOS 5.0 with Win3.1 and moved to XP Pro. Now that Service Pack 2 has come out I believe that this is just another trick to mask more files. Boot up knopix/slax and browse your windows drive. You might be surprised at what u find, Especially in the temporary internet files and history folders. In a couple of weeks i expect to post a bootable cd-image on http://www.crazyeyesoft.com that will remove all the logs I know about. I am considering changing every one of my systems on the network to Gentoo 2004.2. Maybe you should too.