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[scottxyz]

Report: Microsoft Monopoly Puts Computing at Risk
Microsoft's virtual monopoly on the desktop puts networks and computing at large at grave risk, according to authors of a paper on security.

... {T}he world's computer networks are now susceptible to massive, cascading failures as a result of Microsoft's concerted effort to strengthen and expand its monopolies by tightly integrating applications with its operating system, and its success in achieving near ubiquity in personal computing. ...

http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22375.html

"Microsoft's efforts to design its software in evermore complex ways so as to illegally shut out efforts by others to interoperate or compete with their products has succeeded…The presence of this single, dominant operating system in the hands of nearly all end users is inherently dangerous," it states.

The report's authors are equally scathing. "Most of the world's computers run Microsoft's operating systems, thus most of the world's computers are vulnerable to the same viruses and worms at the same time. The only way to stop this is to avoid monoculture in computer operating systems…Microsoft exacerbates this problem via a wide range of practices that lock users to its platform. The impact on security of this lock-in is real and endangers society," the report states. ...

http://www.mcpmag.com/news/ - link at bottom to download the complete original report as a PDF

also see Google News:
http://news.google.com/news?num=30&hl=en&edition=us&q=cluster:washingtontimes%2ecom%2fupi%2dbreaking%2f20030924%2d083727%2d4686r%2ehtm