That nice MS corp - so caring about your data

The author is clearly not very technically savvy. He says:

"Microsoft will get your "Internet protocol address, the type of operating system, browser and name and version of the software you are using, and the language code of the device where you installed the software."

Wow! If only he realized every single web site he's ever visited gets that same information, I bet he'd *really* be up in arms!

It doesn't mention the indexing program (which goes through your entire HDD). It attempts to contact Microsoft for who knows what purpose.. And they've screwed around with Explorer search so you practically need to use it.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

I have two applications that haven't been ported to Linux, so I still have a Windows XP partition on one of my boxes. Before booting into it, I disable the wifi tranceiver. Anthing I need to download for use in Windows gets downloaded with Linux. It's bad enough that you can't buy a new (non-Apple) personal computer without Vista, but I can't believe that people are actually paying to install this bloated pile of spyware and DRM.

System76. Nice people, their systems come loaded with Ubuntu, their support staff (all one of him, as far as I can tell) are (is?) responsive, and everything works.

...or are you planning to subsidize the Borg forever?

Yes... it was aimless.

Idiot. I remember dopes like you after Windows 95 came out, yet '95 was the worst, most vulnerable Windows release made.

Think you'll come around by 2012?

All indexing functions are very easy to turn off, and mine didn't try to contact Microsoft.

Set your PC's clock right.

Dell will sell you a PC with any flavor of linux you want on it.

Chuck Harris wrote:

Well, kinda. No support for your business unless you run Red Hat or SuSE.

They are assuring that Linux device drivers are available for *certain* models. After that, you (or they) can install ANY distro.

Dell HAS gotten *quite* flexible about OSes lately.

How do you know it didn't? Their "firewall" does not stop any outgoing communications, by default, and they make it very difficult to set up otherwise. And since they crippled the search function in Explorer...

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Hank you for posting this interesting and informative article, Please ignore the mentally diseased k00k calling itself "spurious response ".

It is a chronic net abuser.

He doesn't.

It is an attention w**re that used to troll as "MassiveProng" using a new sock puppet after it's JackShephard sock imploded.

Don't confuse it with facts.

It *really* doesn't deserve them.

You leave his Hank alone, kook.

His Hank isn't, but you are.

PS This program uses http prototcol to 131.107.115.28. (crl.microsoft.com) It isn't going to be blocked by a typical hardware firewall, because the firewall doesn't know the difference between that and a user surfing on Firefox to some random website.

And I suppose you can't kill that using the "hosts" file?

...Jim Thompson

Maybe it has Micros**t's IP address hard coded in it.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Ha ha ha, you a funny guy Jim.

Think this, "hosts" file is like a local DNS server.