What Linux can learn from Windows
In three months, Microsoft users will finally reap benefits from the company's new focus on security. The release of the second major update to Windows XP answers many long-standing design criticisms of its operating system.
But this was not a pain-free learning exercise. Indeed, Microsoft paid a steep price in the coin of user dissatisfaction--and in some cases, lasting mistrust.
In September 2001, the Nimda worm spread throughout networks worldwide, leading corporate customers--including many financial firms--to chastise Microsoft for failing to plug vulnerabilities in its code.
Two years later, the MSBlast worm and a variant of the program infected Windows computers and corporate networks, once again bringing consumer and corporate wrath on the Redmond, Wash.-based company.
But the attacks also compelled Microsoft of rethink how to provide improved security.
Nimda resulted in the Trustworthy Computing Initiative, a companywide program designed to prod Microsoft's development teams toward producing more secure code.
