Rupert Goodwins' Diary

Thursday 11/04/2002

Let's stick with Microsoft for the time being, and turn our beady eyes to the never-ending antitrust case. The latest fuss is over the order to Microsoft to make streaming media applications, Web browser and other bits and pieces removable in order to stop poisoning the market for such things. Microsoft says that it can't, because these are essential parts of the operating system; expert witnesses says that it can.

Of course it can. If the software components specified are really that tightly bound to the rest of the operating system, then it would be nearly impossible to test the darn stuff and absolutely impossible to design a reasonable security system. The more complex software is, the harder it is to make it safe: you must break it down into as large a set of independent components as possible, each of which is individually tested, to have any chance.

While Microsoft's track record in testing its software isn't that bad, it has been execrable in making security work -- which is why the entire software development staff have been sent back to school to learn how to do it right.

If Microsoft is to continue to insist that it can't unbundled applications, it's making a de facto admission that its software is designed to be insecure.

What's it to be?