#13, a lot of the things you mention they are supposedly already doing; yes, MS has auditing tools, etc.; softies here like to flame people down by saying you can shut this or that off, or my default install didn't have this or that on... No, for Gatesy to say this I would imagine that the analyst groups, gov't, and/or corporations are putting more heat on MS then the softies imagine (they think its all media flak and FUD). Since XP is their most secure product (because it includes a basic firewall (big deal)) and is actually _less_ secure than 2000 and since longhorn is the first major (but transitional) edition of a .Net OS, I would hope that there are many hooks, connections, and pass throughs that are concerning their engineers and developers. "Oooo, that's a cool little toy but no ones going to use it so maybe we should go back and rewrite it so that it's not such a potential risk." This is future development, meanwhile they should be doing hardcore auditing of all existing products because they'll be around for a while. And it's a lot harding to find security holes after you've built it and let your pride grow at is ability without looking at its instability or insecurity.
No, #13, if you think your interim steps will help, then, yes, this security "focus" will blow up in their faces. Of course, they HAVE TO DO these interim steps, but this doesn't mean that they can release planned products on their current schedule at all.
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