Business War : Microsoft vs Linux

Microsoft is apparently teaching Best Buy employees that Windows 7 beats Linux in every category imaginable. At this point, everything looks fine. Microsoft is simply going to explain the pros of running Windows over Linux.

First we see, according to Microsoft, that Linux has poor support for cameras, iPods and MP3s. Really? Have they tried to compare with Linux Audio player such as Audacious, Banshee, BMP (Beep Media Player), Amarok. Read more Linux audio information. Click here.

Microsoft also claims that Linux user can’t use video chat on desktop Linux. Is it really true ? Linux can run Ekiga and Skype for video chat on Linux all the time. How about Windows Live ? Does Linux user really need that application ? I don’t know… :) Linux doesn’t offer free downloads? Hello !!… The actual operating system is a free download!

This is where Microsoft should have stopped. Linux does indeed offer a ton of updates, and they’re easy to download and install.

This is probably the most controversial part of all the slides. Microsoft has somehow managed to imply, without actually saying it, that Windows 7 is more secure than Linux.

Look, nobody’s saying Linux is perfect for every consumer (or even most), but Microsoft’s “training material” for Best Buy employees casts the open source operating system in a bit of a bad light — and isn’t exactly accurate.

What is it with Microsoft? What wrong with giant Microsoft ? Why are they so frightened of desktop Linux that they have to resort to this kind of propaganda? Maybe Microsoft knows something that most of its Windows users don’t: given a fair shot, many users would switch to Linux. I dont know what Microsoft was attempting to accomplish with this, I bet they spent way more money on this campaign than they were losing from Linux sales.

Source : ERM Blog

Microsoft open threats to global network security?

Beginning with the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft has enable by default IPV6 protocol, and the policy will continue on the new baby-born windows 7. Among those reasons behind is that one of the Microsoft service requires IPV6, called Windows Meeting Space, which is peer-to-peer networks. What we are wondering now is that whether around 300 million users are aware on the IPV6 enable by default on their operating system? Is it really a threats if we just lets IPV6 running on our laptop? Lets see what network attackers can do ….

Considering the most serious issues of running a dual stack comprised of IPv6 and IPv4. Here’s what they said:

• Rogue IPv6 traffic: Attackers realize that most network administrators aren’t monitoring IPv6 traffic or they can’t. Because existing firewalls, IDS, or network management tools aren’t IPv6-aware. Therefore, an attacker can send malicious traffic to any computer running IPv6 and it will get through.
• IPv6 tunneling: Protocols such as Teredo and Intra-Site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP) encapsulate IPv6 packets inside IPv4 packets. The morphed packets can easily pass through IPv4 firewalls and network address translation (NAT) equipment, defeating perimeter defenses purposed to sense and drop IPv6 packets.
• Rogue IPv6 equipment: Because IPv6 uses auto-configuration, an attacker can gain considerable control over computers running IPv6, simply by placing a rogue device capable of issuing IPv6 IP addresses on the network under attack. To make matters worse the device could have router attributes. Forcing all traffic to transit through it, allowing attackers to snoop, modify, or drop traffic at their whim.
• Built-in ICMP and multicast: Unlike IPv4, IPv6 requires ICMP and multicast traffic. That fact will significantly change how administrators approach network security. Right now, blocking ICMP and multicast traffic on IPv4 networks is the accepted practice. That will no longer work and complicated filtering of ICMP and multicast packets will be required to maintain some semblance of security.

Whether to leave IPV6 enable or not, we got both different camp of opinions. Some says need and some says no. But the most secured is that and for me, if I got laptop with IPV6 enable, I just turn it off. If you dont know how to turn it off, just follow the below link:

Disable IPv6 in Linux

Disable IPv6 in Windows Vista

Disable IPv6 in Mac OS X

Nokia N900 vs iPhone 3Gs

Nokia recently launched a new class of smartphone as its flagship. The promised N900 is a crossover between smartphones and Nokia’s Internet tablets, and makes its biggest break in its change of operating system: although still a phone, the handset runs Nokia’s latest Linux variant platform, not Symbian. Symbian OS seems like incapable to support a heavy duty computer likes application on phone. Maemo 5 renders it one of the first smartphones to have true PC-like multitasking and not only lets it run “dozens” of app windows at once but gives it a simple, large dashboard for switching and closing apps.

In hardware, Nokia makes clear the N900’s role as an effective replacement for the N97 and the company’s answer to the iPhone 3GS. The QWERTY slider design has the same 600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor as the Apple smartphone and a faster graphics core that, again like Apple, supports OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics features. GPS and Wi-Fi are similarly onboard. However, the N900 brings much more app memory at up to 1GB (256MB actual RAM), full HSPA-based 3G at up to 10Mbps down and 2Mbps up, and a much sharper 800×480, 3.5-inch touchscreen. The 5-megapixel camera and 32GB of storage are also carried over from the N97, but a microSDHC slot lets users add at least another 16GB with today’s cards.

Source: ERM Blog

NVidia GeForce GPUs on Windows 7

NVIDIA demonstrated leadership in the GPU computing revolution by receiving Windows Hardware Qualification Lab (WHQL) certification for a driver supporting DirectCompute and Windows 7. With hundreds of applications that take advantage of the power of NVIDIA GPUs in development or already available, DirectCompute enables more than 100 million users of GeForce GPUs to run applications optimized for DirectCompute so they can spend less time waiting and more time creating and sharing content with friends and families.

“Windows 7 combined with applications that take advantage of the new DirectCompute technology have the potential to transform the personal computing experience for millions of customers using GPUs to turbo-charge scenarios in digital media applications,” said Mike Ybarra, general manager for Windows Product Management at Microsoft Corp. “We’ve already seen some applications come to market that take advantage of the GPU, Windows 7 and DirectCompute will make it even easier for developers to write applications and deliver these benefits to millions of additional customers.”

In addition to multimedia content, Windows 7 is proving to be a powerhouse platform for gaming too. Windows 7 and NVIDIA SLI® technology will deliver the fastest gaming platform in the world, exceeding the performance of previous operating systems by up to 14% across top gaming titles1. Windows 7 also adds GPU accelerated H.264 high-definition video playback to Windows Media Player, enabling smooth playback with low CPU utilization.