Windows NT/2000 Issues

Would you trust your data to an operating systems that can be hacked over 100 different ways?

That's what some schools need to know before they migrate to Windows NT servers.

Windows NT is nowhere near as robust an operating system, nor nearly as secure, as Microsoft would have us believe. For instance, there are 104 documented ways to break into a supposedly secure Windows NT system.

Even free versions of UNIX, such as BSD and Linux are more secure, as is the Macintosh operating system.

Yet some schools see Windows NT as a secure solution.

Further Reading

• Microsoft admits NT has serious security flaws, TechWeb, 8/26. "Microsoft has acknowledged a serious security flaw in NT when used with Service Pack 4 - probably the most commonly deployed version of its operating system."
• Microsoft's Win2K "crack this!" challenge stopped when server crashes, Mac Observer, 8/5. "...the attempt has clearly not shored up Microsoft's web server reliability image."
• Microsoft to hackers: Crack this!, ZDNet, 8/4. More ironic than Bill Gates' blue screen of death demo, the Win2K server crashed before hackers could even attempt to crack it.
• Coming soon: Back Orifice 2000, Wired News, 6/30. "This will demonstrate that Microsoft's operating systems are completely insecure and a bad choice for consumers and businesses who demand privacy."
• Firm exposes WinNT security hole, ZDNet, 6/16. "Nearly every Windows NT-based Web server on the Internet is vulnerable to a newly discovered security hole...."
• Every OS has its niche, osOpinion. "Mac OS X is the most promising of the bunch." "The Mac OS is the most mature consumer OS."
• Reinstalling Windows, a whole new reason to hate your life, Computer Currents. "Windows is a fertile, life-sustaining environment. Bugs multiply there."
• Adventures in email on an NT machine, Jerry Pournelle, Byte.com, 5/17. Too many open windows slows, crashes Windows NT.
• Don't believe promises of easy transition to Merced, Byte.com. "...the debate is whether Merced will deliver sufficient bang for the buck."
• Springtime is here, and so are all the bugs, Internet Week, 5/3. "Considering that lack of stability is one of NT's most notorious problems as a serious enterprise server platform, you'd think Redmond would be putting more effort into changing that perception."
• Windows NT4 awarded E3/F-C2 security classification, Slashdot, 4/30. "...this doesn't include being connected to a network." (kinda defeats the purpose of NT!)
• U.S. Navy does Windows, Applelinks, 4/29. "Using Windows NT, which is known to have some failure modes, on a warship is similar to hoping that luck will be in our favor."
• Microsoft's muddled OS test, ABC News, 4/28. "So what did the Mindcraft test achieve? It gave Microsoft strong numbers to point to &emdash; but at the cost of a public-relations embarrassment."
• Microsoft is not done: Gratuitous API changes can be hazardous to your program, Byte.com. "Microsoft can afford to sacrifice the reliability of its OS, where it has little competition, in order to expand its share of the applications market, where it does face competition."
• Microsoft's flawed Linux vs. NT shootout, Salon, 4/27. "...the story underlines the essential worthlessness of commercially sponsored comparison tests."
• The Dark Side of Testing, or How Microsoft Always Wins, Mac Musings, 4/19. "...some reviews and benchmarks are being deliberately handled so the Microsoft product is the hands down winner."
• NT beats Linux...maybe, ZDNet, 4/15. A study commissioned by Microsoft found that, "Highly tuned NT beats a barely tuned, if that, Linux. But, there's more to it...."
• Ready or not, Windows 2000 on its way, ZDNet, 4/12. "Microsoft's latest tactic: Ship the beta as if it were finished code."
• They missed the point of OS X Server!, OS Opinion. "When combined with the new G3 Server model, it is the fastest Apache [web] server under $5,000, beating NT4 and Linux on an Intel 450 PII by a significant margin."
• Ten Hut!, Tales from the Mac Side, 3/19. "What OS X should do best is what NT has been trying desperately to do all along &endash;- bring network administration down to end-user simplicity levels."
• How big is Windows 2000?, Windows Magazine. "...I can't help thinking that a system that requires over 350MB for the system disk files is bound to be more complicated--and less reliable--than one requiring 173MB. And I don't know too many people who were satisfied with NT 4.0's reliability."
• Why consumer Windows NT will never happen, ZDNet, 2/4
• Windows 2000 slips again, ZDNet, 1/18
• Alarm over new "smart" virus, ZDNet, 12/21
• Windows NT takes down U.S. Dept. of Labor Nationwide Network again
• NT Server bug exposes users, PC Week
• Windows NT Server problems with Mac clients, MacWindows
• G3 servers, NT killers, selling fast, MacCentral
• Secrets in the war against Windows NT, MacOS Daily
• Going to war with Windows NT, Mac Opinion
• US Navy embraces Windows, MacOS Daily
• Microsoft NT 5.0 beta 2: not ready for prime time, ZDNN
• Hackers find security holes in Windows, CNN
• Serious NT bug emerges, c|net. "A flaw in Microsoft's Windows NT operating system allows an ordinary network user, and possibly anyone with Internet access, to impersonate a system administrator."
• Windows NT cripples Navy's smart ship, Government News
• Myth: Windows NT is stable
• Microsoft may postpone Windows NT 5 again, delaying the Year 2000 compliant software until mid-to-late 1999 (PC Week, 29 June 1998)
• Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX by John Kirch (26 June 1998). "Why Windows NT Server 4.0 continues to exist in the enterprise would be a topic appropriate for an investigative report in the field of psychology or marketing, not an article on information technology. Technically, Windows NT Server 4.0 is no match for any UNIX operating system, not even the non-commercial BSDs or Linux."
• Windows NT Security, a whole site dedicated to Windows NT security issues

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