| Dell, the Linux desktop, and timing |
Apr. 02, 2007
 Opinion -- Dell may have picked the perfect time to begin offering Linux-powered desktops. Why? Because, the next generation of Windows, Vista, has just sprung its first major security leak: the .ANI vulnerability.
"ANI" stands for Animated Cursor Image format. When any version of Windows from NT to Vista opens up a corrupt ANI file with USER32.DLL, the program that loads ANIs, you've just turned your computer over to the malware's author. You can be smacked by it by opening a Web page or HTML email message that's been loaded with an ANI attack.
How bad is it? According to Determina Security Research, the company that discovered it in back December of 2005, the .ANI vulnerability lets attacks run code remotely just as if they were the logged in user. All this from a trivial toy of a program that makes your cursor do pretty things!
Now, if you're like most Windows users, you may be thinking: "Big deal, they're always coming out with new security holes but nothing ever comes of it."
Wrong.
Let me quote from Ziff Davis' Security Watch site: "If you're reading this with Internet Explorer on a Windows machine, don't. The Windows animated cursor zero-day attack that was coming through on IE 6 and 7 running on fully patched Windows XP SP2 is now also hitting Windows 2000, Server 2003 and Vista. As F-Secure advises, better to use some other combination."
Think you can stop it by blocking .ani files? Nope, SANS reports that crackers are renaming the .ani files as .jpegs and your Windows system will still get smacked.
Now, I know some of you are thinking, "Oh that Steven, he's always on Windows' case." Actually, I always am on the side of what works well; Windows usually doesn't, and when it comes to security, Microsoft never does well.
Let me quote Larry Seltzer, a friend of mine with one bad habit, he's a strong Windows supporter. Seltzer, a security expert, wrote, "The analysis of the bug and its history speak badly of Microsoft's efforts in many ways: The company's patching practices came up short, its security protection technologies came up short, and its code analysis was shoddy. There are many reasons why this should never have happened, and now we should all be upset about it."
This is from a strong Windows supporter.
I'm just going to point one more thing. Microsoft's biggest, most important, claim about Vista, at its launch, was that it had greatly improved security. Why then does Vista have a major security hole that's been in Windows since the 1990s?
If you want a secure computer, stop drinking the Microsoft kool-aid. Get a Linux-based system. It's really that simple.
Now, Dell is going to be offering Linux desktops because its customers have been demanding it. Also, recently Dell hasn't been doing that well -- it's now number two to HP -- and, with Michael Dell back at the helm, the company has decided to make big changes.
By offering Linux, Dell is going to win fans. Some of those fans may indeed still end up running Windows, but at least they'll have a choice. Microsoft will finally have some real competition again on the desktop.
Yes, there is also Apple's Mac. But, if you buy a Mac, you're buying into another closed infrastructure. Macs are great, I love them myself, but you can only buy them from Apple at its prices. With a first-tier vendor like Dell offering Linux as an alternative, everyone gets more choice.
Heck, at the end of the day, it's probably even better for Microsoft. Now, they'll have to do a better job of fixing their bugs because on the same machines they pre-install on, users will now have a choice of getting Linux pre-installed instead.
At the same time, the Linux desktop has been improving by leaps and bounds. The Portland Project initiatives are bringing rhyme and reason to Linux desktop standardization efforts. Linspire and Ubuntu are joining forces to make installing new Linux desktop programs a one-click affair. Last, but not least, there are several really good Linux desktops already out there like SLED 10 (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop), MEPIS 6.01, Xandros 4.0, and many others.
Oh, and by the way, Microsoft's claims that Vista sold more than 20-million copies in its first month of availability? Microsoft's numbers don't add up.
When you put it all together -- major Vista security problems, not so hot Vista sales, customer hunger for Linux, and better Linux desktops -- I don't think Dell could have timed its Linux desktop start-up better.
In fact, I predict that within three months of Dell actually selling -- rather than just advertising -- Linux desktops, another first-tier computer vendor will start selling Linux desktops as well. Who? I think it will be HP. Let's see if my timing, as well as Dell's, is right.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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