
They outdid themselves - chanux
http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/index.php/2009/06/13/they-outdid-themselves
======
snprbob86
This is related to Window's Data Execution Prevention (DEP) security feature.
A detailed description can be found here:

<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875352>

IE8 and Google Chrome interact with this feature for process isolation. I've
seen reports online of this feature affecting both:

[http://activerain.com/blogsview/763323/data-execution-
preven...](http://activerain.com/blogsview/763323/data-execution-prevention-
crashes-google-chrome-when-print-just-disable-dep)

I'm sure Microsoft discovered this problem during the very thorough testing of
IE8 and added some code to fix/defend against this problem by editing the
boot.ini. Clearly this is an issue which affects a very small number of users,
so it is reasonable to expect that the fix can itself break for an even
smaller number of users.

 _sigh_ So in the end, this is more mindless, ignorant Microsoft bashing. It
simply isn't justified. There are many things to dislike about them, such as
weak leadership and lack of "taste". But certainly not incompetence or malice.

~~~
sofal
_sigh So in the end, this is more mindless, ignorant Microsoft bashing. It
simply isn't justified._

Cut the guy a break. He's letting off some steam about something absolutely
ridiculous that has happened to him. Don't always expect people to comment on
their unpleasant personal experiences with a detached, unbiased, global,
balanced, carefully worded judgment as though they had the full attention of
an entire nation.

~~~
phugoid
Not of an entire nation. Of the whole world!

It's one thing to be spiteful in public, but quite another to be spiteful in a
medium that publishes immediately to the whole planet.

~~~
sofal
Let's be realistic here. Just because you can technically view a rant on some
blog somewhere from anywhere in the world doesn't mean it's going to be on the
minds of millions of people. This whole "publish to the world" idea is a kind
of delusion.

~~~
dkarl
So if we all read it, it's an intemperate, unjustified, mildly idiotic anti-M$
rant that wasted our time. But if we don't read it, it's just one
understandably frustrated guy letting off a little steam. And that means
whoever posted the link to HN transformed him from a normal guy into a global
idiot.

~~~
sofal
The point is that it is a rant on a blog, and the real idiots here are you and
I sitting here in a forum discussing its merits as a literary contribution to
society.

------
sethg
See, that just proves that the browser _is_ an integral part of the operating
system.

~~~
arakyd
I guess we'll know that the browser has replaced the operating system when it
starts deleting kernel32.dll.

~~~
dan_the_welder
"I'm sorry XP, I'm afraid I can't let you jeopardize the mission"

------
mcav
Sounds like a story Raymond Chen would tell. I don't know how an IE8
installation would somehow mess with boot.ini, but it would be interesting to
find out the true cause of such an odd bug.

~~~
andreyf
Someone pointed out that this:

[http://activerain.com/blogsview/763323/data-execution-
preven...](http://activerain.com/blogsview/763323/data-execution-prevention-
crashes-google-chrome-when-print-just-disable-dep)

Is the bug they were trying to prevent by editing boot.ini, which apparently
went wrong. So this is a bug in the code that's there to try to disable a
piece of buggy code by editing boot.ini _facepalm_

------
josefresco
I'm _sure_ there's no good reason why IE8 messes with this file. I'll take
this random bloggers word over the thousands of smart geeks working for
Microsoft any day.

~~~
sounddust
From poking around some support forums, it looks like the beta versions of IE8
would not function properly if you had certain non-default options in your
boot.ini file. I'm guessing that in the RC, they tried to fix this by
rewriting the boot.ini to a default state. Perhaps this process failed due to
non-default permissions on that file.

~~~
smhinsey
You might be on to something here. It wouldn't surprise me if there is a boot
flag (PAE is a common troublemaker) that causes some sort of problem for IE's
new process isolation feature, which I understand to be a real rabbit hole.

------
davidw
I'm not wild about Mac OS (no focus-follows-mouse, no davidw), but it's a
fantastic OS for parents. Mine use it, like it a lot, and have a generally
pleasant time using it.

~~~
rbanffy
When my mother decided her Power Macintosh was too slow for her, I decided she
would use Linux.

I wanted her to have no trouble with viruses, malware and, most of all, I did
not want to have to fix her computer and, if I ever had to, I wanted to be
able to do it remotely from a remote terminal (I have ssh on my phone). I also
wanted to use cheap commodity hardware and grabbed an inexpensive IBM desktop
(built like a tank) for her.

She is very happy with it and she is enjoying her third major OS upgrade. She
never noticed them.

~~~
Tichy
Yay for Linux for mums! Put my mother on Linux, too, and she is doing fine.

Explaining how to do stuff in OS X would have been a nightmare. Start with
"actually clicking the 'x' does not close the application".

Everybody should have a mum to explain computer apps to, puts things into
perspective.

------
TweedHeads
Never, ever trust M$. They have no interest whatsoever in doing things right,
on purpose or by ignorance. That's imprinted in their dna.

------
latortuga
What a spiteful post about a _bug_. Flagged.

