Patch and Patch Again

Microsoft is always patching Windows. What some people don't know is that they often don't get it right the second time either.

Why do I prefer Linux to Windows? I could count the ways, but here's a big one. When mistakes are made in Linux, they tend to get fixed and that's the end of it. With Windows, it often doesn't work that way.

Take, for example, Microsoft recent release of its biggest set of security patches ever. This uber-patch set fixed 34-different bugs.

Or, well, to be more exact, it tried to fix 34-different security holes. It turns out that it didn't fix some problems and it caused some new ones.

My particular favorite had been the one that completely disabled Communications Server. That 'fix' nailed every version of Communications Server from Live Communication Server 2005 on up to Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

What kind of quality assurance allows a company to put out a patch that doesn't just get something wrong, it actually stops a major office server program dead in its tracks? The word 'awful' is what comes to my mind.

It wasn't just the server programs that got fouled up. Internet Explorer got hosed as well. One mistake scrambled Web page elements, while another causes a "Type Mismatch" script error on sites that use VBScript or a mix of VBScript and JavaScript.

This particular foul-up nails every version of Internet Explorer from 5.01 to Windows 7's IE 8. Remember, I did tell you that Windows 7 didn't actually improve Windows' security.

Oh, and, this just in, Microsoft recently issued a fix to a Microsoft Office patch from August that could let someone take over your computer.

My goodness, it's no wonder that some companies have staffers that do nothing but try to keep on top of Microsoft's patches, and re-patches, and re-re- well you get the idea.

As for me, I'd rather spend my time working with my Linux programs rather working on my Windows programs. At least with Linux when something is fixed, chances are, it's really fixed.