No Fix for 'Critical' Hole in Windows 98, ME

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=14857��1�

The way I see it there are 3 possible reasons why Microsoft won't create a fix for these versions of Windows

1- They can't really fix it like they're saying. Now if you are a normal computer user this is something you can actually believe. But from a software developer's point of view this means only two things. Either Microsoft has a bunch of incompetent developers who can't find a way around this problem or they are lying because simply its a very rare situation where you can't fix a bug in a software

Of course you would say "Yeah sure a free software fanatic like you wouldn't miss an opportunity to jump on Microsoft's throat, but smart guy what does this have to do with windows being proprietary??"

I'll tell you, let's suppose that the first scenario was right and Microsoft's team found it's not possible to fix this bug, if the software was free the community would have provided a fix for this bug. if a team of hundred developers at Microsoft couldn't do it I'm pretty sure that among hundreds of thousands of developers in the world there is someone who can actually come up with a solution

2- They're lying to you, which if true you won't be able to tell because no one has access to the code to say if its true or false that it can't be fixed. But why would the lie you ask. This is a product which is not bringing any money any more plus they need to force you to buy their new product windows "whatever the hell they name it". So why fix an old software while he can take the opportunity to force you to buy more proprietary software

3- Its too expensive for them to do it. The programmers at redmond will spend too much time fixing this bug and time equals money and microsoft's strategy is not going into the direction of spending money on software they are not selling any more. Which brings us again to free software. If the code was free the community also would have provided a solution without calculating the hours or minutes spent on this bug fix

So whatever the reason is Microsoft tells you again to please throw away your software and buy more software from us. Enjoy our blood sucking process and please report any troubles getting the blood out of your veins to our technical support department.

You gotta love Free/Libre software, Long live the GNU :)