[tex-live] OT: TeXLive2007.02.04 and Windows Vista

[Gerben Wierda]

On Feb 8, 2007, at 18:49 , Philip Taylor (Webmaster) wrote:

> Robin Fairbairns wrote:
>
>> actually, windows does have a coherent security model.  bit of a
>> surprise to a one-time-os-researcher-cynic like me...
>
> Why ?  I thought it was common knowledege that "WNT" = SUCC ("VMS"),
> and that Microsoft stole Dave Cutler from Digital; it seems more
> than logical (to me) that Vista, which is clearly derived in part
> from NT, will have inherited many of VMS's strengths, including its
> excellent security model ...

NTs birth name was "Portable OS/2 3.0". When IBM and Microsoft split  
up (on Microsoft's wish for OS/2 to be portable while IBM wanted it  
tied to its own hardware), both took the code base and worked from  
there. IBM wnet on with OS/2, while Microsoft renamed it Windows NT.  
They did attract Dave Cutler and he did bring VMS knowledge ito it.  
Apparently they did not take over (or kept in place) the security  
model of VMS which indeed is pretty secure I have been told.

Microsoft did weaken security at least once. because of lacking  
graphics performance they moved stuff from user level to kernel  
level. But I suspect they did much more like this, as their focus has  
been functionality far more than security and this only slowly  
changes. I know they hired top-securty people over the last years.

G