Security: The Most Powerful FUD of All.

This is sure to bring out the trolls and zealots; but what the hell.  It seems that Microsoft has issued a warn­ing advis­ing that Windows users not use Safari for Windows.  I’m not going to bother to go over the back­ground on this, you can read the advi­sory your­self here. And I’m not going to dwell on the irony of Microsoft lec­tur­ing any­one on “‘secu­rity.” My point is that this is the new face of FUD. Users have been so cowed with breath­less report­ing about all the evil hack­ers out there in the dan­ger­ous back alleys of the inter­tubes that the most effi­cient way of sab­o­tag­ing your com­pe­ti­tion is to throw out some vague warn­ings about “exploits,” or “hacks.”

Now, before the usual douchebags sally forth to accuse me of defend­ing Apple or some such shit, that’s not what this is about. What I’m com­ment­ing on here is a prac­tice that is as retarded when Apple does is as it is when Microsoft, or Mozilla, or PayPal does it. Computer secu­rity is a real issue, and needs a real con­ver­sa­tion that isn’t just one com­pany using it as a mar­ket­ing trick to dis­credit the com­pe­ti­tion, or a ven­dor stir­ring up shit to move prod­uct (I’m look­ing at you every anti-virus ven­dor in exis­tence), or some dip­shit “secu­rity expert” look­ing to drum up some publicity.

Here’s some free advice for the soft­ware ven­dors out there, stop wor­ry­ing about the mote in your competition’s eye, and look to the beam in yours. Barring that, here’s another bit advice, but I’m charg­ing for this one. Start imply­ing that the com­pe­ti­tion sup­ports pedophiles. Microsoft Windows Vista: They’re Baby-Rapers!