Microsoft Blames European Commission for Major Worldwide Outage

[ThomasJL]

Just look at that ugly flat design... Yuck! Microsoft, being the tasteless corporation that it is, pioneered that user-unfriendly monstrosity known as flat design. And that is what Tim Cook has copied while simultaneously discarding Apple's industry-leading user-friendly skeuomorphic design.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Just look at that ugly flat design... Yuck! Microsoft, being the tasteless corporation that it is, pioneered that user-unfriendly monstrosity known as flat design. And that is what Tim Cook has copied while simultaneously discarding Apple's industry-leading user-friendly skeuomorphic design.

Skeuomorphic design had its time, and that time is gone.

I hope to never see it again. Green felt? Faux stitched leather? Reel-to-reel? Yuck.... 🤮

 

[subjonas]

The real issue here is lack of testing by CrowdStrike, whose CEO was the CTO of McAfee the last time a similar thing happened:

This is the 2nd time CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz has been at the center of a global tech failure

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz was the CTO of McAfee in 2010 when another security update caused millions of computers to crash around the world.

www.businessinsider.com

It’s both. Proper testing should be a given, but also why do third parties inherently need kernel access?

 

[hans1972]

That’s a reach, Microsoft. The EU has no problem with security, just anti-competitive behaviour. The two are not equivalent.

It certainly is if the market is computer security. A computer's security should be handled by the operating system and not third parties even if that means the OS maker has a monopoly.

There should be no market for computer security software since it should be solved by the OS manufacturer.

 

[Manzanito]

how is it the EU's fault?

Let them have their victory lap, they had a rough time lately. That linux and macos weren’t affected was just pure luck.

 

[@Brett]

This also effected Win 11 machines. Not sure why they are stating just Win 10.

 

[cicalinarrot]

Good. EU needs to be held responsible for the hostility towards tech companies.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[hans1972]

Does the EU write security software? The blame is on CrowdStrike for not testing their updates and on Microsoft for allowing kernel level extensions.

The EU is just a scapegoat in this instance. MS allows kernel level extensions worldwide so their excuse doesn't work.

So your opinion is that Microsoft should have made special versions of Windows for the EU market?

 

[DolphinEyes]

now imagine CrowdStrike on iOS via side loading thanks to EU.

what a cluster*** the EU is

Man! Brrrrh! I shudder to even attempt to begin that!

But we know they won’t back off. They’ll push the fault back to Microsoft.

 

[Analog Kid]

EU: "Competition demands that all developers be given equal opportunity to bork the kernel."

 

[hans1972]

The real issue here is lack of testing by CrowdStrike, whose CEO was the CTO of McAfee the last time a similar thing happened:

This is the 2nd time CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz has been at the center of a global tech failure

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz was the CTO of McAfee in 2010 when another security update caused millions of computers to crash around the world.

www.businessinsider.com

Third-parties and users will make mistakes. That's why you have several lines of defence.

Microsoft should take some of the blame for having an operating system which doesn't stop third-parties and customers for making stupid decisions and mistakes?

Customers are almost always wrong and OS design should acknowledge that fact.

 

[Pezimak]

Oh this is just precious 😂🤣😂🤣 blame the EU for YOUR software mess YOU agreed to on an OS YOU made 🤣😂.

Sorry MS the lies aren't going to cover this one I'm afraid.

And as already clearly stated Windows offers the exact same core access no matter WHICH continent it is being used on. MS are full of it here and just salty and just trying to make the EU an escape goat for their mess.

 

[navier]

MicroSoft → MacroProblems

 

[tywebb13]

Microsoft and Crowdstrike are just desperately trying to find excuses for not paying the $billions compensation for damage they caused.

9to5mac made a pertinent point at https://9to5mac.com/2024/07/22/crowdstrike-aftermath-microsoft-claims/

"Microsoft’s claim here seems dubious. Antitrust law means that it cannot give its own security software an unfair advantage over third-party apps. However, if it took the same endpoint security framework approach as Apple, and gave third-party apps the same access to the results as it does its own security apps, this would seem to be fully compliant with the law."

 

[jimothyGator]

The law of unintended consequences, and the unintended consequences of law.

Lots of people claiming Microsoft is making excuses, but no one has explained how what they said is incorrect: EU required Microsoft to give kernel level access to third parties. Third party software with kernel access release a bad update that crashed their systems.

Pray tell, how could Microsoft give full kernel access and prevent a third party from creating a sh*t storm? How could Microsoft have fulfilled the EU mandate and not also give companies like CrowdStrike enough rope to hang themselves?

 

[Le Big Mac]

Basically, Windows allows kernel extensions because Windows Defender uses a kernel extension. They leave this capability open to other developers because Microsoft has an effective monopoly on desktop and does not want the appearance of pushing out antivirus developers.

CrowdStrike made a silly error and broke their kernel extension, breaking Windows in the process. This didn't effect MacOS or Linux because those systems don't allow kernel extensions to begin with.

This is weak sauce from Microsoft. No one exploited kernel access - CrowdStrike f'd up big time and that's the story.

Apparently Microsoft's alternative would be no CrowdStrike so that companies have to rely on Windows Defender. If Windows Defender were such a great product, why do so many companies use CrowdStrike?

 

[hans1972]

👉 But they chose to commercialise security software as products - paid enterprise security products.

In a choice between computer security and competition, the EU Commission will always choose competition.

It's better for 8 million PCs to be disabled causing 10s of billions of euro in damage all over the world than a dominant player making a few billion euros here and there.

 

[Someyoungguy]

TAKE AWAY KERNEL ACCESSS IN WINDOWS JUST LIKE MAC.

I WANT A BETTER MORE RELIABLE WINDOWS.

UNLIKE MOST MAC USERS I ACTUALLY FIND THE WINDOWS INTERFACE MUCH BETTER TO USE. ESPECIALLY MULTIPLE WINDOWS OPEN ON THE DESKTOP.

ONLY THING I HATE ABOUT WINDOWS IS THE EXISTENCE OF THE REGISTRY.

Yeah, both have caps lock so you should be good to go

 

[Stromos]

This is not a CrowdStrike problem.

This is a Microsoft problem. In particular, it's Microsoft's bad OS Kernel design that causes them to need security software in the first place.

A good Operating System does not need Kernel-level security software.

Kernel-level security software exists because Microsoft decided to allow outside vendors write kernel-level code, opening up security holes, thus necessitating kernel-level security software.

Had they told outside vendors that any kernel-level drivers will be banned, they wouldn't have been in this mess.

Blame Microsoft, not anyone else.

So just a question did you miss this part?

Back in 2009, Microsoft agreed to interoperability rules that provide third-party security apps with the same level of access to Windows that Microsoft gets. Microsoft agreed to provide kernel access in order to resolve multiple longstanding competition law issues in Europe.

Microsoft wanted to lock it down and was told it was anti-competitive by the EU. How exactly would they tell outside vendors that any kernel-level drivers will be banned?

 

[mozumder]

So just a question did you miss this part?

Back in 2009, Microsoft agreed to interoperability rules that provide third-party security apps with the same level of access to Windows that Microsoft gets. Microsoft agreed to provide kernel access in order to resolve multiple longstanding competition law issues in Europe.

Microsoft wanted to lock it down and was told it anti-competitive by the EU. How exactly would they tell outside vendors that any kernel-level drivers will be banned?

By not giving themselves kernel-level access, so that they maintain parity with outside vendors.

Like I said, this is Microsoft's bad design decision.

 

[edubfromktown]

Really? So just fix it then, not blame the EU

Can an operating system be nuked from orbit?

Asking for a friend...

 

[Avenged110]

…Apple deprecated kernel extensions and transitioned to system extensions that run in a user space instead of at [the] kernel level. The change made Macs more stable…

And yet, with all these (extremely irritating) changes which everyone insists on trying to browbeat me into believing will increase stability, I keep having more (and more severe) stability issues and failures on macOS than I ever did before many of these changes were introduced.

 

[TJFDenver]

Blame it on Rio

 

[TJFDenver]

Just look at that ugly flat design... Yuck! Microsoft, being the tasteless corporation that it is, pioneered that user-unfriendly monstrosity known as flat design. And that is what Tim Cook has copied while simultaneously discarding Apple's industry-leading user-friendly skeuomorphic design.

It’s the Blue Screen of Re-Creation

 

[project_2501]

Brexiters still howling at the moon?