"msg" wrote in message
ernet...
4. Continuous patching would not be necessary if the o/s was secure by
design;

Hmm... you know, my Linux boxes want to download security updates pretty much
weekly these days too...

evidently NT engineering was headed by ex DEC VMS folks imported to MS

It was, Dave Cutler.

- they
could have preserved the best of NT philosophy in designing the new o/s but
must have been pressured by other internal forces to release a product
insecure-by-default.

It's called, "marketing." At the time that the first consumer-target version
of NT was released -- either Win2K or WinXP -- the average consumer was not
yet ready to be asked for passwords to do anything "potentially" damaging.
Microsoft didn't want to risk lost sales due to people objecting to a proper
security model....

6. Vista is a truly unfortunate step in the wrong direction

Well, yes, most people -- even many within Microsoft -- agree on that.

---Joel