[oclug] dhcp grief

[Adrian Irving-Beer]

On Mon, Mar 07, 2005 at 02:47:22PM -0500, Bill Strosberg wrote:

> >The OS as a whole was never originally meant to be networked, and
> >it shows.
>
> Agreed with all the points above except the networking comment.
> Windows was constructed around NetBIOS, and all networking design
> was from a __local__ area network perspective.

Well, DOS certainly wasn't designed around NetBIOS, and until
recently, that was essentially the Windows kernel.  And I was under
the impression Windows 1.0 was still completely standalone.  When I
note that it was never meant to be networked at all, that's my basis.

But I agree that they integrated NetBIOS far better than any
network technology since (even if I find Linux SMB clients superior
these days).

> >If going against the flow produces results that benefit everyone,
> >I'm all for it.  But breaking standards *and* performing
> >undesirably, whatever the motive, is definitely what I consider
> >"broken".
>
> When Windows NetBIOS networking was designed, there was no
> overwhelming "flow" to go against, and the TCP/IP standards that
> were out there were perceived as way too complex for local area
> networks (and their admins).

Yes.  But they didn't screw up NetBIOS.  In fact, that's one
technology they really did fairly well.

By the time Microsoft came around to the TCP/IP concept, there were
plenty of standards documents, reference material, prior (proper)
implementations, etc.  Which makes it all the more surprising that
they screwed it up, and almost everything else since.

> I've notice that I tend to get crusty and curmudgeonly about how bad
> things are today, forgetting the context in which they originally
> designed. Nobody worried about security.  Nobody dealt with network
> to network connection - the most we had to do was deal with a dialup
> UUCP connection a few times a day.

I understand the context, yes.  And I think it explains their actions,
but it doesn't particularly justify them.

There are things they could be doing *right now* to easily solve every
one of the issues I noted in my previous e-mail, and all but one are
tiny fixes that a programmer could sit down at a desk and fix within
the hour.  (A programmer experienced with the given subsystem could
probably have it done in ten to fifteen minutes.)

In fact, I or any number of people would do them ourselves, if only we
had the source code.  Many of them have been brought to Microsoft's
attention repeatedly.  Some have Microsoft Knowledgebase (or whatever)
official workarounds posted.

What truly astonishes me is that a company so indifferent to their
users can have such a large market share and a high shelf price.  When
describing the notion that a *completely* free, unregulated market
will not benefit consumers, I can think of no example more
illustrative than Microsoft.
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