Windows XP controversies

Ever since the first beta versions of Windows XP reached the world, Microsoft’s newest operating system has been riddled with controversy. Already covered items include Microsoft’s inclusion and forced installation of Windows Media Player (WMP) 8, the new XP licensing and registration which requires user interaction, the aforementioned WMP 8’s inability to encode MP3s at higher than 56 Kbit/second, and the inclusion or exclusion of support for USB 2.0.

Two new controversies concerning Windows XP are its support for raw sockets and auto-launching of MS software when a Kodak camera is plugged in. The inclusion of support for raw sockets is expected by some to make Windows XP systems easier to use as Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) zombies programmed to attack a specific target all at once. Steve Gibson is one user who hopes that Windows XP doesn’t include support for raw sockets like other OSes such as Linux and UNIX. An article on The Register counters Gibson’s points and suggests that inclusion of raw sockets adds little threat to a situation that is already a mess. Thanks to TheShadowKnows for the link to Steve Gibson’s article.

The Kodak controversy was reported by ZDNet. Kodak is alleging that Microsoft has frozen it out of Windows XP after working with Kodak for a year to develop standards for the automatic recognition of digital cameras. When a Kodak camera is plugged into a Windows XP computer, Microsoft photo software launches and steers users towards print shops that Microsoft has deals with. Kodak suggests that its users would have to go through a cumbersome process to get Kodak’s software to pop-up instead of Microsoft’s.