| Who we are | Organizations | Get Involved! | Helpdesk |
| Weblog | About FLORA | Server project | F.A.Q. |
|
|
|||||||
| ||||||||
Election 2006 (and beyond): Digital Copyright Canada
From: russell_-at-_flora.ottawa.on.ca (Russell McOrmond)
Date: 30 Mar 1999 12:25:25 -0500
By now everyone has heard about the Microsoft Word virus known as the
Melissa virus. What does not seem to be being reported adequately is the
fact that this virus was made possible through a well-known design flaw in
Microsoft Word. This flaw was discussed at lengths before Microsoft
released the product, and the increased ability of these types of problems
to occur were well known. The fact that a virus of this type eventually
caused problems was no surprise to many of us in the industry.
When one adds Microsoft's disregard for these warnings with the fact that
having Macros embedded in Office documents does not add any useful
functionality to the system, this should make customers suspect of
Microsoft's ability to deliver functional software. The same
functionality of adding features to existing software, in the form of
macro, plug-ins and other systems is quite popular with all vendors, but
all others besides Microsoft offer these additional features in a much
more secure way.
I am sending this note out to a variety of alternative office suite
vendors in an attempt to help you get the word out to the general public.
People need to realize that this problem needed not occur, and that it
was their inappropriate choice in office suite vendors that allowed them
to be part of this problem. If you are releasing any press releases on
this topic, please let us all know so we can help advertise this
information.
I do hope that this virus will serve as a warning to people to take a
closer look at vendors of their software. If the vendor is like Microsoft
and only think of security as an afterthought after a crisis, then they
are not an appropriate choice! We live in an increasingly networked world
and all applications need to be designed with this knowledge right from
the beginning!
I could say "three strikes and you are out", but in the case of
Microsoft the number of strikes are too many to count.
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/4464_flat.html
- Pointers to commentary on Virus, as well as pointer to
ZDNet Complete Melissa Coverage
Office Suite Alternatives for both proprietary and non-proprietary
Operating Systems:
Applixware:
http://www.applix.com/appware/index.htm
Linux, Unix, Java, Windows
Corel Office Suite:
http://www.corel.com/products/wordperfect/cwps8/index.htm
Wordperfect exists for LINUX, DOS,Windows,Unix,Macintosh
StarOffice
http://www.stardivision.com/
Linux, Solaris, Java, OS/2, Macintosh, Windows
Lacking version for non-proprietary OS:
Lotus SmartSuite:
http://www.lotus.com/home.nsf/tabs/sswin
OS/2, Windows
Pointer lists for Office Suites for Linux:
http://www.linuxberg.com/x11html/doc_suites.html
http://www.LinuxStart.Com/applications/officeapplications.html
http://www.freshmeat.net/appindex/x11/office-applications.html
---
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://russell.flora.org/work/>
FLORA: Planned Upgrades/outages! http://www.flora.org/flora.announce/90
MS/Windows Trojan/Viruses/.. http://www.flora.org/flora.mai-not/10452
| Please read the FLORA.org Terms and Conditions before you submit information to FLORA.org | |
Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign(USA) (Canada) |
 FLORA Community Web
(FLORA.ORG) is sponsored by FLORA
Community Consulting (FLORA.CA).
|