Microsoft buys Winternals and Sysinternals

When I first learned that Microsoft had bought Winternals and Sysinternals from Mark Russinovich, I was so stunned I did not know how to think for a while! Mark Russinovich, end user advocate, bought out by Microsoft? For those of you that don’t use Sysinternal’s freeware or have never heard of Mark Russinovich, think of him as one of the few persistent voices in the tech- media, and in the tech world in general, that has put pressure on Microsoft to do the right thing ethically and in terms of releasing stable, quality code.

The critical eye cast toward Microsoft from Mark’s blog has, on more than one occasion, put him in the position of being the first person to discover and break the story about Microsoft being involved in a questionable activity. Although Mark and his crew have been responsible for creating innumerable freeware utility programs for XP and discovering numerous flaws and weaknesses they could exploit in Microsoft software over the years, the most notable security flaw they have discovered to date would arguably be the recent Sony rootkit on CD debacle.

Mark’s blog was the first news source to mention the potential privacy and security disaster that would await unwary users of certain Sony made music CDs. To lose Mark’s watchful eye would be a tragic loss for everyone that has to deal with a computer that runs XP on a regular basis. Hopefully, Microsoft has decided to turn over a new leaf and has hired Russinovich to help guide the company in a completely new direction.

More likely however, Microsoft has decided (as it has before in similar situations) to silence him and buy him out instead of addressing his issues. I have watched Mark Russinovich for a long time and I believe that he will stay true to his word. Unfortunately, I have also watched Microsoft for a while too and, over the years, they have developed a reputation for being a company that does indulge in the very practice of buying out smaller competition instead of facing them that Microsoft expects us to ignore in this case.

Via Daily Tech

When I first learned that Microsoft had bought Winternals and Sysinternals from Mark Russinovich, I was so stunned I did not know how to think for a while! Mark Russinovich, end user advocate, bought out by Microsoft? For those of you that don’t use Sysinternal’s freeware or have never heard of Mark Russinovich, think of him as one of the few persistent voices in the tech- media, and in the tech world in general, that has put pressure on Microsoft to do the right thing ethically and in terms of releasing stable, quality code.

The critical eye cast toward Microsoft from Mark’s blog has, on more than one occasion, put him in the position of being the first person to discover and break the story about Microsoft being involved in a questionable activity. Although Mark and his crew have been responsible for creating innumerable freeware utility programs for XP and discovering numerous flaws and weaknesses they could exploit in Microsoft software over the years, the most notable security flaw they have discovered to date would arguably be the recent Sony rootkit on CD debacle.

Mark’s blog was the first news source to mention the potential privacy and security disaster that would await unwary users of certain Sony made music CDs. To lose Mark’s watchful eye would be a tragic loss for everyone that has to deal with a computer that runs XP on a regular basis. Hopefully, Microsoft has decided to turn over a new leaf and has hired Russinovich to help guide the company in a completely new direction.

More likely however, Microsoft has decided (as it has before in similar situations) to silence him and buy him out instead of addressing his issues. I have watched Mark Russinovich for a long time and I believe that he will stay true to his word. Unfortunately, I have also watched Microsoft for a while too and, over the years, they have developed a reputation for being a company that does indulge in the very practice of buying out smaller competition instead of facing them that Microsoft expects us to ignore in this case.

Via Daily Tech