What's a VM security patch & why do I need it?

"What's a VM security patch & why do I need it?"

It's a patch for the *latest* Microsoft Java Virtual Machine security exploit. Just another in a long line. You only need it for IE, and if you use IE, then you can quite easily access the Windows Update site.
As K-Meleon uses the Sun Java VM, then this security hole does not affect it.

Lucky for me I don't & can't use IE. Incidentally I'm not using any Java at all with K-Meleon as I haven't the need for it & more often than not I consider it's employment by webmasters to be rather jarring & hostile. Thanks for the answer Al, good to know.

You know I could prbably write a thread a mile long about IE. It's been my closest friend for the past 3 yrs. I've stood by her while all of you told me what Microsoft was doing to my life...

I WAS BLIND!!!

Rather than rehash everyting I've found wrong with IE since I still have to make a linving and complaining is cheap I'll just say...

* If you want to hear some horror stories...
* If you need more convincing...
* If you're home alone late at night and get the suddent urge to click on the pretty e...
* If you know you need help...

Do a search for other posts I've made here periodically (Author:TheWebDevGuy) because I've had the best and worst experiences with IE...

Yours Truly,
~TheRodster

a.k.a. Rodney Giles
Chief Engineering Architect
Toydrum Web & Media

Just curious but *even* if you have all the options in the IE settings dis-enabled in Internet Zone a worm/virus can still infect the PC due to IE's flaws? So all the latest patches is vital regardless of the settings???

"Just curious but *even* if you have all the options in the IE settings dis-enabled in Internet Zone a worm/virus can still infect the PC due to IE's flaws? So all the latest patches is vital regardless of the settings???"

Well yeah, it's important if you are an IE user, to keep it up-to-date with Windows Update, however there are a few security holes which haven't had security patches released for them.

Hi,
To all of you guys who mention horrible experiences with M$ OSes and IE
The most common reasons to bash IE seems to be :

1- Windows and IE are buggy :

I personally use Windows 2000 Pro with regular updates and IE 6 with the latest patches. I've no serious complaint about the months of use : no crashes, no worm/virus nor automatical bookmark creation to report, apart from that magical multiple-IE-windows-opening-with-tons-of-porn-ads now and then.
My point here is that Windows 9x/NT were crappy (i've got my lot of horror stories to illustrate this) but i think MS corrected many flaws whis Win2K (I can't say anything about Win XP since I haven't tested it for a long time) and provided you keep you IE uptodate, I believe you are ok.

2- Having to continuously updating with patches and security fixes sucks :

Sure. But there's NO bugfree useful program I know of. Software developpement is that way. Even open source projects know this issue. Now I personnaly find it a good thing that MS gives you the possibility to fix the known issues with their patches.


3- IE requires way too much ressources for a browser and is full of useless features :

This is 100% relevant in the case of systems with restricted ressources (according to today's standards). Now I think 95% users do have a decent computer so the wasted space and memory comsumption are unnoticed in their case.

4- MS products are closed source and cost $$$

Yeah and that sucks, but what do you expect : they're here for busine$$.
That's a reason to use other softs but not to bash them. You are free to use Linux and/or Mozilla or KM or anything you like.

To conclude, much of this bashing seems injustified to me. Even though MS/IE have many drawbacks, I feel like there's much of a "M$ Window$ sucks, I use Linux" or "IE sucks, I use KM" phenomenon.

Any comments welcome,

Nico


M$-Winblows I use Linux

lol sorry for the last line in my previous post

Nico

"...provided you keep you IE uptodate, I believe you are ok."

Interesting you should mention this, since prior to discovering K-Meleon I was using IE 4.5 even long after version 6 had been released. This was by choice, since I had tried version 5 & was profoundly irritated by the "improvements" over my back version. During that time, there were a good number of various vulnerabilities discovered & exploited in the newer versions of IE (5+), that I was immune to because of my decision to continue using the older version. The alternative you mention of trying to stay ahead of exploiters by keeping uptodate(TM) is just an arms race, & if you don't stay ahead by patching with every patch & servicing with every service pack, then you open yourself up to those who are ahead of you. Even if you use Windows Update 12 times a day, a vulnerability has to be discovered (& potentially exploited) before anyone can fix it.

"Having to continuously updating with patches and security fixes sucks"

Using IE doesn't contractually obligate anyone to do this, see my case above.

"there's NO bugfree useful program I know of. Software developpement is that way."

Of course not, but some bugs you can tolerate & others sting your tongue as you sleep, resulting in something horrible like menengitis or paralysis; perhaps even death.

good bugs:
butterflies, lightning bugs, dragonflies, ladybugs, K-Meleon crashing & leaving the whole rest of my OS unaffected (it rarely even crashes)

bad bugs:
roaches, black widows, kissing beetles, mosquitos, blue screen of death

"Now I think 95% users do have a decent computer so the wasted space and memory comsumption are unnoticed in their case."

72% of all statisticians & related experts know that 88.4% of 330% of statistics are made up.

Are you French?