So, basically, upgrade or you'll be hacked?

Two questions:
1. Does 7's XP mode potentially have this issue, or is there a compatibility layer so xp doesn't talk directly to the network?
2. They seemed to be able to make massive security updates for code that was that old, and still patch a number of other issues. What about this REALLY makes it so hard to code?

In the end, while I understand not wanting to waste resources on way older products, I think it is a marketing move.

The circle of life:

According to This Patent, they invented having the XML hold the word processing info... It's just too bad that they didn't invent a way to write the xml file itself.

So, in the current US situation, no one can create an xml word processing document, as you can't write the xml, but even if you could, you aren't allowed to store the font and page number in the file.

This is beyond ridiculous

Personally, I'm about thinking of launching a cow airbrushing service website.

Ummm... Oops. Whoever read that above sentence needs to sign an NDA.

Well, let's see, the OpenXML was definitely in the pipeline before Bill left, and the take no prisoners tactics that he loves is what got it pushed through the standards committee.

Next is ODF translators... which don't work, and in fact delete formulas. Not to mention there Smear Campaign. So we are saying maturity is going back to their ruthless kill-them-subversively methods that got them in trouble in the EU?

Oh, wait, maturity is killing declining products... which Bill did often

Sorry, I don't see a real change listed in at least that section

Will just uninstalling it make it not re-install as a critical update? I would think the next time automatic updates checks the installed software it would just re-install it again.

I'm betting there is an issue with the user agent reporting with IE8, or the stats are focused on IE7.
MS pushed IE8 out as a security update this month, and I bet most non-business computers got auto-updated.

Either that, or they didn't like IE8 with compatibility mode (hey, there's an idea, let's re-break the sites so they display the way the webs designers had to code it to get around our own bugs), so they went to FF 3.5.

Or, everyone could have just given up and gone to Mac and Linx/Unix derivative. But I think that is too much to hope for.

I disagree.
  This is no different from the newspapers posting the same type of ads. Or do you think the newspaper companies should all be fined for doing the same thing since their inception?

I prefer Eli Stone, who used Chock Full O Nuts (which was symbolic.... and fitting).

Good thing they chose Bats for the Count... those Peanut Butter sandwiches are deadly nowadays. A bat bite will only turn you into a vampire.

The problem is that Microsoft paid those 10K developers all themselves.

With linux, you have people who either want to contribute for free, or a wide number of companies that pay for development, which spreads the cost around.

A smaller company that is built on the greatness of others, but which it has found a niche for itself is far more likely to succeed than a massive company with tons of overhead that has to do much more to make money.

The power of linux is in the desire of the users to make it better, and in the massive number of people able to contribute (if MS opened up its source code, and made it free, I'm sure things would be much different).

They are WELL aware of the issue, and there is a firmware patch (there has been for a while now, actually). The issue only seems to present itself in OSX and Linux, which may or may not be due to their common heritage, or jjust lazy quality management. Either way, a quick phone call to them gets you an email with a floppy and cd image for updating the firmware. My myth box has been loving it. The drives are shipping with an different firmware now anyway.

Also, please note that the bug typically happens during slow speed transfers, such as watching videos, so your nas should be ok.

Also known as "thin clients" 2.0 (or whatever number that concept is up to). In some small scale situations, I think it works (classrooms, etc), but people demand speed and responsiveness, and honestly, bandwidth is not guaranteed.

The only thin client I use is Zimbra, but I can't imagine how long OO.o would take to load or make changes to a 50 page document on the cloud. I know some stuff is cached, but you can only cache so much.