News Microsoft patches Air Force first

If you have the clout (Superpower's Airforce) or have the money (Globocorp car maker) you can get your regular fix of "Ballmer's Bandaids" upto 30 days before the rest of the peasan.. world. Which is nice. The Inq reports on this and Redmond's latest aquisition and patent paddy:

THE US AIR FORCE is getting security patches from Microsoft up to 30 days ahead of other customers. In turn, the Air Force will test and then distribute the patches to other government agencies via the Department of Homeland Security. The offer is not exclusive to the Government as other big companies such as General Motors are getting patched up early also.

Microsoft is buying Groove Networks from Ozzie Groove the man behind Lotus Notes, for an undisclosed sum. Groove becomes one of three chief technology officers at MS and at least one industry watcher said he could be heir to Gates. Groove Networks collaboration products are expected to be integrated into Office.

The U.S. patent system needs a big overhaul says Microsoft which is campaigning to change the laws governing copyright and it is looking to other big technology companies to back it.

L'inquage

 

*coughs* I think Im more important than the airforce somhow!

 

I don't get it...

Should I be insulted - Microsoft has fixes for the major bugs and security holes, but doesn't want to release them to me for 30 days because I'm just a lowly peon...
or Should I be scared - the US Air Force is installing bug fixes and security patches that Microsoft don't think are stable/secure enough for the general public...
The only good interpretation would be if the US Air Force were installing the patches on stand-alone machines, testing them using their own set of security and stability tests, then reporting back to MS with the results - effectivly giving Bill a free test centre. I just can't see that happening though...

Secondly... is it just me, or do the three paragraphs of that article have almost no link or relation to each other? I was sitting, staring at it for many minutes trying to work out what early patch releases had to do with Ozzie Groove and patents...

 

Not just you, I was wondering the same thing...

 

ICL did this for the british army.

you let your premer clients, who are more important, get the bug fixes first, and get them running stable, because someone like me a patch file is as good as a 'proof of concept' on a security site, makes sense to me!

 

They're unrelated stories that revolve about Microsoft. The Inquirer just lumped them together into one article.

 

Probably getting the to US Air Force be beta testers, probably better to find bugs with a few thousand people (or however many there are in the US Air Force) and improve them, than distribute them to millions of people across the globe and realise the're borked. That would just be a bit hetic imo.