this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
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Not sure what you're referring to, but Microsoft has always had security incidents because they make the platform(s) that almost everyone uses, and so is commonly the target for malicious actors. This has been the case with Microsoft as long as Windows has been the dominant OS which is since the 90s. Not sure what hiring people outside of the US has to do with this.
It's also because they fucking suck at managing complexity. Almost everything they make is fourteen arbitrarily named editions of the exact same bug-riddled trash we know and love. 365/Azure/fuckingentrawhat are barely usable. It's almost like they specialize in UI synchronization bugs - but I remember this being a problem even with Windows 3.1.
I realize this isn't a particularly hot take on Lemmy, but let's not pretend that all software is equally deficient - because there absolutely are better options.
He's referring to cheap labor and cheap code written by people who don't care and who are managed by a chain of people with a different set of goals, values and national loyalties.
The plan for world domination by M$ has always been about building up countries to save $. Especially one in particular with 3-4x the "human resources" that allow themselves to be mined at a fraction of the price that still gives them a better life.
Absolutely true. Profit motive, JIT employment, etc
I'm sorry, what? Indian programmers are a problem because they're disloyal?
Not necessarily disloyal. But different loyalties.
Microsoft makes software used by governments all over the world. Any government that want to gather intelligence or blackmail another government could do it through inserted exploits in Microsoft's code. The US could go straight to Microsoft to this in an official capacity. Other nations would influence the individuals working on the project to do it covertly. If your country asked you to do this, they are likely able to convince you it's in the national interest and you would be harming your country if you didn't.
It's not that they wouldn't be loyal, it's who they would be loyal to.
You know, its funny. There was a recent documentary on Netflix, called "The Octopus Murders" that goes into a theft committed by the Reagan DOJ of a $6M software suite called PROMIS. The suite was edited and repackaged, then distributed to foreign governments under a new Reagan-Admin friendly vendor with a collection of backdoors and security bugs that US officials could use to infiltrate networks of allied nations.
If our efforts to rapidly and comprehensively outsource all our software overseas resulted in the same thing reflected back on us, I would find that very amusing.
But I've yet to see any actual evidence of malfeasance by overseas coders. More often - in my personal experience working with overseas software companies - they're overworked, underpaid, and in a race deliver quantity over quality.
Not what I meant, more about the idea that they have their own loyalties to family, local businesses, growth of their own businesses if they leave (which they will start in their area), that type of thing. Not a slight on work ethic or generalization of actual people.
Hopefully that makes that more clear.