Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit | sphar1970's commentslogin

This midwit believes a half decent Operating System kernel would have a change tracking system that can auto-roll back a change/update that impacts the boot process causing a BSOD. We see in Linux, multiple kernel boot options, fail safe etc. It is trivial to code at the kernel the introduction of driver / .sys tracking that can detect a failed boot and revert to the previous good config. A well designed kernel would have roll back, just like SQL.


Windows does have that and does do that. Crowdstrike does stuff at UEFI level to install itself again.


Could Microsoft put pressure on UEFI vendors to coordinate a way for such reinstallation to be suppressed during this failsafe boot?


Not sure why you are being downvoted. Take a look at ChromeOS and MacOS to see how those mechanisms are implemented there.

They aren’t perfect, but they are an improvement over what is available on Windows. Microsoft needs to get moving in this same direction.


But it is Windows because the kernel should be able to roll back a bad update, there should NEVER be BSODs.


Windows does do that. Crowdstrike sticks it back in at the UEFI level by the looks, because you know, "security".


pish! this isn't VM/SP! commodity OSes and hardware took over because customers didn't want to pay firms to staff people who grokked risk management. linux supplanted mature OSes because some dork implied even security bugs were shallow with all those billions of eyes. It's a weird world when MSFT does a security stand down in 2003 and in 2008 starts widening security holes because the new "secure" OS they wrote was a no-go for third parties who didn't want to pay $100 to hire someone who knew how to rub two primes together.

I miss my AS/400.

This might be a decent place to recount the experience I had when interviewing for office security architect in 2003. my background is mainframe VM system design and large system risk management modeling which I had been doing since the late 80s at IBM, DEC, then Digital Switch and Bell Canada. My resume was pretty decent at the time. I don't like Python and tell VP/Eng's they have a problem when they can't identify benefits from JIRA/SCRUM, so I don't get a lot of job offers these days. Just a crusty greybeard bitching...

But anyway... so I'm up in Redmond and I have a decent couple of interviews with people and then the 3rd most senior dev in all of MSFT comes in and asks "how's your QA skills?" and I start to answer about how QA and Safety/Security/Risk Management are different things. QA is about insuring the code does what it's supposed to, software security, et al is about making sure the code doesn't do what it's not supposed to and the philosophic sticky wicket you enter when trying to prove a negative (worth a google deep dive if you're unfamiliar.) Dude cuts me off and says "meh. security is stupid. in a month, Bill will end this stupid security stand down and we'll get back to writing code and I need to put you somewhere and I figured QA is the right place."

When I hear that MSFT has systems that expose inadequate risk management abstractions, I think of the culture that promoted that guy to his senior position... I'm sure he was a capable engineer, but the culture in Redmond discounts the business benefits of risk management (to the point they outsource critical system infrastructure to third parties) because senior engineers don't want to be bothered to learn new tricks.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast, and MSFT has been fed on a cultural diet of junk food for almost half a century. At least from the perspective of doing business in the modern world.


Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: