“A security update issued Tuesday for the Mac version of Microsoft Office was posted in error, the software maker said. The company encouraged consumers to uninstall the patch, which is still being tested,” Ina Fried reports for CNET News.
Fried reports, “‘Due to human error, they were accidentally published to the public Web sites before our full testing release process was complete,’ a Microsoft security official said Wednesday on the company’s Security Response Center blog. ‘As soon as we discovered the error, we moved quickly to address it and remove the pre-release binaries from our public sites.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A fish rots from the head down.
Related articles:
Microsoft confirms yet another Word zero-day flaw – December 13, 2006
Microsoft releases Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.1 Update – December 13, 2006
Unpatched Microsoft Word flaw affects Macs too – December 06, 2006
Microsoft says Office 2007 XML support coming to Macs eventually – December 06, 2006
Microsoft’s Office 2007 for Windows saves documents in Mac-incompatible format – December 05, 2006
CodeWeavers releases CrossOver Mac 6.0 Beta 3 – November 14, 2006
RUMOR: Apple to take on Microsoft Office, add ‘Lasso’ spreadsheet app to iWork ‘07 – October 11, 2006
Free NeoOffice 2.0 Aqua Beta 3 now available – August 28, 2006
CodeWeavers brings low-cost way of running Windows apps on Mac OS X sans Windows – August 14, 2006
Mac users should not buy Microsoft software (or hardware) – May 16, 2003
Un-fscking believable!!
Oh, so THAT’S what that smell is. I just thought someone had taken a zune.
Un-install Word. Problem solved!
Counter-intelligent
Can any company, even Microcrap, suck this bad?
Just how am I supposed to unistall this “patch”?
Strange…
I’m glad to be still using Word X, instead of 2004.
Listen up. Get Neo office for free or iWork for about $80 and forget MS.
These people are trapped in a bureaucratic molasses that is as bad as most governmental agencies.
60,000 employees. I can see 1000 burning and shipping the disks, 10,000 doing whatever else needs to be done, but 60,000?
Thank you Jeff.
That’s exactly what I am going to do.
GODBYE MS OFFICE!
MW: ‘over’. It’s over now, MS.
ditto,
How do I uninstall this patch?
They zuned me again.
Dude, you just got zuned.
ROTFFL!!!!
NEO OFFICE, no x11, uses your fonts, works, and is free. Pages is cheep and offers some nice features so fergit Orafice fergit MiKro$uck, be gone evil empire, I shun you forever! HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
Due to human error, they were accidentally published…
What the hell? This is at least the second time something was accidentally released before it was supposed to be.
This is not human error, this is organizational incompetence, a direct result of the massive numbers of crap employees they have hired in recent years. The idiots far outnumber the smart ones.
Microsoft is totally thrashing and screwing up these days, I love it!
Please, please, please Ballmer, stay in complete control of Microsoft! Let your clueless ego run riot.
You are the only one who can ensure Microsoft is driven firmly into the ground and becomes the biggest corporate flame-out in software history.
This proves it!!
Microsoft has a sense of humor!!!!!
And apparently it is the only sense they have…
Yep, that’ll do it…NeoOffice is the bomb, and MSOffice will never be on my Mac again. AppZapped it a second ago…I feel better already. Somehow, … cleaner.
MDN Word: “see” I can see clearly now, the crap is gone.
Oh, and Apple has never made a mistake, ever.
Correction
They have a Stench of humor (remember the zune)
Anybody got any idea how to “uninstall” the update? In typical fashion, the Microsoft warning says to uninstall it but doesn’t say how to do it.
I hope there comes a day when I don’t have to use their pissant products.
Idiots.
Oh, and one more thing….
This is shockingly crappy.
All this “forget MicroShaft” stuff is great, and I wish I could, BUT – we absolutely MUST have complete Word compatibility, no formatting loss, etc. Until/unless NeoOffice, etc., documents are 100% compatible with Word documents, maintaining formatting exactly when sent and received via email attachments, i.e., documents created in NeoOffice or Word go back and forth completely seamlessly, there is no way we can forget M$…
I have NeoOffice to try out, but can’t spare the time to test the document formating. If someone knows more about these things, please post…
MDN Magic Word, “hospital”, as in, “Using M$ stuff makes me want to be admitted to one, hospital, that is.”
Oh fsck. I got zuned allright. So how am I suposed to unstall this pathc?
“urges users to uninstall patch”
I didn’t think there were any Urge users. <rimshot>
Crappingly shocky as well.
Microsoft sucks and their MBU sucks. These kinds of errors are absolutely unacceptable for a company of their so-called stature. I’ve bought my last piece of Microsoft software, I can guarantee you that much.
To uninstall this patch, go to your Applications folder and drag the Microsoft Office 2004 folder to the trash. Then, Finder>Empty Trash. Problem solved.
They actually test stuff? Who grew a conscience overnight?
I own MS Office 2004 from my old Power Mac G4 (dual 1.25 MDD) that I used to have. I wasn’t about to let that piece of Zune software touch my new Mac Pro. I uninstalled your pathetic software a long time ago, MS.
“They actually test stuff?”
Which usually means that Ballmer will rock slowly into the testing rooms, hunch over in grand simian form resting on his knuckles and then hurl feces at monitors for hours while screeching like a hundred baboons in heat. No one argues whether or not it works. It was his idea.
the first Mac Virus?!?!?!
Ummm … I like Apple as much as anybody here (at least I thought I did) … but is all this vitriolic ranting really fair?
Does anybody remember Apple ever pulling an updater? I remember several. Mistakes happen. Get over it.
I got Zuned too, BASTARDS!
I;ll take my chances. Wait for the next update due in 18 months.
DJ,
Yes mistakes happen. And it’s how you handle them that counts. MS, in their infinite wisdom, simply says to uninstall the patch but gives no information on how to do this and the installer has no uninstall option.
That is but one reason why MS sucks!
have had Macs for decades and like them
but the ranting is unbelievable over one blown patch
like I mean Apple has never blown a patch?
and the fish rotting comment is tacky
LaserKun writes:
“All this “forget MicroShaft” stuff is great, and I wish I could, BUT – we absolutely MUST have complete Word compatibility, no formatting loss, etc. Until/unless NeoOffice, etc., documents are 100% compatible with Word documents, maintaining formatting exactly when sent and received via email attachments, i.e., documents created in NeoOffice or Word go back and forth completely seamlessly, there is no way we can forget M$…”
In case you didn’t, there isn’t 100% compatability among different VERSIONS of Word within the same platform, let along between PC amd Mac platforms. Arguing that 100% is needed, when it doesn’t exist now, is setting up a straw man.
Thus, I don’t think it’s as much a problem as it’s made out to be.
MW: “decision”, as in “buying Word in the first place is a bad decision.”
Yeah, the rotting fish comment is tacky, lame, and an insult to rotting fish everywhere. Rotting fish are FAR above MS level
iWORK 06
^^
“Over one blown patch”?
You were asleep for the last decade or so right. Welcome back to the real fsking world dummy!
When Apple on rare occasion has to pull an update, they do everyone the courtesy of at least providing instructions to uninstall the damn thing, unlike Microsoft apparently.
to MacMania
my goodness, I am sorry I upset you
I thought we were discussing this blown patch
but
I have been rather occupied during the past decade with this and that
please do tell me what I missed
What’s the big deal? Isn’t that normal Microsft procedure?
Er….
Umm…
Actually, a fish rots form the inside out. It’s just noticable on the head first. Same idea, though. Inside out. Top down Inside down. Top out.
Whatever.
Microsoft is the big suck. Hear it? You’re too damn close.
Yeah.
to EvangelizeWithRespect . . . the reality is someone squirted a zune !
gosh….
just……..stay away from this stuff. i never install security updates, much less from MS.
M$ are a bunch of goof ups. Last thing I’d want is a robot programed my Micro$ofte engineers!
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+unveils+public+robotics+software/2100-11394_3-6143242.html?tag=st.txt.caro
Probably kill me.
I assume this is 11.3.1 which fortunately I couldn’t find on their site, and didn’t install.
That Zune “noose effect” is sure working.
What if Apple came out with a pages update that allows it to work with the new “open” M$ word format before M$ does.
Anybody got any idea how to “uninstall” the update? In typical fashion, the Microsoft warning says to uninstall it but doesn’t say how to do it.
In MS tradition, you can’t really “uninstall”. Installations are a one-way street.
That said, on Mac you’re lucky. You drag the Office folder to the trash, empty it, and reinstall Office.
On Windows you’re not so lucky. You erase your hard drive and start completely over, hoping that you remembered to back up everything you need.
The world would dump Windows and Office in a second, if only there was a 100% compatible alternative. If only…
Now you really can’t blame M$ for this. I mean, after all, if you had to use PC’s running Windoze, and listen to Zunes, you’d be making lots of “human errors” too. Poor bastards.
…Due to human error…
Microsofr needs to start from scratch:
1) A whole new board with enough teeth to…
2) Fire top management;
3) Come up with a whole new business philosophy…
4) that is transparent, ethical, sensible and prescient;
5) Clean out the excess staff/bureaucracy getting in the way of development;
6) Develop a Unix-based secure new OS from scratch, using…
7) Translation software to read/write/convert/secure legacy files…
8) into industry-standard formats;
9) Dump all proprietary media and file formats in favor of open standards…
10) or de-proprietize their own formats in consultation with industry;
11) Compete by real product innovation, and…
12) discard the restrictive monopolistic philosophy that drives the corporation;
13) Simplify product versions to basic types: consumer/pro; client/server, client/authoring;
14) Return 25% of cash reserves to shareholders as a mea-culpa dividend,
15) and 25% of cash reserves to buyers of their new products as a mea-culpa cash-back;
16) etc., etc., etc. I could go on and on…
…OR…
Takeover Apple computer and transition to the Mac Operating System and Apple management,
committing hara-kiri when the process is complete.
My bill will be in the mail. MW: “class” as in get some….
This post is repeated elsewhere.
Apple…GOOOD!
Microsoft….BAADD!
Nuff said
Thank god I NEVER update office.
I think im gonna try Neo Office – Ive had enough of Microsoft’s bullshit.
Where is Word Perfect for Mac when you need it. It had macros and Word compatibility and would fill this MS-created vacuum nicely.
Ahh, if only there were some kind of program that I could have set to have automaticaly backed up my Office 2004 file so I could “go back in time” and just restore the previous image…