Microsoft pulls Mac security update; urges users to uninstall patch

“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

51 Comments

  1. “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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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!

  4. 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.”

  5. 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…

  6. …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.

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