Microsoft security CD will be a 'one-off'

News last week that Microsoft was readying a CD containing all its security patches to be distributed free to anyone that requests it has provoked a flurry of interest from consumers, particularly those without broadband pipes capable of downloading sizeable patches.

So, has the Redmond giant underestimated dial-up demand from the security-conscious?

One silicon.com reader, Stephen Laux, certainly thinks so and believes the security CD is "way overdue". He told silicon.com: "I think Microsoft has pretty much ignored the dial up users until this CD. I'm glad to see they are finally recognising the fact that not everyone has broadband."

According to recent figures from the Office of National Statistics, the number of broadband users is rising, but it still accounts for just 22.5 per cent of all connections – leaving nearly three-quarters of all users dealing with a lengthy download cycle.

James Governor, principal analyst at RedMonk, said he believes that Microsoft is now realising the strength of demand from broadband have-nots and responding to it.

"There's a borderline assumption at Microsoft and other tech companies that people all have broadband. Often, organisations don't think that [downloading the patches] is an equitable use of their bandwidth. This is a case where the vendor needs to catch up with the market...users want predictability," he told silicon.com.

It doesn't seem predictability is high on Microsoft's agenda, however. Paul Randle, Windows XP product manager, said the CD was intended as a one-off and not a regular issue. He told silicon.com demand for the CD has been broadly in line with what the software company had anticipated.

However, he added that if customer demand was strong enough, the company may consider another foray into physical updates, but said that when broadband took off, issues of this nature would be less important because users could set their machines to download updates automatically.

Joe Wilcox, analyst at Jupiter Research, said on his website that he approved of the CD issue strategy - "Right now, Microsoft’s focus is securing Windows XP, but the older OSes remain a problem. The security CDs are a move in the right direction " – but he also believes that more could be done, including distributing the CDs via resellers.

So why a one-off security issue? Paul Randle said that the launch of the CD came in response to user requests following the MSBlast virus. However, when Microsoft announced it was going to cease support for Window 98 but later backtracked and continued the service, some analysts hinted that it could be an attempt to head off open source adoption and this push could be seen as another way to combat the idea of Linux as the more secure operating system.

Governor told silicon.com: "Microsoft has made a clear and public commitment to do a better job than open source of security and patching. It needs to find a way to do that." Randle, however, said the strategy didn't have Linux in mind and was simply a way of giving users "as many options as possible."

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