Notes2Self.net : Vista

Lesson learned: From MS Passport to CardSpace

Stephen McGibbon — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 18:02:00 GMT

Interesting July 2006 paper by Martin Goldack of the Horst Gortz Institute for IT-Security, Ruhr University Bochum Germany.

Some years ago, Microsoft has already proposed a technology called .NET Passport to provide more convenient authentication, however, Passport did not proliferate because some protocol flaws were identified and users disliked a centralized authority that stores identitybased information.
This work presents and compares both technologies, and investigates the question whether CardSpace has solved the known shortcomings of Passport and is a promising candidate to introduce a novel paradigm of user authentication.

[via Caspar]

- "What Cardspace enables, Vista prevents" ...

Stephen McGibbon — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 16:28:00 GMT

... or at least Stephan Engberg thinks so. In a comment (#14) to one of my posts on the Danish "Radical" party's Technology Fix blog Stephan commented

I can easily see that Cardspace in itself COULD be a step in the positive direction, but MS is sending mixed signals by pushing the aggressive Live Id and "trusted" computing simultaneously with Cardspace.
That might be ok if someone else had access to make usable solutions, but it is not my understanding that VISTA and Cardspace provide that access. What Cardspace enable, VISTA prevents.

If Stephan's right then it's a pretty dumb thing for Microsoft to do. I committed to Stephan that I'd try to loop in Kim Cameron and Caspar Bowden to the conversation. Jerry Fishenden might also be interested. The topic is a little too esoteric for the audience at the Technology Fix and I am only guest blogging there for a week anyway, so I thought I'd post here to try to keep the dialogue out in the open for those interested and link here from the original discussion.

It's official: Windows Vista reaches RC1

Stephen McGibbon — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 08:43:00 GMT

I received a mail just after midnight UK time from Jim Allchin that starts "A few moments ago, the Windows Vista leads completed the sign off process for Release Candidate 1!"

The Windows Vista Team Blog is also carrying the news :-

This just in: Platforms and Services Co-President Jim Allchin has just now posted an announcement that RC1 is complete on the TechBeta/TAP site (note that it's password-protected). We’re reproducing the text here so that you all can see his comments. As per usual, we’re initially rolling out the code to the TechBeta and TAP programs alone, while MSDN and TechNet subscribers will be offered access next week.
To the TechBeta community:
It’s official — Windows Vista RC1 is done!
We could not have achieved this milestone without your support. The quantity and quality of feedback and data we received from you has been essential to helping us progress. Thus we wanted you to be the first customers outside of Microsoft to get access to the bits. Next week, a broader set of technical customers will get them via MSDN and TechNet. But you’re the first! We wanted to get it into your hands asap so you can start giving us feedback right away.
You’ll notice a lot of improvements since Beta 2. We’ve made some UI adjustments, added more device drivers, and enhanced performance. We’re not done yet, however — quality will continue to improve. We’ll keep plugging away on application compatibility, as well as fit and finish, until RTM. If you are an ISV, RC1 is the build you should use for certifying your application.
The operating system is in great shape with RC1, but there’s still a lot of testing to do. You’ve come through for us so far, and I’m asking you to once again put the pedal to the metal and send us feedback. Windows Vista is going to touch hundreds of millions of lives all around the world. Thanks for everything you’re doing to help us give them the best experience possible.
jim
As you can see from Jim's words above, if you're a TechBeta or TAP participant, RC1 is now available to you! Soon it will be made available to those of you outside those programs who want to test it. I'll have word on that next week, so watch this space.