ok, so sue me: i still hate winbloze. and this new model they are coming out with? forced upgrades... well, ok, "for your convenience" all upgrades will be automatic all the time, except that if you have professional, you can slow them down to the extent that they will only install when you allow them... but they will be installed.
anyway. i didn't start this to rant/whine about windows; i ran across a couple articles that caused me to want to toss out a heads up. <shrug> [soapbox]i'm sure there will be those happy to continue to be fed by the corporate machine, but i pray that there are some that recognize that Africa is never gonna step away from under any of the bs until we get out of the habit of feedin at any of the corporate/government troughs. this seems like a good one to start practicing with.[/soapbox] `scuse!
Windows 10: A Potential Privacy Mess, and Worse
If you decide you do not wish to upgrade to Win10 now, you may want to get rid of that notification. MS doesn't tell you how (surprise!) and the procedure can range from relatively simple to "a real mess" depending on your situation, but a good discussion of the procedures and provisos is here.
Many users -- especially on somewhat under-powered systems -- may find Win10 to be a painfully slow experience compared with Win7, irrespective of MS' claims.
Worse, some functionalities important to many users are missing. If you use Windows Media Center -- that's gone from Win10. DVD playback is currently problematic.
And here's a biggy. If you don't want Microsoft installing updates automatically -- if you're a user who has chosen to take control of this process up to now -- you probably will hate Win10.
Users with Home versions of Win10 will be required to accept automatic updates, including drivers.
In some environments, this is unacceptable from a support and security standpoint, and reports are already coming in regarding driver related issues.
It's fair to say that in the general case, automatic updates are usually a win from a security and reliability standpoint. But Windows is significantly unique. Because Windows runs on such an enormously wide range of hardware and configurations (compared for example to Chrome OS on Chromebooks) the ways for automatic updates to cause problems for Windows users are dramatically numerous as well. Definitely an important issue to consider.
You may have heard concerns about the sharing of Wi-Fi passwords by Win10. This is largely not a problem in practice, given the details of the implementation.
But Win10 still looks like it could be a privacy quagmire.
The details are buried down in the new Win10 privacy policy/user agreement, but the bottom line is that by default Win10 will be sending a lot of your data from your computer to Microsoft that they never had access to before.
[url="http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2015/07/29/wind-nos/]You can read an analysis of this here[/url]
As is the case with automatic updates, there is nothing inherently wrong with cloud data syncing, and it can bring significant service and reliability enhancements to users (keeping in mind how infrequently most people properly backup their systems).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
i had thought that i might check this out once i cleaned up this box(win7), but i don't think i'm even gonna open that door a little bit. nah.
anyway. i didn't start this to rant/whine about windows; i ran across a couple articles that caused me to want to toss out a heads up. <shrug> [soapbox]i'm sure there will be those happy to continue to be fed by the corporate machine, but i pray that there are some that recognize that Africa is never gonna step away from under any of the bs until we get out of the habit of feedin at any of the corporate/government troughs. this seems like a good one to start practicing with.[/soapbox] `scuse!
Windows 10: A Potential Privacy Mess, and Worse
If you decide you do not wish to upgrade to Win10 now, you may want to get rid of that notification. MS doesn't tell you how (surprise!) and the procedure can range from relatively simple to "a real mess" depending on your situation, but a good discussion of the procedures and provisos is here.
Many users -- especially on somewhat under-powered systems -- may find Win10 to be a painfully slow experience compared with Win7, irrespective of MS' claims.
Worse, some functionalities important to many users are missing. If you use Windows Media Center -- that's gone from Win10. DVD playback is currently problematic.
And here's a biggy. If you don't want Microsoft installing updates automatically -- if you're a user who has chosen to take control of this process up to now -- you probably will hate Win10.
Users with Home versions of Win10 will be required to accept automatic updates, including drivers.
In some environments, this is unacceptable from a support and security standpoint, and reports are already coming in regarding driver related issues.
It's fair to say that in the general case, automatic updates are usually a win from a security and reliability standpoint. But Windows is significantly unique. Because Windows runs on such an enormously wide range of hardware and configurations (compared for example to Chrome OS on Chromebooks) the ways for automatic updates to cause problems for Windows users are dramatically numerous as well. Definitely an important issue to consider.
You may have heard concerns about the sharing of Wi-Fi passwords by Win10. This is largely not a problem in practice, given the details of the implementation.
But Win10 still looks like it could be a privacy quagmire.
The details are buried down in the new Win10 privacy policy/user agreement, but the bottom line is that by default Win10 will be sending a lot of your data from your computer to Microsoft that they never had access to before.
[url="http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2015/07/29/wind-nos/]You can read an analysis of this here[/url]
As is the case with automatic updates, there is nothing inherently wrong with cloud data syncing, and it can bring significant service and reliability enhancements to users (keeping in mind how infrequently most people properly backup their systems).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
i had thought that i might check this out once i cleaned up this box(win7), but i don't think i'm even gonna open that door a little bit. nah.
