On 1/2/12 9:42 AM, BillW50 wrote:
For decades there were a small band of rebels who pointed out life is
sometimes better by not updating. And I heard from IT departments and
home users alike about some real horror stories about when updates goes
wrong. I understood what they were saying. But I still thought you were
better off updating, despite some small risks.
But the assumption is that MS is the source of all the problems. In the
Gateway I mentioned earlier, where there was a failure of one high
priority update. Like most, I initially thought the problem lie with
the update. Contacted MS Tech Support (free help for that update is
available if things go awry), and they worked on it for 2-3 weeks
without finding a solution.
Me, being the uneducated dummy (meaning no college degrees or
certifications in this area) sat back, watched, analyzed, thought, and I
found the problem. It wasn't MS at all, it was the LAN card. Changed
the LAN card and everything worked. *Exactly* what is wrong with the
LAN card I didn't investigate, although I have thoughts and suspicions.
The priority and goal was to get the computer working, not determining
the problem with the LAN card.
Until '08 when Asus sold me an EeePC 4G with Windows XP installed on it.
The drive (SSD) is soldered on the motherboard and is not upgradeable.
And there was no room for updates. I blame Asus and Microsoft for
selling licenses for such a machine.
I wouldn't use the word blame, personally. MS says "here's the minimum
needed to run the OS". It may run crappy, but it's not their job to
give you the best in all cases. They build Fords and Chevy's as part of
the product line, not just Lincoln's and Caddy's. ASUS simply builds
the very minimum in that netbook, as cheap as they can, as do others.
It's the consumer's responsibility to determine if the computer meets
your requirements. If you bought a Chevy Vega for a computer, and
expected the performance of an Impala, that was your choice, and your
responsibility to make sure the product would meet your needs.
I thought for sure it was going to
be a malware magnet. And I would have to restore from a backup as
routine maintenance.
I've read and/or heard that very few infections these days are true
viruses affecting the OS, they are phishing attempts at getting your
personal info. I don't know if that's true or not.
I don't know how those malware programs find your computer, but
logically it would seem that how much the computer gets at websites
where the personal info would be needed may play into that.
And I'd bet most of those updates you been avoiding that are applicable
to the netbook were already installed.
But a year later, no problems at all. I was very surprised. Since I have
over a dozen of other computers, I started to experiment with about not
updating half of them. And after four years, no problems whatsoever. So
nowadays I am wondering why I even bother with updates at all? About 25
years ago, experts used to say don't bother with updates or fixes unless
they fix a problem you are actually having. Strangely enough, I believe
this might actually be true today as well.
You may be right, but any update process would have to be geared to
solving the max number of possible issues, not dealing with specific
systems.
I used Office 97 when it first came out and I quickly jumped on Office
2000. Since there was way too many bugs in Office 97. And updates
stopped for Office 2000 back in July of 2009. I manually downloaded all
of the updates for it so it doesn't matter if Microsoft keeps them
online or not. And it appears they don't have the updates online
anymore. Although I do know that at least 2 years ago, Office update
would update Office 2000 automatically.
Office isn't the only older application I like. But there is a whole
list of older applications that I like better. From IM applications and
many utilities as well. Even older versions of flash for the browsers.
I know what you mean, as the motto at Oldversion.com says, "Newer is not
always better." But the flip side is, often there are features added
that you may want in a newer version, and you simply have to do without
if you stick with the older version.
I really liked using Word 6, but I doubt there's anyway way I can use a
PNG graphic with it unless I first convert it to an older graphics
format. The extra steps reduce efficiency.
And, of course, you don't have access to new features you may actually
wish to have by sticking with the older software.
It all depends on what you need. But in all cases, the world moves on,
and you may have to upgrade/update, or simply get off the train.
As much as I enjoy this discussion, I think we'd better let it go. We
are so far off topic from Irfanview. LOL
--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 9.0.1
Thunderbird 9.0.1
LibreOffice 3.4.4
