Posts by OtotheJ 26 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Jul 2016
Don't believe that fully patched systems are going to protect you from attack.
On a daily basis we are seeing phishing emails that lead to legitimate looking Google/365/LinkedIn web pages where people merrily give away their usernames and passwords.
Focus on educating people as well as patching systems
Most corporates have a 3 year refresh cycle because that's how long the warranty lasts. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's no longer fit for purpose. I have a bunch of laptops >5 years old still in production use. It's also trivial and inexpensive to upgrade memory and hard disk to extend their lives and improve performance.
On the other hand, I have a shelf of <5 year old iMacs which can't be used because they're under-specced for today's software and not economically upgradeable.
Yes, I've done my ROI sums, time and time again, Mac never comes out as the winner.
Why not connect a telephone (you can even buy wireless ones these days) to your broadband line? It works for me!
Look at the coverage checkers for any of the providers here in the UK and they will all tell you they won't guarantee indoor coverage.
Additional bonus is that you can play Candy Crush at the same time as listening to your mother when she calls!
Remember that a large proportion of mobile device users want to upgrade to the latest hardware every two years when their contract expires.
This acceptance of obsolescence paves the way for device manufacturers to not care about keeping older devices up to date.
Also with PC sales apparently in decline because of everyone's rush to buy mobile devices instead and the implicit acceptance of the fact that many of these devices are only capable of running their native OS means that devices that allow those of us that require it, to install their preferred OS look less and less likely every day.
I think an even better analogy would be something else which requires an OS like a TV, the majority of consumers would like to buy one which does everything they want out of the box whilst a minority would use it simply as a monitor.
The majority of consumers rocking up to PC World don't understand what an OS does for them so assume that Windows is required. They certainly don't want to arse about installing another OS.
The community being referred to is made up of those who smugly post on these forums detailing how they aren't affected by any of this because they run Linux.
I use Linux on some machines and think it's great but Linux evangelists need to get a grip and realise that it's not ready to be used on the majority of corporate or home desktops.
Until this is understood and development of Linux concentrates on displacing Windows in these environments, Windows will continue to dominate as it has no real competition.
I fear that I could be waiting a long time....
But haven't you just put your finger on the issue? Techies are more than happy to have more than one machine, it's fine to have a spare 'just for updating my sat-nav now and then', ordinary people only want one machine to do everything.
Again, until the Linux development community can stop navel gazing and turn their OS into one that device manufacturers see as credible, it will remain the preserve of techies and their unfortunate relatives.
I get the feeling that many of those posting here haven't actually tried Windows 10, preferring the Hair Shirt of Linux and the badge of credibility it bestows upon its users.
Like a previous poster had with Mint, I too have seen impressive cold boot to working times on older hardware with Windows 10.
I've upgraded friends and family machines to Windows 10 and like another previous poster with Linux, I also haven't had any support calls. I'm discounting my mother who can't cope with her browser window minimised down.
I agree that a Linux installation is fine for most basic tasks but my experience is that once you need anything else, you're into the word of being trolled on Linux forums because you don't know as much as you should.
If Linux is ever going to be a serious alternative to Windows on the desktop, those developing it need to fundamentally understand that they are not simply making it for use by their own.
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