[dba-Tech] The perfect storm

On 2014-02-13 5:34 PM, Jim Lawrence wrote:
> Hi Peter:
>
> You are hardly an average software user by any stretch of the imagination. Pretty well any OS is easy for us...but then again there is Windows 8.x and though I can not personally collaborate your experiences, your comments sound so familiar coming from friends, still in the business and other business acquaintances.
>
> I feel if your code is open source, your software's security has to rely on code quality and not on code obfuscation.

Yep.

> Apple has recently announced that its software upgrades are free for as long as you own the hardware. With Linux/Android upgrades, on all platforms obviously free...this pay as you go and take your chances model of OS upgrading is now the private preserve of Microsoft. Is it sustainable?

Nope.

PB

-----

>   
> Jim
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Peter Brawley" <peter.brawley at earthlink.net>
> To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
> Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2014 11:59:55 AM
> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] The perfect storm
>
> On 2014-02-13 1:02 PM, Jim Lawrence wrote:
>> Hi Arthur:
>>
>> As to comment to your observation, I will relate a tale from a couple of nights ago.
>>
>> We have a semi-month Geek meeting that happens at a local Starbucks and we discuss such things as software, electronics and what new in science. I am sure the other patron of the establishment just roll their eyes when we visit. ;-)
>>
>> That particular night, only three of us could come as two were sick, one had a prior engagement and one had to be in a remote town, to solve a software problem (How to migrate a depreciated version of Microsoft small business server to server 2012...the online manuals are not correct and Microsoft's support is at a total loss...but that is another subject.)
>>
>> Anyway, one of my friends had brought along his computer. He was trying to get a circuit board application running and he was having no success. He had recently installed Linux Mint on his laptop was having one problem after another so we decided to take a look.
>>
>> The solutions to the problems were simple. Within a few minutes both my friends and two more university students were clustered around asking question. They asked if I was a Linux expert...hardly, but I agreed to attempt to answer any question they poised. I had braced myself for some complex Linux issues but all the questions were just simple softball requests...how to view hidden file, how to place an icon on the desktop, how to change ownership of a file, where are all the program files stored, how to connect to a network, how to change the default storage locations, how to get help on a Linux computer (built in "man") and so on...all very basic stuff.
>>
>> The two young fellows, from the university were not taking computer science and the students that were, according to them, had no interest in helping. They even asked if I would be interested in giving a course in Linux but I am leery of that as with the first difficult question, I would be Googling. It seems that few people even understand Linux, even the very simple stuff...to my way of thinking it is even simpler than Windows but over the twenty years that Windows has been around, its design and functionality has become a standard.
>>
>> I am sure the people at Microsoft must be pulling their hair out by the roots, in frustration, at the rejection of Windows 8.x. It is really simple to use but it is just not traditional Windows and just like Linux, people, except the Geeks, do not like anything new.
> Well, when I first saw Win8 I rilly liked its clean, elegant look. It
> made me smile. So I guess I don't quite count as one of those who "do
> not like anything new".
>
> Trying to get basic things done on Win8 has turned me against it, with
> malice. Why?
>
> 1. Basic Windows tasks I'd overlearnt how to do from the Start menu or
> in Explorer became in Win8 timewastingly mysterious, headbanging nightmares.
>
> 2. Win8 continues the security cockup begun in Vista and worsened in
> Win7---design for a secret-obsessed corporate world where access to all
> files & folders can be specifically scoped by controlling managers,
> optimised for a network where all boxes run Win8. At Microsoft this
> latter "feature" seems to be regarded as "marketing", but it's just MS's
> version of forced obsolescence. To defeat Win8 Rube Goldberg
> "security"---for example in order to allow a network of XP, Win7 and
> Win8 boxes and their printers & other addons to function cooperatively
> as one integrated, open-access system---takes hours and hours.
>
> "1984" is not a good model for personal computing.
>
> PB
>
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