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Ben Funk over on TechReport has linked to a Terry Myerson blog post where he states that in early 2016, the "Windows 10 Upgrade" update will be changed in status from "Optional" to "Recommended". Therefore, if you haven't changed your Windows 7 system from automatically installing updates to manually notifying, but not installing, now is a good time to make that change, and audit every single "patch" you see. There have already been reports of users unknowingly experiencing ISP bandwidth overages due to downloading a massive 3 GB file due to the "Optional" update that was not requested, but Microsoft seems to be throwing caution to the winds.
In the blog post, Myerson has this statement: "Depending upon your Windows Update settings, this may cause the upgrade process to automatically initiate on your device. Before the upgrade changes the OS of your device, you will be clearly prompted to choose whether or not to continue. And of course, if you choose to upgrade (our recommendation!), then you will have 31 days to roll back to your previous Windows version if you don't love it." Historically, Windows has been far cleaner to install on a blank disk than to upgrade in place, so this sounds like a recipe for many support calls. There also seems to be no backtracking on any of the privacy concerns, or perhaps taking the "zero telemetry, selective update install" functionality promised (but not yet delivered) to Enterprise customers, and extending it to consumer licensees who value their privacy.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2015, @08:14AM
Enjoying systemd are you?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 31 2015, @09:23AM
Honestly? I'm the impartial user and observer. I really don't care a whole lot about systemd. So far, it hasn't been proven to be "bad". It changes how you do some things, but it hasn't been proven to be either "bad" or "good". As a result, I haven't found reason to like it, or dislike it. Maybe next month, I'll become the impassioned enemy of everything systemd, but so far, mehhhh.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2015, @09:41AM
Proving system D is "good or bad" will never happen. Why? Because "good" and "bad," being moral-ethical terms, really have no relevance in this domain.
However, to the neutral observer, there are always interesting points of discussion, if you only look for them.
Consider this one that just popped up in my inbox:
http://git.busybox.net/busybox/commit/?id=accd9eeb719916da974584b33b1aeced5f3bb346 [busybox.net]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 31 2015, @09:51AM
To the pragmatist, "good" means it works well, and "bad" means it works poorly, or not at all. Nothing moral about it. Cheap gas pumped from dirty tanks is "bad", cheap gas pumped from clean tanks is "okay". Good quality gas pumped from clean tanks is "good". My car tells me so, and I believe it.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Saturday October 31 2015, @04:32PM
blimey :-)
You'd expect busybox to work everywhere, under all circumstances.
I wonder what the systemdfanbois did to annoy busybox project members.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday October 31 2015, @07:15PM
Proving system D is "good or bad" will never happen. Why? Because "good" and "bad," being moral-ethical terms, really have no relevance in this domain.
Ah, but pure evil, on the other hand, is relevant.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Saturday October 31 2015, @03:42PM
Here's a real-world systemd failure I find completely unacceptable: I discovered that I could render my systemd-based system unbootable by unplugging a PS/2 mouse that had been previously used on the system. And this wasn't unbootable as in "error on boot, and dropped to a maintenance console" or "desktop manager didn't start properly" or "mouse was unavailable", but unbootable as in "showed a black screen for several minutes and didn't respond to any input other than the power button".
As to why I was certain this was a problem with the PS/2 mouse, I plugged in the mouse again and it booted without a hitch.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 31 2015, @04:20PM
Ya know what? I've experienced just about the same thing. So - how did you determine that was the fault of systemd?
My experience with failing to boot was blamed on kernel 4.2. I attempted to install 4.2 repeatedly both in Debian and in Arch, and every time, I met with failure. I finally managed to get Arch booted under 4.2, using the boot parameter acpi=off. Now, sometimes when I reboot, it just boots, other times, it goes to that black screen.
The last update led to a bootable system, but I couldn't input anything with either the ps2 or the USB keyboard. Mouse worked, but with no password, I couldn't get into the system. Then, I had a screensaver kick in, and when I attempted to log back in, no input from the keyboard again.
I won't argue that it may or may not be a systemd problem, but I'd like to know how you arrived at that conclusion.
Maybe all this time, if I had simply unplugged and plugged the keyboards and mouse, I might have solved my problem?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday November 01 2015, @05:41AM
Why it was systemd:
- The same hardware and similar kernel version running an OpenRC based system worked fine.
- The kernel output log showed nothing out of the ordinary.
The conclusion I drew: Some of the units systemd was starting up relied on the mouse being available, and rather than, say, start up everything except those units and start a text-mode login if needed, systemd just tried to start those units, discovered it couldn't and deadlocked.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2015, @09:38AM
SoylentNews: The only place where you can kvetch about Slashdot being a corporate instrument used by an evil megacorp, then vigorously defend the malignant SystemD in the same breath.
(Score: 1) by Post-Nihilist on Saturday October 31 2015, @12:45PM
, what a passionate defense, sure sign of a shill
Be like us, be different, be a nihilist!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2015, @11:00AM
Not everything uses systemd, you know.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fritsd on Saturday October 31 2015, @04:35PM
I'm enjoying having a systemd-free Linux system, thankyouverymuch. It was a lot of work, but I'm glad it paid off.
Did you know that, if you have a basket full of crabs, the crabs that try to escape are pulled back into the basket by the others?