SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
Windows Update came roaring back today [Mar 7] after more than a month in a semi-comatose state, and the chute filled up quickly this morning. Windows Update seems to be working well -- even more reason to check your Win7 and 8.1 systems and make sure it's turned off
[...] More disconcerting are the re-re-releases of KB 2952664 (Win7) and KB 2976978 (Win8.1). As I explained last month, those two patches have, in the past, triggered a new Windows task called DoScheduledTelemetryRun.
Even proponents of installing all Win7 and 8.1 patches balk at those patches, which were born in the crucible of the Get Windows 10 (GWX) marched upgrade madness. The series was renumbered, with no explanation: KB 2852664 was renumbered from revision 25 on Oct. 4, 2016, to revision 12 today. Microsoft states:
This update performs diagnostics on the Windows systems that participate in the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program. The diagnostics evaluate the compatibility status of the Windows ecosystem, and help Microsoft to ensure application and device compatibility for all updates to Windows. There is no GWX or upgrade functionality contained in this update.
Yet it appears as if the scheduled task runs whether CEIP is enabled or not. If there's a reason for installing the patches, other than increased telemetry, I haven't heard about it.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Friday March 10 2017, @07:16PM (5 children)
Who still uses installed software to do taxes? All that stuff has moved to web apps now.
Corporate taxes; payroll taxes; etc
You have some strange priorities.
Pays the rent and puts the food on the table. That was the big one.
maybe with a more limited selection of games,
"Maybe"?? Don't kid yourself. It's not maybe. Linux game selection is like Netflix movie selection. There's lots there... but don't pretend you aren't missing out.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday March 10 2017, @09:33PM (4 children)
There's lots there... but don't pretend you aren't missing out.
Yeah, I'm missing out the same way I'm missing out on country music and baseball: it's out there, but I simply don't care.
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Saturday March 11 2017, @12:28PM (3 children)
c'mon, that is rank sophistry, and you know better...
YOUR pwecious this or that which is NOT sequestered from your attention via some nefarious kapitalist pig scheme is not someone else's this or that...
conversely, were it to be your ox being gored, i imagine you would be squealing...
on this particular issue in general, i would love to abandon windoze for all kinds of reasons, yet i am dependent -both at home/work- on mainstream programs which either do not have THE EXACT SAME (FORGET about 'file compatibility', etc; it MUST be the EXACT SAME program, not an 'equivalent') programs with the same capabilities as it has under windoze... i can NOT afford to spend meta-nerd time figuring a TON of shit out JUST TO GET TO the point i can actually get the software to do the work which is the WHOLE POINT of my employment...
i am paid to produce those virtual widgets; i am NOT paid a cent to avoid micro$oft...
if i can't run AutoCad, Adobe CS, Corel Draw (i know), SketchUp, Outlook, Excel, etc, etc, etc, OUT OF THE CHUTE without dicking around 'tweaking' shit for weeks on end, then i simply can't afford to use that setup...
end of insurrection...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Saturday March 11 2017, @04:02PM (2 children)
That's fine: you've tied your economic future to Microsoft. That's a choice that YOU made; it was not forced on you. Now you have to suffer with the consequences of your decision.
Furthermore, there's a difference between what you do with a computer that isn't yours, and isn't really controlled by you, and one that is your property (i.e., work vs. home). I use Windows at work for reading email and such; I don't like it it at all, but I don't like meetings and other work stuff much either. However, to me, it's not really my problem. I can change jobs at any time if I get fed up enough, and if Windows takes a shit and doesn't work for me, it's really not my problem: I just call the IT department and let them solve it. If that impacts my work performance, so be it: I'll duly note it and pass the blame to IT and Windows. The company made their choice, and they get to suffer the consequences for it. (Also worth noting is that big-company Windows systems don't have many of these problems; they don't run the home version.) But for my own personal systems at home, I don't have to put up with that shit since I can do whatever I want there.
No, you're not "dependent" on MS at home; you just choose to make yourself so. Unless you run your own business out of your home, what you do at home has no bearing on what you do at work.
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Saturday March 11 2017, @04:39PM (1 child)
why, yes, i *do*, in fact, work from home and have to use the EXACT same s/w, etc...
i have *at least* tried to stay at win7 sp2 for the last couple laptops/desktops i have gotten; but microborg is starting to make it all but impossible to avoid the hive mind...
if -as your implied worst-case scenario- microborg gains consciousness and promptly commits suicide, then all the industries i work with will change to appropriate equivalents... until that ocean level rises to their nostrils, though, they will not budge...
got a manager who insists we 'need' corel draw for a specific task which historically has been done a lot with corel draw; but he doesn't get that illustrator, or any of a dozen mainstream progs can do the same thing... he is fixated on it has to be 'corel draw', because that is how it was done... no special corel draw features involved, just simple vectors any basic vector-based prog can do...
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday March 11 2017, @06:12PM
if -as your implied worst-case scenario- microborg gains consciousness and promptly commits suicide, then all the industries i work with will change to appropriate equivalents
If, by "commits suicide", you mean that MS goes completely over-the-top with their policies (spyware, Windows Store-only software, etc.), then I think this is non-sequitur. Why would these industries change, if the software they've made themselves dependent on all only work on Windows? I don't think they're that far-sighted. Just look at your manager who insists on Corel Draw for example. If CD only works on Windows 10 (2019 Super Spyware edition that requires a phone-home connection even for businesses so all your confidential business data can be sent to MS), then of course he's going to just go with that.
I can only hope that a bunch of big companies get their data stolen and sent to China and are then put out of business as a result. It'll serve them right.