[access-uk] An interesting article from The Guardian.
- From: Colin Howard <colin@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: avios@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2007 01:33:17 +0000
Greetings,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2005063,00.html
I paste in the text below.
Tim Dowling: The launch of Microsoft Vista | Guardian daily comment |
Guardian Unlimited
Upgrade rage
Tim Dowling has installed the latest DVD software, security updates and a
new version of iTunes, but the launch of Microsoft Vista threatens to tip
him over into paranoia
Saturday February 3, 2007
The Guardian
I have not even tried to install Windows Vista yet, but the early signs are
not good. At the moment I'm merely trying to download and install a piece of
software called Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor 1.0, which is supposed to scan
my system and tell me which version of Vista, if any, is right for my
computer.
Already there is a problem - the download has been successful as far as
Microsoft is concerned, but I can't find the file on my hard drive. Is it
possible
that my computer is not even compatible with this compatibility checker?
When I do manage to get it installed, the first thing the program does is go
online
to check for updates. It seems I may not have the latest edition of Upgrade
Advisor.
Article continues
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Windows Vista is the newest edition of Microsoft's operating system,
officially launched with much fanfare last Tuesday. It is also the latest
and most
high-profile incitement to what might be termed upgrade rage, or Upgrage,
the uncontrollable anger which occurs whenever a software upgrade deemed to
be
either essential or beneficial proves to be a pointless waste of your time,
or a quick way to cripple your outmoded computer.
Vista is said to offer impressive 3D graphics, improved performance and
unprecedented security, representing a significant advance on its
predecessor, Windows
XP. But critics claim that up to 85% of home computers won't be able to run
the most sophisticated version, Vista Ultimate. Getting the most out of the
software upgrade will require a hardware upgrade - you'll need a new
computer. Environmentalists have complained about the level of coercion
implicit in
producing an operating system that will render even recently bought machines
all but obsolete. "There will be thousands of dumped monitors, video cards
and whole computers," said the Green Party's Sian Berry. "Future
archaeologists will be able to identify a Vista upgrade layer when they go
through our
landfill sites."
Of course nobody is forcing you to buy Windows Vista - and at £249 for the
most advanced version, they're not exactly giving it away - but sticking
with
your present operating system will not necessarily spare you from Upgrage.
If you've got kids you have probably watched as the latest version of a
children's
game reduces your home computer to a juddering piece of yesterday's junk. If
you've got a broadband connection then your computer is endlessly upgrading
itself, sometimes without your knowledge. It's impossible to open a program
without being told that a newer version of iTunes, Adobe Acrobat, Internet
Explorer, QuickTime or RealPlayer is available. The new version will
ostensibly be much better than the old version, but all you know for certain
is that
it will be much bigger.
They rarely give you the chance to say: "No, I am not interested in this
latest drain on my computer's already overtaxed resources." Often the newer
version
will have some kind of conflict with some other software, or your printer,
or your graphics card. Chances are this will mean nothing to you, until
something
goes wrong. Meanwhile your operating system, be it Windows XP, Vista or the
upcoming Apple Leopard, will be updating itself automatically - even as you
sleep, if you leave your computer on all night, which you shouldn't, by the
way. Likewise your anti-viral and anti-malware programs will also download
little updates on your behalf, the idea that the more frequently these
things are updated, the safer you are.
"There is the feeling within the computer industry that they are giving you
upgrades for you own good, and often that is the case," says Sarah Kidner,
assistant
editor of Computing Which? "We advise that people should keep their
operating systems up to date and should download the update to the operating
system.
Usually they are to fix vulnerabilities." Some critical updates, however,
are more critical than others. One famous update, as noted by the Guardian's
Paul May in his Technobile column this week, was Microsoft's Update 833407,
which removed two swastikas and a Star of David from the Bookshelf Symbol 7
font, thereby spoiling countless neo-Nazi newsletters.
Often these updates are whole new versions of perfectly good applications,
although they are not always billed as such. Microsoft's version 7 of its
Internet
Explorer browser was presented to Windows users as a "high priority
auto-update" of version 6 in November, when it was really more of a software
upgrade,
according to Kidner: "It's like me going out and buying a new version of
Word." In the past three months, IE7 has been installed on more than 100m
computers,
amid concerns that it is more vulnerable to hackers than its predecessor.
It is a rare week when a little balloon does not pop up from my taskbar
announcing that "updates are ready for your computer". The constant
pestering I
receive from my anti-spyware program - Hi! Don't mind me, I'm just acquiring
some important new features! - sometimes makes me wonder if life wasn't
simpler
when I just had lots of spyware. In the course of the working day, updates
and upgrades are now a familiar part of the barrage of distractions that
includes
emails offering "cheap v1agra" and pop-up ads for mortgages. When updates
arrive you must stop what you're doing, download a file, install a program,
restart
your computer and then relearn how to use some new and counterintuitive
piece of software.
For the most part these changes are invisible and harmless - and possibly
even necessary - but eventually some little update will come along that your
machine
cannot handle. You won't know which thing, exactly, but certain programs
will start to lock up while others will slow to a crawl. Your browser will
encounter
unspecified problems and shut down. Peripherals will refuse to operate. You,
a rational person of the digital age, will be reduced to paranoid
superstition.
This is the first sign of Upgrage. It first happened to me when some run of
the mill security "fix" automatically foist upon my computer prevented me
from
opening hundreds of documents, including the Help document which told you
how to disable this very feature. I began to believe that powerful forces
were
conspiring to break my computer to force me to buy a new one. I cursed them.
And then I bought a new computer.
Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor 1.0 is now humming away, exploring the limits
of my six-month-old laptop to see if it's computer enough to handle
Microsoft's
mighty new operating system. After some minutes I am given the bad news:
"Your current graphics card will not support the Windows Aero user
experience".
I don't know what that means, and now, thanks to my graphics card, I will
never find out. There is, I am told, a more suitable version of the new
operating
system called Vista Home Basic, which sounds like the software equivalent of
a tin of supermarket own-brand cling peaches. "It will run on a much lower
specification PC," says Sarah Kidner, "but the reason it's called Vista
Basic is that it doesn't have Windows Aero. They can't have it both ways."
Even if I were to opt for Vista Basic, Advisor 1.0 notes that I might have
"minor compatibility issues" with seven programs I currently use, including
the
DVD player software and the program that makes my mouse work. Before I can
upgrade, it seems, I will need to upgrade - a new graphics card, more RAM
and
a clutch of updates from the various manufacturers of various bits of
hardware inside my computer. Not so long ago the pace of technological
progress was
stately enough that computers had time to break of their own accord. Hard
drives crashed, CPUs melted down, laptop screens died. Now the machines are
simply
outpaced by the software that is loaded onto them, usually over a period of
months rather than years, and certainly well within the time frame of those
ridiculous extended warranties computer salesmen push.
I am trying hard to regard my all-but-brand-new laptop as a piece of
"sufficient technology" - good enough for my humble needs, and therefore
good enough
- but knowing that it would struggle to cope with the most primitive version
of Vista available makes me feel like replacing it at the earliest
opportunity.
Individually we may try to resist this trend toward instant obsolescence,
but not without losing ground in the race toward - hang on, my anti-virus
program
is trying to tell me something ... No, look, this isn't a good time, I'm
right in the middle of ... really? That important? Can I restart it later?
No?
We'll have to leave it there, I'm afraid. I won't be upgrading to Windows
Vista myself, but if you're buying a new PC you will almost certainly get it
as
standard. Then you can sit back, turn on your brand new machine and await
those first critical updates. Good luck to you.
From punchcards to CDs
Software upgrading has a long and undistinguished history, stretching back
to the days when computers used punch cards to tell them what to do. Back
then,
programmers would send their clients new pieces of card which had to be
stuck over the old ones. As computers became smaller and more powerful in
the 1970s
and 1980s, upgrades moved onto tape, floppy disks and eventually CDs. But it
was the birth of the web - invented by Tim Berners Lee in 1990 - that made
upgrades part of everyday life. These days, most new computer programs and
games are "patched" as soon as they are released to make up for problems
with
the code. And as new security holes are discovered or new bugs created -
about 150,000 distinct viruses are currently in circulation - programmers
are
forced to send out updates on an increasingly regular basis.The update crown
goes to Microsoft. As well as major software revisions that come along every
couple of years, Windows users also receive a package of downloadable
updates once a month - on what has become known as "Black Tuesday" to weary
IT managers.
Each update contains a library of smaller ones, sometimes as many as 26 in a
single block. The monthly practice goes back to 1998, meaning that there
have
been more than 100 updates to Windows and its programs in the intervening
years.
Bobbie Johnson
Colin Howard, who lives in Southern England near the city of Southampton, is
really looking forward to hearing from you.
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