[openbeos] Updating OSes bit by bit (was: Re: Why Windows is aSecurity Nightmare - Has a great idea for us.)
- From: Juergen Starek <jslistmail@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 19:12:13 +0200
Mat Hounsell <mat_geek@xxxxxxxxxxxx> schrieb:
> [...] fix Windows Update so that users aren't forced
> to connect to a network to get security updates. Windows update should
> encourage users to create a Windows Update CD [...]
Well, to get a bit more on-topic again, here are some thoughts that I
was going to post on ge-talk, but now that the discussion is here...
(feel free to redirect the discussion there, if you think it's
irrelevant for OpenBeOS).
If OpenBeOS R1 should include an upgrade application, one of the most
important features (and one that'd really set it apart from others)
would be the ability to suspend and resume downloads and to use idle
time on the internet link.
Why is that good / desirable / important? Although broadband connections
for home users are common now, there are lots of regions where slow
modem connections are the rule. When I installed Win2k on my parents'
machine in a rural area of southern Germany, I tried to use
Windows upgrade with a modem. The telefone line didn't allow transfer
rates in excess of 28k (and, yes, during the 3.5 hours it took to
fetch the most important stuff, two worms infected the machine).
Imagine the reaction of a user with such a connection when the
automatic update service asks him to fetch a 900 kByte update file.
Modem time is expensive, you can't use your net connection and the
telephone line for anything else during that time... and additionally,
with"pure users" like my parents, that's yet another program to learn to
work with.
So, BeOS and its derivates (sp?) are (and will be) fortunately
unimportant enough to be targeted by very few viruses and worms. The
problem with initial updates, during which the machine is insecure (as I
mentioned above) is not a big concern here.
So, if it was possible to do updates automatically by using bandwidth
not used by other programs, the process could become almost transparent
for the user: no need to learn how to use the system updater, the
updaters of different apps... And if your online time is too short,
the updater might ask you to give him half an hour or so, offering to
automatically disconnect when he's done.
I know, however, that bandwitdh management is somewhat difficult on most
types of network connections. So, would this feature or support for
it have to be implemented in the network stack or could it be moved into
an application? Do you consider this idea possible and desirable? Would
the overhead be bad enough for broadband users to want to switch this
off?
Let me know what you think.
Jürgen
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