Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Bob Kucera" <bobkucera AT earthlink.net>]

I've been using XP since Feb. and it works fine.  It seems the advantage
over w2000 would be the support of older peripherals that w2000 left
behind and probably their touted multimedia device support
(cameras,video,speech, etc.) which I haven't tried.  The ms OS's each
have gotten more stable - to the point that I've recommended to not
spend resources in a large rollout for machine specific recovery
precautions (machine specific saved ghost images or recovery disks)
since w2000 replaced NT4 - but definitely keep important files saved off
the machine as always.  

The automatic upgrades are a problem to me because I'd like to think I
know whats being installed on my machine - no games, links to partners,
reports of anything to anybody - so I decline that option and use the
Windows update to selectively update the OS.  Also, I don't know what
that would lead to if the client base has the option of updating and
reporting every time the pop up option occurs - it seems like it would
lead to a lot of unusual situations to support.

Otherwise, its good to continue upgrading as MS rolls out their versions
- if you can afford it and if you can live with yourself complying with
what I see as MS' marketing scheme.  For the $ I also have recommended
skipping XP and going with their next OS which I predict they will
market as soon as a good # of people have bought into XP.  (i.e. buy 95,
skip 98, buy NT, skip ME, buy 2000, skip XP, . . .).  There is more to
it but this is one way to go; probably the easiest, maybe the most
expensive.  

It would be interesting to set up non-MS OS platforms, MS OS and non-MS
apps (get away from MSOfficeSuite and InternetExplorer) and think of how
to introduce that in a corporate environment - considering total cost of
ownership.  I can imagine doing one machine at a time to start and
advancing to a group with a standard platform and adding groups as the
previous group's rollout is stabilized.

Bob Kucera
2337 Glendale Ave.
Durham, NC  27704
(919) 602-5503


-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Champeon [mailto:schampeo AT hesketh.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 11:02 AM
To: InterNetWorkers
Subject: [internetworkers] FW: IP: XP Updates Start to P.O. Users


Thomas, you were asking about XP? Stewart Alsop in Fortune calls it
"Extra Pain". Here's some more info on why:

----- Forwarded message from Dave Farber <dave AT farber.net> -----

Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 08:57:01 -0400
Subject: IP: XP Updates Start to P.O. Users
From: Dave Farber <dave AT farber.net>
To: ip <ip-sub-1 AT majordomo.pobox.com>


------ Forwarded Message
From: Gunnar Helliesen <gunnar AT bitcon.no>
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 14:33:31 +0200 (CEST)
To: Dave Farber <dave AT farber.net>
Subject: XP Updates Start to P.O. Users


<http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,52108,00.html>

"One of the purported user-friendly features of Microsoft's new
operating
system is turning out to be user-annoying.

As many as three times a week, on average, XP users see a little window
pop-up at the bottom of their computer screens announcing the
availability
of another new update for their system. This plethora of patches has
left
many users wondering whether their hard drives are big enough to handle
'Trustworthy Computing.'

Users also complain that several of the patches made their systems
unstable. And some were annoyed by the many-megabytes worth of available
patches for what they feel are unimportant applications such as games
and
file-sharing applications, believing that Microsoft should instead focus
on fixes for crucial security holes.

Security experts say that the auto-update feature is good in theory, but
doesn't work as well as it should. In some cases, the updates have even
interfered with previously installed security patches, leaving
supposedly
protected machines open to malicious hackers.

Experts also confirm that many serious holes in Microsoft programs
remain
unpatched and wonder when the much-touted Trustworthy Computing
initiative
will have measurable real-world results. [...]"


Gunnar

--
Gunnar Helliesen   | Bergen IT Consult AS  | Open Source activist
Systems Consultant | Bergen, Norway        | Jaguar Enthusiast
gunnar AT bitcon.no   | www.bitcon.no/~gunnar | Märklin collector



------ End of Forwarded Message

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