Re:Microsoft Issues WanaCrypt Patch for Windows 8, XP
by userbinator on Saturday May 13, 2017 @11:32AM
(#14331455)
Sure, 2001 was a long time ago, but so what? What's wrong with a PC that runs the same OS for 100 years?
My thoughts exactly. If you look outside of computers/tech, at other large pieces of infrastructure like electrical and water supply systems, you'll find plenty which are much older and still in active operation. 2001 was only 16 years ago. I have many things older than that and probably "unsupported", yet continue working with only occasional maintenance.
Thus, as computers become more integrated into our lives and a part of the infrastructure, it makes sense that they should stop "moving forward" and settle down stably at some point, yet all I've seen is the complete opposite. In fact, I'd say instability in infrastructure is immaturity --- to take an example, in the early days of electrical power, there were plenty of incompatible sockets, voltages, and frequencies. Now we have settled on a small set of standards, which have been nearly the same for the past decades.
I understand that newer versions of Windows do have stronger security
The flip-side is that some of this security isn't really helping the user, i.e. DRM. Newer version of Windows also come with other unnecessary/unwanted features like telemetry (possibly with their own vulnerabilities), regressions in UI, etc. In other words, if you upgrade you could be more secure from remote attackers and get some new features you actually want, but you're also giving away more privacy to Microsoft and moving toward a more locked-down-against-you ecosystem. It's not all positive.
If only Linux and WINE, or even ReactOS, were in a more usable state...
My thoughts exactly. If you look outside of computers/tech, at other large pieces of infrastructure like electrical and water supply systems, you'll find plenty which are much older and still in active operation. 2001 was only 16 years ago. I have many things older than that and probably "unsupported", yet continue working with only occasional maintenance.
Thus, as computers become more integrated into our lives and a part of the infrastructure, it makes sense that they should stop "moving forward" and settle down stably at some point, yet all I've seen is the complete opposite. In fact, I'd say instability in infrastructure is immaturity --- to take an example, in the early days of electrical power, there were plenty of incompatible sockets, voltages, and frequencies. Now we have settled on a small set of standards, which have been nearly the same for the past decades.
I understand that newer versions of Windows do have stronger security
The flip-side is that some of this security isn't really helping the user, i.e. DRM. Newer version of Windows also come with other unnecessary/unwanted features like telemetry (possibly with their own vulnerabilities), regressions in UI, etc. In other words, if you upgrade you could be more secure from remote attackers and get some new features you actually want, but you're also giving away more privacy to Microsoft and moving toward a more locked-down-against-you ecosystem. It's not all positive.
If only Linux and WINE, or even ReactOS, were in a more usable state...