The Relentless march of the MS updateNB

[Peppermint]

It's rare to go near a PC these days that doesn't have updates waiting to be installed, being installed or wanting you to turn it off to complete the install process. Of course once you reboot to complete the cycle it tells you it's got more updates waiting.

This raises the questions. Where do they go, these updates, and are they taking up more and more space on your disc? Is Windows growing exponentialy or is this stuff overwriting existing space?

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[snowleopard]

try pressing ctrl-alt-del to see a list of the software running on your PC. do you know what they all are, where they come from and which ones are legitimate?

one of them has been crashing my PC every day for 2 years and i'll have to format and re-load one of these days to get rid of it.

but isn't it worrying when you start up and it says it's updating your configuration files even though you haven't installed anything for months.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[BrendanS]

It's a bit of both really, some overwrites existing files, the rest is incremental

<hr width=100% size=1>Me transmitte sursum, caledoni

 

[chas]

I know exactly what you mean. As far as I am concerned, the list may as well be written in Greek. Does anyone know of a list anywhere which can identify these programmes so that those which ought not to be there can be taken out?

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[benjenbav]

The ones I particularly enjoy say "you can carry on working whilst this update installs". No sooner do you start doing something than you get "Please close all applications in order to complete the instalation"

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[clouty]

Mac. Mac. Mac.

Much better

<hr width=100% size=1>clouty

 

[ColinW]

If you type the process name into a google search you can usually find out what you want to know. For example if you type in lsass.exe the first result will take you here

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/lsass/

which tells you what the process is, that it isn't a virus or trojan and that there is no risk.


<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[benjenbav]

Never used one. The impression I have is that macs are overwhelmingly superior for visual and graphics stuff but that because I don't do that sort of thing I am better off with a pc if only because of the market domination.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Metabarca]

Here, here: much more streamlined. Mac-OS occupies less space and has less number-crunching for a given operation. That's why PC processors often have a faster rating: they need more power to pull all the software (like a lorry), but that doesn't make them faster than a Mac (which goes like a car). A small example of convenience of a Mac: on a Mac I am always one mouse operation away from shut-down. How many times do you have to click your mouse on a pc? Two, three times?
Keyboard shortcuts on a Mac: ctrl + s to save, ctrl + p to print, ctrl + o to open a file. And in a pc? ctrl+ alt+ God knows what else is hardly intuitive.
The pc/Mac argument is never-ending; it's like Protestants and Catholics, but since my change from PC, I haven't looked back once. I find Windows clunky, unstable, all too open to viruses (none on my Mac in 10 years), ugly and unclear. Sorry guys!

<hr width=100% size=1>Adriatic links here: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html>http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html</A>

 

[Metabarca]

SUre, there are far more programs for PCs but these are mostly games or useless. You can do all the operations you wish on a Mac as regards word processing, spreadsheets and databases (often with Microsoft programs such as Word, Excel and so on). I've never found myself limited in this (with the possible exception of navigational software (sailing, not surfing!) - there's little of this for Mac). The big, big advantage is no viruses, trojans or other nasties gobbling your hard disk.

<hr width=100% size=1>Adriatic links here: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html>http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html</A><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Metabarca on 11/11/2004 10:51 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[Ohdrat]

Generally OSs have been getting bigger and bigger .. hence the increases in the amount of recommended memory and disk space and faster chips.. of course this all means more dosh for the manufacturers of hardware too.. thus MS and the big manufacturers have a method of ensuring that their products have a terminal life before an upgrade is required.. very good example of corporate symbiosis.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Benbow]

SWMBO is a professional artist, she kept telling me that she needed a Mac for arty stuff. I resisted and worried about my ability to maintain it (I am the techie part of the operation!). However, it happened anyway and I have been playing with it for a few days.

I can't really see why the Mac is considered particularly good for art/design, I think that is down to the package you run; I suspect arty people like the design and kudos. But the system as whole is a joy after windows and PC. It took me literally no time to understand its way of 'thinking', its clean fast, simple OS is lovely. I have no art/design requirements, but I am about to junk my laptop and get a mac for work - and that is after 20 years of working entirely with DOS then Windows. My laptop takes an age to boot, loading a ton of anti this that and the other, the mac is jut there, open it and it wakes up and is ready to go in 2 seconds.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Twister_Ken]

PC vs Mac, security

I use Mac, and have firewall on it. It records one attack a month max.

My kids have PC's for college. I put firewall s/w on them and they are attacked several times a minute over our broadband connection.

Worrying for the PC community.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[Peppermint]

Re: Do you do any

Mac to Pc data transfers?

When I get my next laptop I'd consider a powerbook if you could transfer data to PC easily.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[chas]

Thanks - should not take more than a couple of hours with all the rubbish that seems to run on my machine!

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Twister_Ken]

Re: Do you do any

As long as the data is in a format that the apps recognise yeah, no problem.

I run MS Office for Mac, so Word, Excel, Poewerpoint, etc can just be swapped back and forth. Sometimes the PC will trip up because the Mac doesn't automatically put a .doc, .ppt or .xls suffix on but that's easy to sort.

The Adobe stuff I use also moves between platforms (Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator) with no glitches.

I used to run a 10 Mac unit within a 70 PC company and the only problem that took a bit of sorting was mail. Outlook Express runs fine on a Mac, but Outlook was a bit clunky for some reason. OK, but not elegant.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[Neraida]

I understand your frustration, but i would rather have a constantly guarded and updated os on my own computer and that of my back office. Unlike some, ok, one company, for whom i used to work, who release a point release of their os and then just crack on with the next one...
Please don't think that Mac's are invulnerable to attack, as its not true. Even the worlds most secure and "unhackable" os is vulnerable in one way or another. My department run MS, linux, Solaris, Sco, OpenVMS (simply put, the best OS in the world) and Mac systems and the only one we seem to notice is "unattentive" to security issues is the Mac. In fact, our network security consultants make us aware of Mac problems far earlier than Apple ever do..
My point is, altho i'm rambling, is that updates are good for you. if its irritating you, switch off the alerting and let your pc get on with it. PC's have to reboot from time to time, its just the way things are.

Cheers

James

PS My VMS systems all have an "up time" of over 400 days at the moment, and that last "reboot" was cos the generator run out of diesel during a power outage.... DOH!!

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Twister_Ken]

Namby pamby stuff compared with Tandem's Guardian. Now that was industrial strength. We had a system in the Baltic Exchange that kept on running after the IRA bombed it. When the techies were eventually allowed back in several days later they found the floor of the computer room had collapsed, so the boxes were all at crazy angles, and the aircon was out so the temps were over 130 deg F, but the system was burbling away and still fully available. Is HP still using it?

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[Lightnup]

Quote: "The ones I particularly enjoy say "you can carry on working whilst this update installs"."


I have yet to encounter a Microsoft message that uses the word "whilst." Do they actually use that for UK update messages?

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[tcm]

The shuffling failure of the white-hot revolution

There is absolutley no doubt that arty stuf needs a mac. these can directly drive proper millionpound printing machines at top magazine quality, and the firmware and software for professional production of printed text (instead of a letter) is all there.

But since IBM released the architecture of the PC way back in the early 80's, depite shite internal architecture, it's been cheap cos loads of peeps cd manufacture one, so lower unit pricing for "a computer" and more market penetration meant huge varierty of software inclcuding mundane system softare for invoicing, databases, and erm viruses now outnumbers mac or other propritery computers at over 100 or even 1000 to 1.

The sole outpost of mac superiority remains the production of the printed word on the page. The fact that it retains market share in this specific area is a result of our human prediliction towards actually physical printed items like books and magazines, in preference to "internet published" works of almost any description.

The much-trumpeted drive towards a world where computers became something more - intelligent car-driving, home-managing, child-educating, human-replacing machines of the very near future fell at the first techno-bubble hurdle of the internet, now primarily a purveyor of porn.

Aside from this important aspect of the white hot revolution overlooked by H Wilson, we now use computers as advanced typewriters (or in the case of the mac, very advanced typewriters) but (with PC) low unit price, and wide library of software for multiuser information handling/storage/retrieval and (with the telephone system) as a high-speed telegram service for email, commercial transaction handling, and on forums like this. Our small brains don't seem to be able to cope with very much more, it seems.

.