Have you installed Win XP SP2 yet? Opinions?

[Claes Gefvenberg]

I'll have to wait for the swedish version a couple of weeks, but I'm not sure I'm all that eager to install it just yet anyway. You may want to have a look at:

Some programs seem to stop working after you install Windows XP Service Pack 2
Programs that may behave differently in Windows XP Service Pack 2

Several of the programs I use are on the lists.

Opinions?

/Claes

 

[jaimezepeda]

Our corporate IT group has decided to wait and test WinXP SP2 on some corporate machines prior to its implementation. We were asked to disable the auto update feature in WinXP until further notice.

Jaime

 

[Jim Howe]

Thanks Claes! You have may have saved me a lot of headache. I had heard rumors but until now paid no attention. I forwarded your links to my brothers at Virtual Horizons and they indicate they are on hold as well. The arrogance of it all defies my imagination! maybe a few more lawsuits are needed to get Microsofts attention!

 

[Marc]

Most colleges and universities have also closed off updating. Part of their complaint was incompatability, but the second half was the release coinciding with the students coming back and the fear of clogged networks.

From what I have read, quite a few companies are also disabling the service pack upgrade.

 

[Claes Gefvenberg]

I had a feeling I was not the only one being wary...

SP1 was nothing to worry about, but this one is quite big a deal. We are not using XP at work, but I use it at home.

The irony of it is that it was Microsofts uncharacteristical persistence in telling us how important it is to upgrade, that made me start looking for this kind information... I don't know about your side of the pond, but over here they have been hammering the message home with a vengeance. It made me curious.

Anyway, I think we can safely predict that SP2 will spawn lots of service packs for other softwares. They have not even spared other products of their own, for crying out loud... It would seem that SP2 is not quite ready, and as usual we are the guinea pigs, eh? Poor show, Microsoft...

/Claes

 

[AllanJ]

as usual we are the guinea pigs, eh? Poor show, Microsoft...

Nicely put, Claes

Is it not a disgrace that after nearly 25 years in a very lucrative business in which Lord Willie of Redmond wants us all to believe it is the global pacesetter, standard bearer and so forth for software that he has not yet bothered doing anything substantial (as far as I am aware) in the field of Software QA. The tradition seems to be "Sell it and get the customers to test it then we will sell them the fixes". That is a page out of Tom Sawyer's manual on "Getting the job done without doing it yourself".

I am still running Windows 95 on my desktop that is now used only for Internet and email. My old laptpop has the same. I was so disgusted about the anti-trust case I resolved to go Mac for my next laptop. Which I have. While having to grit my teeth on it, my only concession to Gates has been installing the latest Office for Mac (last month). I have heard Gates'/ MS hype and false promises too many times before to be interested in getting XP. When my desktop dies, it will be replaced by a basic Apple - having no MS software on it at all.

Is anyone on the Cove a MS employee?

Is anyone else a Mac user?

 

[Marc]

Macintosh - Virus Free and Easy to Use!

Is anyone else a Mac user?

Look at the bottom of every page on this site. I've been Mac since 1986. I'm on my Titanium G4 Powerbook now - what I do all my work and play on. It's about 2 years old (a 'slow' 800 MHz). My last Mac laptop - a 1400C - lasted 5 years. Well, it stil runs fine - I finally had some extra $ and 'upgraded' after 5 years... Now I only use the 1400C when I take a trip and use the old 'Street Atlas' program with the GPS attachment to track my route on the map. I bought the GPS 'head' for Street Atlas back in 1998 when I drove out to Phoenix so I had a car out there when I flew in without having to rent one. I really like that big screen and how as you move the icon on the map moves (you can even 'record' the trip and play it back, but I'm not sure why you would want to). Alas the program was discontinued... The one thing I really dislike is that there really is no good GPS 'head' and mapping software for OS X that I am aware of. See attachments - GPS 'head' in a scene on the way to New Hampshire and a shot of the old 1400C on the car seat.

Now the Mac OS is basically FreeBSD (Mac OS X) and I really like it. That's the one thing I never liked about Macs - I learned on a command line interface and I missed that because of what you can do there.

On my PC (the 'house server'), and in Softwindows for Mac, I run Windows 2000 and have no plan to upgrade from that.

In general, I think we will see more and more people moving to open source software for the same reason so many people come to this site - It's free.

I have Open Office on my Mac and while I don't normally use it, having all the Microsoft programs for the usual business stuff, Open Office opens Office documents - Word documents, spreadsheets, etc. The interface is kludgy, but with time that will go away. Star Office is another one out. I think that's Sun's offering.

 

[AllanJ]

Thanks for the info, Marc. Yes I was aware you used a Mac (from the screen bottom). In a rush of blood to the head I bought the 15 inch Powerbook with Superdrive. Not being an expert, I am still trying to get used to it and I am sure I will never use everything it probably has. It seems a nice machine, has its quirks but it gets very hot in use (bottom of the case).

However, it will never be connected to the Internet as I always keep my laptops "clean". Stuff is made on them but never dropped down to them from the 'net or any other machine, disk whatever. Hence, the PC replacement will be another Mac - but a basic one. The old laptop had a lot of PPoint/ Excel/ articles etc etc which were dumped into the Mac - but, that old machine was clean so I was not worried.

Considering what it costs for anti-virus s/ware, fixes, anti-spyware and the rest of the junk with updates it does not take long to make a compelling argument for having a stand alone clean machine that Mr Gates cannot peer into and put his bugs there.

I have heard XP is supposed to be more secure and so forth but I do not believe it - heard it all before. I am sure his best pals are Mr Norton and Mr McAfee et al and who knows - perhaps MS software is deliberately poor so that others can sell their s/ware fixes, patches and so forth.

Personally, I am skeptical of the entire bug, worm and spy industry. I often wonder whether or not it is the anti-virus s/ware people themselves that have offshoots or subsidiaries or pals that create the viruses etc so as to sell more of their products. If it is possible to publicise a fix almost the instant some virus or worm is found, how come the various companies do not work together to plug the holes in the first place.

Call me conspiracy minded, but I am afraid too many years unccovering all kinds of malfeasance in quality programs and business strategies makes one circumspect.

 

[Graeme]

Something's gooey around here

... as usual we are the guinea pigs, eh? Poor show, Microsoft...

It seems like they are using the public as unwitting "beta" testers ... or even as unpaid external "alpha" testers!

From ***Dead link removed *** and what passes for my memory:

Alpha testing is part of the software development process, done on the first "working" version of the product. An alpha product is still in development and can still undergo fundamental design changes. Goals are to:

• find things such as missing content and functional problems
• review the application concept, format, content and other stuff

Beta testing is a type of quality test for a product that is reasonably complete and bug-free - ready for release. Beta testers are (or were when I was last involved in software development) volunteers who know they are getting a pre-release version, and who are willing to use it (and try to break it) at their own risk. The goal of beta testing is to get final real-world feedback and make necessary improvements before the final release is shipped to real (paying) users.

Actually, looking at those definitions again, is all of Windoze is still in alpha test?

As most of the problems seem to be from the firewall functionality, I think I'll just skip the update for now and just stay with the ZoneAlarm Pro that I have been using for several years.

OOPS! ZoneAlarm is one of the programs that either won't install or won't run in the new update! How's that for "does not play well with others"?


​

I guess Microsoft is having something of an identity crisis. Pre-XP versions of Windows were criticised for their ports not being as "open" as Unix. The early XP releases were praised for having a built-in firewall (primitive as it was) and criticised because the ports were as open as Unix. (The default state of the firewall was "off".) Later versions of XP (was that SP1?) shipped with the firewall set to "on", but to make it work on my network I had to turn the firewall off. Now this release seems to have addressed the critics by shutting down the back end of Windows so tightly that even some of its internal components can't communicate outside the computer!


What's a poor software company to do?

Graeme

 

[Jim Howe]

Microsoft announces

I was told yesterday that Microsift supposedly has announced and issues a warning that the SP2 pack cannot do anything for programs already installed on the computer;ie, spywares, etc. AND if you download SP2 before removing these various spywares, etc. results could be devastating! Has anyone else heard or seen this announcement?