Is Big Brother Watching Vista Users???
- Thread starter DougF
- Start date
Doug, I trashed the other two threads and fixed this link -- the bbcode replacement for the smiley face got put in the URL.. make sure you put a space between the link and smiley.
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On topic, it's sad that we even have to worry about these things. When did consumers stop dictating what gets put on our computers and let the developers put what ever the hell they want on it? You're paying top dollar for Vista as it is, maybe the company should value our privacy, just a wee bit?
You know when it started? With bundled software. All the crapware that was supposed to be "helpful" the endless antivirus trials, 500 hours free of AOL, earthlink, MS Office trials etc. Software companies paid a lot for those placements all in the hopes that 1 in 100 users would purchase a license. The manufacturers realized most people don't know or care what's on their computer or what it's doing in the background until something breaks. Now they'll put what ever they want on our computers, line item the breach of privacy in their mile long ELUA to cover their own arses and say it's okay to do so.
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On topic, it's sad that we even have to worry about these things. When did consumers stop dictating what gets put on our computers and let the developers put what ever the hell they want on it? You're paying top dollar for Vista as it is, maybe the company should value our privacy, just a wee bit?
You know when it started? With bundled software. All the crapware that was supposed to be "helpful" the endless antivirus trials, 500 hours free of AOL, earthlink, MS Office trials etc. Software companies paid a lot for those placements all in the hopes that 1 in 100 users would purchase a license. The manufacturers realized most people don't know or care what's on their computer or what it's doing in the background until something breaks. Now they'll put what ever they want on our computers, line item the breach of privacy in their mile long ELUA to cover their own arses and say it's okay to do so.
Sounds like a DJ worth seminar
See, there's all kinds of things in every business, not just being a DJ -- we all have our own angles...
Fair is fair
Sadly, Dan is right. The days of novice PC users being able to pick and choose which utilities to run are gone. True, MS platforms have always needed aftermarket patches and utilities. But it's worse today than ever.
I think it's a damn shame when a new PC goes online via broadband connection and gets slammed with a pinged virus within a few seconds. But MS isn't concerned with that. They've already made the sale.
So the customer has to take a brand-new machine to the shop for repairs and an aftermarket firewall installation.
MS needs to address the inherent flaws in their OS bed instead of concentrating on more ways to hijack the consumer.
I think it's a damn shame when a new PC goes online via broadband connection and gets slammed with a pinged virus within a few seconds. But MS isn't concerned with that. They've already made the sale.
So the customer has to take a brand-new machine to the shop for repairs and an aftermarket firewall installation.
MS needs to address the inherent flaws in their OS bed instead of concentrating on more ways to hijack the consumer.
DjDennis
RIP- My Dad (2011), Sister (2013) and Mum (2017)
thats why I use SYGATE (or Comodo firewall)
and only thing I use is a few things from MS
I have no hassles here and still get my updates
and only thing I use is a few things from MS
I have no hassles here and still get my updates
G
Guest
Guest
IMHO, the OS's work very well, considering they were designed and built by humans, to be used by humans for many tasks. Windows, et. al., is a far more complex beast than any OS on the planet.
Granted, some things are left 'as is', so there is a third party after market. Does your DJ company provide limos, cakes, flowers, video, photo, food, tablecloths, etc.?
I use the standard Windows firewall on my stuff, and Norton. That's it for after market security. Works well.
I would think the user community has the inherent flaws -- in that they should probably reconsider visiting certain websites, opening certain emails, loading certain software -- and that should be addressed before worrying about Window's phoning home to the Mother Ship
Think of it this way: If you saw somebody breaking into your trailer to steal your equipment, you would probably take some action I think. Software is just equipment on a different level, so manufacturers are taking action.
Just my .002
IMHO, the OS's work very well, considering they were designed and built by humans, to be used by humans for many tasks. Windows, et. al., is a far more complex beast than any OS on the planet.
Granted, some things are left 'as is', so there is a third party after market. Does your DJ company provide limos, cakes, flowers, video, photo, food, tablecloths, etc.?
I use the standard Windows firewall on my stuff, and Norton. That's it for after market security. Works well.
I would think the user community has the inherent flaws -- in that they should probably reconsider visiting certain websites, opening certain emails, loading certain software -- and that should be addressed before worrying about Window's phoning home to the Mother Ship
Think of it this way: If you saw somebody breaking into your trailer to steal your equipment, you would probably take some action I think. Software is just equipment on a different level, so manufacturers are taking action.
Just my .002
I agree in a sense, Rick. Many people use the OS for many different things they cannot make everyone happy.
BUT
MS could make it more secure. Windows firewall is a joke, compared to free after market resources. Only since XP SP2 has MS made a halfway decent attempt at throwing up security warnings for seemingly regular operations that could compromise the system such as opening an exe.
MS could also make it more user friendly.. Stop everyone from throwing stuff all over the start menu, make simple categories. Look at my menu on Ubuntu -- Simple everything is right where it should be, I don't have to hunt down programs by manufacturer name. If I install an RSS reader for instance, I know automatically it's going to be listed under "Internet"
View attachment 3625
Don't let any program set itself to run on startup unless explicitly allowed by an admin. Almost everything you install on Windows wants to run on startup. My printer drivers set 2 programs to run on startup, all instant messenger want to force run on startup. It isn't just an issue of system resources it's an issue of security. Programs phone home and your average user running the XP firewall doesn't even know about it.
Sure you could go into the program options and tell it not to run, if the option is available. Acrobat reader didn't have that option last time I looked neither do lots of others. Or if you're a little geekier just disable it by running msconfig. Then what happens lots of times is a soon as you run the program again it resets itself to run on startup. The only thing that should run on startup is, anti-virus and firewall.
How about including virus protection by default in Windows? They're selling an operating system that they know is a huge target.. How about a little social responsibility?
A few changes small changes could make the system at lot more secure out of the box. Windows runs on 90% + of the computers in the world of course their always going to be a target but make it harder for the malware developers to achieve what ever it is their trying to do.
Attachments
Dan,
I certainly understand what you are saying, but if I make make an analogy:
Consider the United States of America. Home of freedom, pretty open borders, all that good stuff.
Consider Windows, about the same on an OS scale.
For each piece of freedom you chip away (e.g. the security blocks), you take away from the overall usability of the item in question, and it's worth to anyone using it.
You start taking away the liberty of Americans, and the open society, and you end up with North Korea.
You start putting too many blocks in Windows, and you end up with a MAC or other UNIX variant
I certainly understand what you are saying, but if I make make an analogy:
Consider the United States of America. Home of freedom, pretty open borders, all that good stuff.
Consider Windows, about the same on an OS scale.
For each piece of freedom you chip away (e.g. the security blocks), you take away from the overall usability of the item in question, and it's worth to anyone using it.
You start taking away the liberty of Americans, and the open society, and you end up with North Korea.
You start putting too many blocks in Windows, and you end up with a MAC or other UNIX variant
Boo picking on *nix! Actually, I have to say for me Linux is more usable than windows, since I spend a majority of my time in a browser and mail client not much else matters but stuff like SSH included from the start makes things easier for me. You should take Ubuntu for spin sometime, check it out for yourself. Maybe even build me some awesome DJ software
Actually, I have to say for me Linux is more usable than windows, since I spend a majority of my time in a browser and mail client not much else matters but stuff like SSH included from the start makes things easier for me. You should take Ubuntu for spin sometime, check it out for yourself. Maybe even build me some awesome DJ software I think Haliburton, the US DoD and the UN better start securing their systems... if they're just "sniffing," (which is what the screen grabs appears to be to me), they ain't as secure as they like to think they are.