Thursday, June 12, 2014

MS XP FUD

. . Everyone was warned that Microsoft was no longer going to support its popular XP Operating system.  In its wake we should expect an avalanche of malware.  The dire prognostications were reflective of the Year 2000 scare.  At this time we were told to expect planes to fall from the sky.  But nothing of significance happened.  It's now been over two months and no serious infections have appeared for XP.  Is anyone surprised?
. . After thirteen years of almost monthly security patching, it was certainly reasonable to expect the "holes" in XP were plugged.  The big fear, however, was the not so public declining sales of desktop systems and of the constant barge of updates sold by software manufacturers. The demise of XP provided an opportunity to scare users into buying new stuff.
. . Microsoft's constant change and software bloat was unnecessary.  Their goal was not to improve their offerings with requested features, but to sell new product.  In the process they created a productivity challenge for support organizations.  With each new release, every three years or less, users had to retrain on stuff they once knew how to use even though the new software provided no new usable features for them. It was serious lost time.
. . Windows 8 was the final straw. Likewise, what has the "ribbon" graphical user interface added to the Office, but more confusion and unproductive retaining? Corporate users have solidly rejected Microsoft's self-serving tactic.
. . What the computer industry did not explain to users in their XP fear-mongering is the greatest source of malware was stuff users were being tricked into loading onto their computers through very effective social engineered scams, which arrive via email bait or promise of something FREE on the internet.  Unfortunately, none of Microsoft's heralded software protects against the guy or gal typing on the keyboard.

No comments:

Post a Comment