Well tom I don't really believe there's much else to say since for me,
security isn't an issue due to fhtird party software and I'd rather run avg
than have the harrassment of running windows 8 and a virtual xp system.
maybe that's different for you.
if microsoft of course hadn't mucked up compatiblity with vb6 applications
and dos programs, well I'd be happy to upgrade even with relearning the
interface, and indeed I imagine everyone else currently running xp would as
well, so it's certain where the blaime for this situation belongs. This is
actually one prime advantage Ios seems to have over windows since it
doesn't break existing programs when upgrading, and is another reason I'd
like to investigate the actual bennifits (if any), of mac as opposed to
windows 7 since if I've got to run xp in a virtual machine anyway, well it
doesn't make too much difference whether I use mac or windows.
Beware the Grue!
Dark.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2013 1:27 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] mac versus windows sales plus iOS question
Hi Dark,
Actually, the reason I upgrade and urge others to do so has nothing to
do with some misplaced intrinsic value of newer hardware, more ram,
and having my computers run more efficiently as you stated. I am not
that shallow. The real reason I upgrade and urge others to do so is
that I see real benefits in upgrading, but those benefits do not
necessarily apply to you personally.
For example, as you know I happen to run a number of different
operating systems concurrently on my laptop. That requires a lot of
CPU power and ram to run more than one OS in memory at a time. A
64-bit system with a quad core processor and 8 GB of ram would have
direct and immediate benefit to me because I can give Windows 8.1 the
first three or four GB of ram for running everything and give the
other three or four GB of ram over to the virtual machine to use. That
way both operating systems will have plenty of memory and CPU power to
work with. Since you are only using XP at this time and have no desire
to use Linux or another version of Windows in a virtual machine having
multiple processors and several GB of ram aren't as beneficial to you
as they would be to me. There is no argument about that fact.
There are other benefits that I value because I genuinely think that
they are necessary. Security happens to be one of those things I think
is worthwhile paying for. Not just because of some misplaced intrinsic
value in system security, but because I am a computer professional and
have dealt with my fair share of systems that have been compromised
due to poor security. Either the end user failed to update their
computer, they failed to keep their antivirus up to date, or they did
something else to compromize their security which ended up costing
them money to fix.
To give you an example a couple of weeks ago one of my aunts was on
the Internet when a little dialog popped up asking her to download an
update for XP. She did, and as soon as she did it installed a nasty
piece of ransomware onto her computer that took over her PC,
encrypted her hard drive, and when she started the computer all that
would come up is a dialog box asking her for her credit card number to
unlock her PC. Since she could not pay the $1,000 to get rid of the
ransomware I had to come over reformat her hard drive, reinstall XP,
and restore the system back to factory defaults. You want to know why
I think XP is a poor choice for people?
For one thing Windows XP has a major security hole which viruses,
addware, ransomeware, etc has been exploiting for years and that is
the admin account. If you run XP as admin, AKA super user, any virus
or piece of malware you download has free reign over your computer and
if your antivirus etc fails to stop it the malware can totally wipe
out your system just because there is no way to prevent it. My aunt
had antivirus software on her system, but it didn't stop the
ransomware that took over her machine, because there was no way of
stopping it.
Windows 8.1 does however have an extra layer of security called User
Account Control. I know people turn it off, think it is a pain in the
butt, but it does stop things
like viruses and other malware cold. Before a piece of software can be
installed or run UAC will pop up and prompt you to confirm the action.
It will tell you the name of the program, the manufacturer, and so on.
That feature has saved me more than once from a malware attack because
I was able to catch it and kill the process before it could do
anything to my machine. Perhaps if my aunt had been running Windows 8
she could have called someone and asked about running this fake
Windows update before it took over her PC as UAC would have blocked it
and prompted her to confirm the installation and encryption of her
drive.
Besides UAC Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 comes with a number of basic
security tools such as antivirus and malware protection out of the
box. Yes, I know there is AVG, Avast, etc available for XP but the
Microsoft tools are both free and accessible on Windows 8 and 8.1.
Even better I find that they don't use as much system resources as
third-party scanning engines and are very accessible. So in terms of
basic security Windows 8 and 8.1 has some benefit to me over Windows
XP.
In summary I do usually upgrade because there is personal benefit in
doing so. Not because I think it will help me browse the web,
send/receive e-mails, or listen to music, but because I appreciate
having better security and the hardware and performance boosts usually
help me in one way or another. It is just that those benefits I enjoy
from upgrading aren't really benefits to you.
Cheers!
On 12/18/13, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:
Well Tom I do agree our criteria are different.
I think part of this is that you, as a person with a rpactical interest
in
computers attach some sort of intrinsic value to the efficiency of
hardware
and software.
You care for example that modern machines have more ram and use more
memory more efficiently as a basic good in and of itself, you see a
computer
as a designed object with some sort of value in and of itself, perhaps
even
an aesthetic appreciation for it's correct running.
I confess I don't understand this, since for me a computer has only
instrumental value and has no worth above and beyond what it can do for
me.
To take another example, I know there are now consoles around that in
technology are orders of magnitude more powerful than the capabilities
of
my snes, yet because they don't have games I can play, I don't care
about
them, indeed on a personal level I rather wish Nintendo was still
developing
snes games that I could play rather than games for more powerful modern
consoles that I can't, for all I know that isn't going to happen.
As I've said I'm fairly certain that at some point in the future the
situation with respect to computers at least will change, but it
certainly
hasn't as yet.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
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