It's not like we need to reduce everything to the lowest common denominator (US Army), is it? I would argue the opposite, 100%! That, to me, is the divine aspect of Humanity - the fact tat we can learn, not just individually but also collectively (even m$!!! ). There are no guarantees, on any level, of course, but the potential is there! Alternatively, if we take your argument ("If A is behaving horribly, why would B strive for anything better or be forced to do any better than A?") as the principle to follow, then nothing new and better would ever come about... Everybody would just be looking to out-do each other by means of "tried and tested", nastiness and so forth... I assure you that W7 is very usable, from a lay person's perspective, even with the idiocy a la m$, every so often... Even Vista SP2. Before that it was not a cool experience. I wouldn't know about W8, as I have no devices for it. But to use m$ OS without any security SW seems a bit... odd... Even Linux servers get hacked, FCOL. If you were running an internet shop of some sort, from my experience, it might be seriously negligent, to the point of criminality. Or maybe I have no clue about the server side of things? But being a lay person in IT terms, I would still say that if you are running a server, then one needs even better security... Am I completely wrong on this one???
I'm stupid, so I don't get the lowest common denominator reference. Vista home basic is ok. All other M$ versions since xp except server are crap. I fix computers, and I see computers with viruses on them all the time no matter what security software is used or not used. I don't know how you all do it t
It doesn't follow from what you write and how you write, that you see yourself as stupid. But it seems to me like you do not want to see the obvious explanation - if US Army does things horribly (or say China or Iran, North Korea, Sudan or Cuba) it does NOT follow that everybody -like the Scandinavians, for instance - should follow such a "lead". Quite the opposite. Everybody should follow a real lead, in broad terms, at least politically and economically, if not socially - the Scandinavians, I would argue... The "lead" is where the real improvement is. And it ain't with China's, US Army's or various corporations (like m$) of this world, for sure... So, if m$ "leads" in a horrible, messy way (the IT world), it does not follow we should all cow-tow to it, just because they think they can get away with it (at least in the US), having bribed... errmmm... sorry... I mean "lobbied" their way to at least a bit more than half the legislature. As you can see from the massive fine they got from the EU, now final and doubly confirmed, not all the states/organisations/individuals are for sale! I'm sorry but I don't follow that... Can you elaborate, please? And how would you know it, unless you use some kind of security SW?!? Besides, it's not "us" but all kinds of hackers, to be precise. So, your PCs are also vulnerable, if... Of course, security SW only kicks in after a hack has been discovered. So, it is always 1 step behind, logically... However, that does not mean one should not use the security SW at hand and not protect oneself, as best as one can. I know of many people who log into their emails on holidays, in some internet cafe, only to have their details stolen. The owners of those cafes do not use any security SW, just at the end of the day "return the PC to its previous, clean state". I find that abominable! They get your money but do not take care of their customers/you. Don't use it! However, returning to the issue of the existence of hackers. Depending on how interesting you might be to somebody, anybody's PC is vulnerable, especially if running Windows on it! These days we are talking about some serious hacking done by states, with enormous pool of knowledge open to them and resources to match. So, no place to hide. Still, most of us are of no interest to such heavy-weights, mercifully. We only have to deal with "minor" shisters and for that KIS (and some other security SW) is good enough... And we ought to do it and help make it more difficult for them. Not like you, leave their PCs completely vulnerable... Seriously, I do not get you at all. Unless you're trolling...
Join the club I think that pretty much sums it up. A very close personal friend of mine shared a genuine copy of Windows 7 with me this morning and it is failing to install on my brand new ASUS ROG G75 3D laptop. I had this crazy idea this morning of being overly legitimate just for a gag in this fading republic but it looks like my years of troubleshooting have finally paid off. I am interested in how Windows 7s benchmarks compare with Windows 8s and Server 2012s now. I had completely written off such interests as a quaint archaic art in the NOW age in which our pineal glands are infinitely more receptive "wifi" transmitters than any ancient suffocated child's toy M$ could pass for inspiration at home eating hot dogs (or souls, whatever) Call me anytime, I am very interested in combining converging technologies
Fine. Write an OS and let us test it... On all, even the very brand newest HW... Oh, and best speed and best of luck! Else, we may forget we're waiting for... Godot... P.S. Others also showed similar puzzled-ness about your statements [with nothing to back them up]... Feel free to duck and dive some more... I love it when people love to pose... "Me, larger than life..." kinda thang with a twang... It usually doesn't end well, as soon as one delves into the nitty-gritty of things, with any kind of semblance of detail and proper, in-depth understanding of what's what... at least in my profession... Maybe we can see it here, in IT now, when true pros start nit-picking at your (I am sure now) never to come explanations...
Post 574 starts a barrage of questions, in relation to your statements, so... Knock yourself out... Just go to multi-quote and keep ploughing on, please... We could all do with some novelty here...
windows 8 sucks if you have to actually pay for it i'll stick to Mountain Lion ,i get it Free from Poppa
Answers Ok. I didn't think anyone cared, but I will do my best to rephrase the questions and answer them to the best of my reckoning. Question #1 - What would be the advantage of having the Server 2012 installed, please? Answer: It is faster than a tortoise who decided not to pull over for a nap, while Windows Vista, 7, and 8 more metaphorically represent a hare whose crusty shell has been splattered asunder by a procession of 18 wheelers on a merciless human highway. PLEASE WAIT is their punchline as the spinning blue-green wheel awaits a 64-core netbook that may finally take advantage of Windows Vista's futuristic advanced multi-core processing optimization long after all of its installation discs have disintegrated into the dustbowl of history's undatable sedimentary rock layers. Question #2 - And what would the downsides be? Protecting it? Would a HW firewall + KIS or Comodo Suite do? Answers: Not having time to brew coffee while your computer boots up, no Windows Experience Index (WEI) ratings, an overly secure Internet Explorer, No Windows Defender (not sure that's a downside?,) and being forced to have a password. I don't understand your question about there being a difference in security strategies between Server and regular Windows, any security methods/software you currently use should function the same on Windows Server as far as I know. Question #3 - Why is Vista home basic ok while all other M$ versions since xp except server are crap? Answer - I wish I knew. At first I assumed that it was simply because Home Basic comes without Aero, but after comparing the different editions of Vista on the same machines I found that Home Basic was much snappier in most cases even when the others were set to Windows Classic Theme. Now being slow is one thing, but Vista, 7, and 8 get confused and outright fail on a regular basis while claiming to be attempting even the most basic of rudimentary tasks, adding credibility to the paranoid conspiracy theory that Bill Gate$ and M$ have invested heavily in Apple stocks since 2006. Question #4 - How would you know a computer had viruses or malware, unless you use some kind of security SW?!? Answer - Because upon booting into a typical clients desktop (assuming it even will boot up,) we are greeted with, for example a blank desktop with a solid color, missing or changed icons, all programs and files missing or hidden, and a fake scanscreen/antivirus advertisement for a nonexistent security company pitching their nonexistent security suite. I've seen all kinds of messed up computers and I don't need a virus scanner to tell that an operating system no longer works. When I used to bother to boot into live security environments to remove malware from these computers I found that after removing the offending nasties that the Operating System would rarely boot up again, so I just started rescuing personal/work files, relevant registry keys, licenses etc. in a live environment and reinstalling Windows. It is much faster. Question #5 - Of course, security SW only kicks in after a hack has been discovered. So, it is always 1 step behind, logically... However, does that not mean one should use the security SW at hand and protect oneself, as best as one can? Answer - No. In my opinion consumer security software is practically worthless and the infected computers I work on almost always have some kind of up to date security suite and very often have expensive subscription services. Sensitive information should not be stored somewhere where it can be accessed from the Internet and any financial transactions can be done from a live disc or usb device where the memory is deleted when the computer is turned off. If you must continually access such things in a business environment I would use Linux. Question #6 - if we take your argument ("If A is behaving horribly, why would B strive for anything better or be forced to do any better than A?") as the principle to follow, then nothing new and better would ever come about... Everybody would just be looking to out-do each other by means of "tried and tested", nastiness and so forth... if US Army does things horribly (or say China or Iran, North Korea, Sudan or Cuba) it does NOT follow that everybody -like the Scandinavians, for instance - should follow such a "lead". Quite the opposite. Everybody should follow a real lead, in broad terms, at least politically and economically, if not socially - the Scandinavians, I would argue... The "lead" is where the real improvement is. And it ain't with China's, US Army's or various corporations (like m$) of this world, for sure... So, if m$ "leads" in a horrible, messy way (the IT world), it does not follow we should all cow-tow to it, just because they think they can get away with it (at least in the US), having bribed... errmmm... sorry... I mean "lobbied" their way to at least a bit more than half the legislature. As you can see from the massive fine they got from the EU, now final and doubly confirmed, not all the states/organisations/individuals are for sale! Answer - I originally said something to the effect that I don't see why M$ is singled out to reveal their tricks of the trade by the legal system while overweight armchair consumers in patriotic jumpsuits still believe that Osama bin Laden masterfully orchestrated the infiltration of a $400 billion defense system from his cave in Afghanistan. It seems kind of like the police coming to shut down a five year old girl's lemonade stand because she lacks a business license while a crack addict stabs an old lady across the street. It just seems a strange focus of priorities, that is all.
Windows 8 Sucks Yen, is correct. Windows 8 sucks...it is poorly designed and looks damn right ugly. Many of my friends who work for Microsoft in Redmond, WA say they do not like it but it is going forward anyway because Bill Gates says it is to be. Well, Bill Gates may like it but those of us who are old hands at Windows believe it to be a disaster. The general opinion of Windows 8 Preview is that it was designed by a 6th grader who used crayons to draw and design its GUI. After installing the Preview version, much like others have said here, I reverted back to Windows 7. Sorry, but unless the final version is going to be radically different than the preview version, I will stick to Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. And unless Windows 8 is radically different from Windows 7 with an GUI that looks professional, Windows 8 RTM will be a disaster in the market place much like Windows Millennium Edition was the biggest mistake at that time by MS.
Who cares. If you want to switch, switch. If not then not. There are more than enough alternatives. I am writing this response from RHEL.
Wait and see what happens when it RTMs. The avarage mister "I buy a pc and don't give a s**t as long as it works and isn't to expensive" will get it on his OEM machine anyway, that's the biggest group. If they like it then it's good. BTW, Steve Balmer is the current CEO, not Bill. Not to offend anyone, but actually I'm getting a little bit tired of all the "win8 is bad" threads, articles and spam around the web.
I haven't specifically tried under any recent Windows Server, but at least in the old days of making Windows Server 2003 into a workstation, client versions of various security/AV software would refuse to install on it because it was a Server. You have your right to your opinion, mine is that even with Vista (which I never thought as terrible as the masses did, and did consider an improvement over XP), but especially with 7, all my computers and computer's I've worked on over the years run much more stably than with XP. Don't get me wrong, XP ran great but IMO the stability has only improved over the years. Windows 8 isn't RTM so it isn't really fair to lump it in with the others. I do agree with your statement about removing viruses crippling Windows, often fatally, and reinstalling being the only real solution in such cases. In a few rare instances where I was tempted to actually remove a virus and attempt to leave Windows intact, *maybe* once it worked; all other times I just wasted a tremendous amount of effort for nothing. I'm so used to reinstalling Windows and the software I typically put on people's PCs that it's hardly any effort at all. When people who don't have the same kind of common sense as we do about what to click on and what not to, I agree that security software doesn't help a lot of the time in those cases. I disagree that security software is practically worthless, especially with MSE which is free. I know that MSE isn't the first free AV but ironically it's the only one I currently trust, and I've seen it help with at least some cases, and it's not really intrusive or impact performance so it's worth it to me to chance it catching at least some of the most common trojans and others. This just seems too simple a comparison. Are you saying we shouldn't investigate or prosecute potential monopolistic behavior until all murders are prevented? In an ideal world, maybe, but you've got to be realistic. Maybe you just chose a poor example, but if you delay going after the "level 5" offenders until you get the level 10, then 9, 8, 7 and 6 ones, you'll be so overran by the level 5 by the time you get to them that it will be impossible to deal with. That and many of the level 5s will have such a free reign that they will progress to worse offenses and just add to the growing number of the higher levels.
Wow! You are one seriously princely customer. Impatient people have short fuse but you seem to have none... My W7 Ultimate 64b is fine, in those terms. OS Olympics do not live in my hood. Anyhow, even if they did, my stopwatch seems to be broken and those tenths of a second here or there would not matter, one way or another... See above. Like we do not have a few things to sort out when we wanna boot an OS, so we press a button and go do those things or whatever... And anyhow, it is not lasting several minutes, is it...?!? Password might not be a bad thing and it's not a "downer" of any sort. W.D. can be switched off and so forth. Really.... Not true. They do not "fail [even 'outright'] at even the most rudimentary tasks". Ask anybody else - other than yourself, that is (at least when not trolling...)... Nonsense. Most malware does not show up so easily. And the ones that do show up like that - oh, well... AVG is not the same as KIS, properly updated [and on time!]; regularly scanning and "haven't really done it in a while" - are not the same thing... Also, just a security suite and more than that, i.e. good quality, extra protection (Malware bytes, Anti-root Kit, Highjack this etc.) is also not the same thing. So, trolling again? Hmmm... Besides, a good installation has all the docs etc. on D drive, so reinstalling is a breeze and doesn't require salvaging anything, most of the time... Oh, brother... Sure, if you wanna get really paranoid. For the rest of us, healthy individuals, it is enought what I already described. Otherwise, the traffic itself, without infecting individual PCs but rather hacking the badly or unprotected servers (such as yours), is also hackable. Whatever goes on between various computers/servers can be intercepted and deciphered, by and large, so your argument, if driven all the way, is ending in a "do not go on the internet at all or else..." - which is a bit too much... What kind of a silliness came over you to write this nonsense? We are talking about a huge corp, very rich and influential, with a not just dominant but monopolistic position in the market, which MUST be PROPERLY SCRUTINISED, as done by the EU, for instance. You have lost the compass COMPLETLY on this one... And in general. Sorry but... Trolling over?