Slashdot Mirror
What's Really Broken with Windows Update - Trust
Be Cool writes "According to ZDNet, Microsoft has steered itself into a real trust tarpit with Windows Update: 'See, here's the problem. To feel comfortable with having an open channel that allows your OS to be updated at the whim of a third party (even/especially* Microsoft ... * delete as applicable) requires that the user trusts the third party not to screw around with the system in question. This means no fiddling on the sly, being clear about what the updates do and trying not to release updates that hose systems. While any and all updates have the potential to hose a system, there's no excuse for hiding the true nature of updates and absolutely no excuse for pushing sneaky updates down the tubes. Over the months vigilant Windows users have caught Microsoft betraying user trust on several separate occasions and this behavior is eroding customer confidence in the entire update mechanism.'"
The problem is that MS is under the gun. Sometimes they release too soon, and blam it bites them in the butt.
Of course, there are folks that say, "If they would have designed it properly the first time..." But, you know what, a project the size of an OS, kernal, Office app is very hard to weed out all the problems. So, updates are needed. But, you have to balance the quick release versus good release. Too slow and you get a bunch of wonks screaming about "no fix yet", too fast and those same wonks scream, "broken apps".
You can have it:
But, you can only choose 2 of the above.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
Maybe you should read this.