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Windows XP Update Library On a CD
KrispyKofta sends us to APC Magazine for a writeup on Project Dakota, a one-man effort to provide all Windows XP SP2 updates on one downloadable CD. It's poor man's XP SP3, but even when SP3 is out, the project will continue to offer a CD that will install all patches offline. "When was the last time you installed a fresh copy of Windows XP SP2? The process is still straightforward and relatively quick... but then you think 'I'll just make sure the patches are up to date,' and proceed to stare in horror at the 100+ security updates and critical fixes that Windows Update or WSUS demands you install. And it takes forever. A better option which we've just discovered is the innovative work of Alek Patsouris... it's a self-contained boot CD which contains all the necessary updates to automatically patch a Windows XP SP2 system with all the patches available at the CD's build time."
Seriously, the fact that MS doesn't provide something like this for all Windows XP customers is bordering on criminal in my mind.
Does Microsoft allow third parties to distribute official patches? If not, this sounds like a copyright violation.
Providing an OS + released patches on one CD is actually innovative? Oh my...
Uhm...
1. In any reasonable well designed system wouldn't the patches be, ya know, signed?
2. Any third party software that you run could tamper with your system. Kinda sounds like a flimsy excuse used by someone who doesn't want to state their real reasons.
They really think doing 100 updates, and 12 reboots is ok? Get real, maybe if you work for ms and want to waste 3 days work not working.
.1 DVD ISO every 3months for gods sake, and up its number. Major release numbers should ONLY be needed if the kernel changes.
If I was bill gates, I would walk right into the OS group and say, "listen MOFO loosers, make a single one time update for all fucking patches under 100meg, no online wizards"
I think Bill Gee has a personal IT ass-sistant keeping his top of the line laptop always ready & working. If only Billy knew how shit his OS was. This goes to a few linux distros too,
stop this madness 5.1 6.1 7.0 8.1 every 6 month, just update a
Frigging bloody BA Managers. Clueless about IT.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Which is why an open source hacked distribution server isn't a big deal. Just go to another server.
Boot PC
F12 - PXE boot
"ubuntu-710-server"
enter hostname
*wait 20-40 minutes depending on time of day and bandwidth*
Fully uptodate, patched installation, ready to go, with essential utils installed like sshd, snmp, npt, etc.
If building a generic box, run "setup.sh", select role, and go. Depending on role thigns like apache are installed. Everyone's happy.
Nagios checked every 6 hours for critical security patches are flags them up, test and dev systems get them installed automatically, live systems get the OK (a manual apt-get upgrade) depending on severity of exploits
What's a CD?
How do you propose to make inefficiency illegal exactly? All OSes provide patches. Microsoft weren't even going to do an SP3 and it's good that they are still releasing updates (can't believe I'm defending MS there...). Releasing the updates on CD ROM is wasting oil and probably a lot more energy than it takes to download the patches (have no idea how much electricity either process uses, but the amount of plastic we waste is incredible). What you said sounds like it could be a joke, but for some reason you seem serious. For the sake of humanity, will someone pass an anthropology law making stupidity illegal?
which is totally what she said
If autopatcher breaks things then likely Microsoft will have to clean up the mess. (Remember they broke compatibility between CIFS and CIFS2 because of a bug in Samba because they knew they'd get blamed when the new OS couldn't talk to the old NAS.) They want to know that when things go wrong it's their fault.
For me it's not about trusting the update source, it's about having a copy of the updates ready for install on a computer when time is an issue. Not everyone has the bandwidth to suck down 270 Meg service packs... yet. I used Autopatcher frequently when I was an on site PC tech since it saved a lot of time for my clients.
Mod me down with all of your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!