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Even In Remotest Africa, Windows 10 Nagware Ruins Your Day (theregister.co.uk)
Iain Thomson, writing for The Register: When you're stuck in the middle of the Central African Republic (CAR) trying to protect the wildlife from armed poachers and the Lord's Resistance Army, then life's pretty tough. And now Microsoft has made it tougher with Windows 10 upgrades. The Chinko Project manages roughly 17,600 square kilometres (6,795 square miles) of rainforest and savannah in the east of the CAR, near the border with South Sudan. Money is tight, and so is internet bandwidth. So the staff was more than a little displeased when one of the donated laptops the team uses began upgrading to Windows 10 automatically, pulling in gigabytes of data over a radio link. And it's not just bandwidth bills they have to worry about. "If a forced upgrade happened and crashed our PCs while in the middle of coordinating rangers under fire from armed militarized poachers, blood could literally be on Microsoft's hands," said one member of the team.This is not a one-off case. We're reading about similar incidents everyday. Automatic updates, accidental automatic update, and the humongous data that these updates eat are ruining user experience for many. These are real issues. It's been roughly a year since Windows 10 has been officially available to consumers, and Microsoft is yet to address the issue.
Come on.
Why won't somebody donate some consulting help for the people using inappropriate operating systems in life-critical conditions?
We keep hearing about this... it's clear that Microsoft doesn't care. I don't understand why people are so shocked by that concept.
--Hired Net Grunt
and a patient is dead as a result, then this issue will get noticed. Not until then.
I have a Lenovo laptop with Windows 7 Professional on it. Sometime in the last nine months, Windows has forgotten how to talk with much of the hardware in the laptop. This includes the finger reader and all networking devices. I called both Microsoft and Lenovo, and both refused to help.
So I never see the nags!
The hardware works fine, as proven by the copy of Fedora 20 I have running on the thing -- when I need to network, I just boot into Linux and have at it. RJ-45 port. Wifi. All happy. (I haven't tried installing the finger reading software yet, because I don't have much use for it.
When I need to copy software across, USB sticks and Blu-Ray drive work just swell. That's how I keep the DVD/BR reader up to date on the laptop that runs in the Windows side.
So, no problem. That doesn't help the folks in hospitals or out in the field...
"If a forced upgrade happened and crashed our PCs while in the middle of coordinating rangers under fire from armed militarized poachers, blood could literally be on Microsoft's hands," said one member of the team.
Sorry, it's your fault, pal. Didn't you know that Windows was an ancient American word meaning "I can't configure Ubuntu"?
Ezekiel 23:20
Now can we PLEASE stop seeing the same goddamned story posted every goddamned day?
I'm guessing this concept is way too difficult for people like you, but you don't HAVE to read these stories and you don't HAVE to comment on them
Or maybe you can get a refund from Slashdot for all the money that you've paid to them
I don't reckon I'd ever have bet my customers' lives on Microsoft software.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Set the connection as a metered connection. Windows Update will not pull updates over the connection.
If bandwidth was so precious, then why were updates enabled at all?
not because Linux makes such as great desktop but because microsoft has become such incompetent assholes and windows has become such a pain the ass to bother with
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
The pushy upgrade was a stupid idea for more than one reason, and this was well known before Microsoft did it. There's the old saw "don't fix it if it ain't broke". Some hardware would quit working. The upgrades were most cavalierly programmed to happen without regard to the customer's needs, able to take a computer out of service for hours, and that could be just when the owner had scheduled some important work. And of course for those with limited, expensive bandwidth, it's damned rude of Microsoft to pig out on such a precious resource without asking. That's stooping to the level of online advertisers, who deserve to be blocked because they just can't lay off the obnoxious loud, flashing animated video advertising that eats gobs of bandwidth and CPU time. Not that Microsoft was ever much above that level.
Speaking from my experience as a system administrator, doing a major upgrade on production systems for the heck of it was a major no-no. We only upgraded if we had to, for some crucial new functionality, and we'd spend at least a week preparing for it with tests on identical equipment if available, dry runs, and the like. We'd document how long it was going to take, and if too long we might set up a temporary system. We were not going to risk taking down the website of our company. Uptime is critically important. Stunts like this pushy, opt out upgrade assure that Windows will stay permanently banned from the server room.
That Microsoft apparently can't grasp any of this or just doesn't care shows, again, how stupid their leadership is. Meh, they've been unbelievably stupid for 15 years now. Getting in bed with the MAFIAA of all people, and deferring to those idiots on technical matters around DRM, wow, just wow. MS doesn't deserve to be regarded as a tech company, not while they're willing to defer to tech morons on the areas they're supposed to be the experts on.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
Anyone who doesn't want Windows 10 could simply disable the "Windows Update" service, and simply wait for the Windows 10 free update period to expire. This tactic is well known for anyone who was bothered by the dialog boxes asking you to restart your computer every 10 minutes, or for power users that don't want 30+ documents to close overnight.
Meanwhile, still waiting for the Windows 10 update to appear on Windows Vista.
Next headline:
"Man goes on windows 10 update-induced killing spree. Microsoft literally has blood on their hands this time"
"...rangers under fire from armed militarized poachers, blood could literally be on Microsoft's hands,"
Guns don't kill people, Microsoft kills people.
I think these stories need to be kept in the public's eye. But the only thing that could possibly change is people's behavior, and that's not so likely, no matter how outrageous the provocations become.
What is absolutely not going to happen is Microsoft bettering their behavior. They don't care, they don't have to care, and they're not going to care. Ever.
General, General! We need air support asap! Sorry lieutenant we are in the middle of a critical update here... So make sure you own that computer before betting your life on it... Not saying that MS is right, they aren't but at the same time this look similar as when a GPS tell you to drive outside of the road...
Microsoft never expected that this version of windows would be used for anything of any importance.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
There is no issue.
There is nothing to address.
Windows 10 upgrade is doing what Microsoft wants it to do: maximizing the number of machines running Windows 10.
Think about it this way.
If you pay a vendor for something, then--at some level--that vendor will serve you.
If you do not pay a vendor for their product, then that vendor does not serve you. They may serve some other revenue stream, like advertising, or some kind of big-data analytics that they hope to sell, but they definitely do not serve you. If you are not paying for the product, then you are collateral damage, or prey, or fodder: something to be harvested and packaged for resale.
Somewhere in Microsoft is a VP who is in charge of the Windows 10 upgrade.
This VP has been told that his bonus, or stock options, or possibly his job is dependent on getting X million Windows 10 installs, or X million installs per month, or something. He doesn't care how many people are inconvenienced, or lose data, or have their machines bricked. He doesn't care how much bad PR Microsoft gets, or how much bad trade press, or how many outraged Slashdot comments there are. All he cares about is making his number. And this is going to continue until the CEO goes to this VP and changes his performance objectives.
Deal with it.
(Linux works for me. YMMV.)
Sure they have - they've stepped up the forced upgrade program, regardless of the bad press. It's almost like there's a gun to an executive's head, pressuring for upgrades to 10 at all costs.
Not meaning to troll, .. that I got away from M$ products SO many years ago.
but articles like this always leave me with a smile, not out of malice, but out of relief
Not even a twitch, only condolences to the poor bastards having their lives literally ruined by M$ Abortionware and the reasoning of the assholes at the M$ helm. From TFA, et al.
For the record:
% uname -a
FreeBSD Krypton42 10.2-RELEASE-p14 FreeBSD 10.2-RELEASE-p14 #0: Wed Mar 16 20:46:12 UTC 2016 root@amd64-builder.daemonology.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC amd64
"Suppose you were an idiot...and suppose you were a member of Congress...but I repeat myself." Mark Twain
If a forced upgrade happened and crashed our PCs while in the middle of coordinating rangers under fire from armed militarized poachers, blood could literally be on Microsoft's hands," said one member of the team.
No, you are responsible for all blood because you picked the wrong platform, wrong OS for operation of a system on which human life depends on. YOU and nobody else are responsible to design a system resistant to outages to ensure safe operation of your staff. Microsfot shares absolutely no responsability in that. You are an idiot.
Achille Talon
Hop!
The dream was that there was a class action suit filed against Microsoft for the class that owned one or more computers that MS said qualified to be upgraded to Windows 10. The suit asked for $1,000 for each computer that the Windows 10 update nagging software appeared. The total cost to MS would be in the neighborhood of at least $100 billion if not more. In addition, MS would be required to send out techs to fix all computers damaged by the update, retrieve lost data or replace it if possible and/or replace broken computers with one of equivalent quality. All this fixing would probably cost more than the original $100 billion. MS countered by positing this would bankrupt the company. The supreme court said, "So what? Do it anyway." Too bad this was just a dream.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
Personally I come to slashdot for my daily dose of completely warranted Microsoft bashing.
Just so. Except when cars were new inventions, drivers *did* have to know how to do basic non-driving things like fixing flats, repairing failed parts and, indeed, fixing the engine. When photography was invented, camera-bugs had to know about chemistry and optics, exposure and light values, etc. And when computing was new, people had to know how to troubleshoot them and work on the commandline.
As e e cummings said, "progress is a comfortable disease."
I'm guessing this concept is way too difficult for people like you, but you don't HAVE to read these stories and you don't HAVE to comment on them
But if you don't, the story will install itself permanently.
Ezekiel 23:20
Where the hell is the class action lawsuit or anti-trust suit?
These incidents need to be kept in mind until legal action is spawned.
Where are all the hero Lawyers??
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
Okay, we get it: Windows 10 updates are annoying and pushy, most users are too stupid to avoid them, and Microsoft doesn't give a crap how the users feel. Now can we PLEASE stop seeing the same goddamned story posted every goddamned day?
You're looking at it all wrong. The way Slashdot is battering us daily with "Windows 10 Upgrade Horror Stories" is exactly like the way the Get Windows 10 nagware update screens batter the Windows 7 owners. This is just a sympathy posting.
As a matter of fact, there's been so much battering of Windows 7 users that they've opened a shelter for them over on Second Street. When you walk in the door a counselor meets you to help you get over the abuse. But it turns out it's the Shuttleworth Shelter, and the counselors install Ubuntu and systemd on the poor peoples' machines! Oh, the irony!!
John
Wrong plural. "Malware" like software, hardware, firmware, and information, is a mass noun. You do not have "two informations" nor do you have "two malwares" or "two softwares" or "two firmwares" -- you have two pieces of information, two pieces of malware, two pieces of software, and two pieces of firmware.
.... is warranted or even recommended for use in fields where lives *literally* depend on the software operating correctly.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I do agree with your point about skipping stories you aren't interested in. I also agree that Slashdot *should* heavily cover this story so other companies don't get the idea they should follow MS's example.
That said, Slashdot is most certainly *not* free. It is ad-supported. For that reason he does actually have a right to bitch.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Windows 10 update is how they defeat the aliens in the new Independence Day.
You should stop reading faux news - the Ghanaians are producing their own cars http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/29/africa/ghana-katanka-cars-feat/index.html - and even bicycles made from bamboo http://www.un.org/climatechange/blog/2014/08/bamboo-bikes-initiative-ghana/
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
Their day was already ruined when they chose to operate a military-style operation at the hands of an OS primarily designed for video games and Facebook.
If they "didn't know better" then they were ill-prepared.
Sadly, yes, the U.S. Military had a fair amount of windows in their operations, but they can afford the Microsoft tax to get customizations that others can't.
Its not about stupid. How many people even now something like this could happen, I know it could happen, but I'm talking the average intelligent person, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot less than half of those have ever heard something like this could happen.
Even In Remotest Africa, Windows Ruins Your Day
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Should have gone to the Elon Musk Shelter instead. There's so much with all the battery that's happening he wouldn't even need to build that factory anymore.
It sure does take place on Windows Professional 64 bit if not connected to a domain controller that is pushing out the right settings. Due to a refresh at dayjob I have a pile of HP desktops and laptops that once dis-joined from the domain will happily GWX if left to their own devices. Even with a fresh Windows 7 Pro install they will do that. So for the hand-me-down computers that we're giving to employees I need to install GWX control panel in the clonezilla image that I'm using.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
The way Slashdot is battering us daily with "Windows 10 Upgrade Horror Stories" is exactly like the way the Get Windows 10 nagware update screens batter the Windows 7 owners.
Speak for yourself. I like these regular updates on the slow motion train wreck that is Windows.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Can you please move back to San Francisco and stop shitting up PCs with your hipster bullshit?
Is it stupid to assume that an operating system that has been designed for end users will not go out of its way to harm those users?
Windows 10 wasn't designed for end users. It was designed to meet Microsofts needs and business plan. Any semblance it has to be a product *for* users is purely accidental.
I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
I think even if Microsoft did not want such a thing to happen, it can not stop such things. It is incompetent to that level. But, as they say sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Microsoft is fucking evil.
This tearjerking little story is actually in Microsoft's interest.
The message here is that Microsoft can do whatever they want and we are all helpless.
This is the pattern of narrative we are subjected to again and again and again. "We are helpless".
We are NOT. Militarize. Get angry. Let the rage fly. If enough people do this simultaneously there cannot be consequences from any authority because they need us all to work. Once the "powers the be" start listening we can demand referendums and codify economic justice.
I think these stories need to be kept in the public's eye. But the only thing that could possibly change is people's behavior, and that's not so likely, no matter how outrageous the provocations become.
Is that why the stories about the murder-suicide over apparent stolen code has already dropped off everyone's radar in the media because one person wasn't the "right kind of person" to paint the narrative with?
Om, nomnomnom...
I have a Lenovo laptop with Windows 7 Professional on it. Sometime in the last nine months, Windows has forgotten how to talk with much of the hardware in the laptop. This includes the finger reader and all networking devices. I called both Microsoft and Lenovo, and both refused to help.
Do you have "extended support" for your Windows 7? You probably don't hence the reason why Lenovo and Microsoft refused to help. Check here to get more information.
Like it or not if you want support for Microsoft Windows you either get extended support or move to Windows 10. If you do want Windows 10 then get the ISO from here rather than upgrade although make sure you do backup your important data. It is very easy to install although before you do I do suggest looking at the following video . The presenter was a Microsoft employee for 15 years and is not against Windows 10 but what he does not like is how Microsoft Windows 10 phones home by default, he then goes on and explains how to tighten your privacy.
If you have a powerful PC you can easily install Windows 10 in a virtual machine and the ISO is great for doing this. I actually have Fedora 23 on my Desktop (latest Skylake core i7 with 16GB DDR4 memory) and used my six and a half-year-old laptop's (has Fedora 23 on it) Windows 7 product key. I also used KVM as my virtual machine which surprisingly is actually certified to install Microsoft Windows. You can use VirtualBox if you wish but I am not overly impressed with Oracle at the moment.
If you have watched the video and you can even search for "windows 10 privacy concerns" in your preferred search engine (Google gets 1.8 million hits) you will know that Windows 10 phones home by default. You can turn off many of the so-called privacy features but you will either have to fiddle with the registry (Oh joy!) or get some third party (if you trust them) software to lock down Win10 but it has been known for a Microsoft update to turn some features back on again (for our own good of course :-)) so you need to be vigilant.
Basically, if you don't like Windows 10 then you better get to like it because soon it will be the only game in town (Windows 8.1 mainstream support expires 8th Jan 2018) or switch to an alternative OS such as one of the many Linux distributions, BSD or even a Mac if you have the money. If you have a work PC then the problem is not your problem.
There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
Microsoft has done many things that were monopolistic, illegal, patent infringing, etc. They get sued, eventually they loose typically but by the time they have to stop and/or pay up it is 5 to 15 years down the road and the path they took let them take an entire market, eliminate a competitor etc. DR-DOS, RealPlayer, Internet Explorer and many other examples that anyone can google. Even if the EU, US or whatever comes down on them they will profit from this and hold or increase their market share... At least that is what has always happened.
s/©//g
Crap.. first laptop stopped working because of some automatic upgrade crap... Bring out our spare!... Oh crap it also started doing the automated install!
There's something amiss here. I had four computers, win 7/8, with the little icon ready to upgrade. I said no. The icon sat there for eight months. It never tried to do anything on its own.
But I use these machines for business. That means I've spent more than a few minutes properly configuring them to act like business machines -- in a reliable, determined-by-me kind of way. They take orders from me, and they do as I instruct.
Of course I turned off automatic updates. Of course when I don't want them to download on their own, I disable the internet access. and, of course, they were the pro OS versions.
There are so many ways to configure windows to ensure that it only ever does exactly what you ask. Hey, they had a year of warning for this. They could have simply blocked the update at the windows firewall level. Or at the windows check-for-internet-access level. Or, and here's a thought, at the radio link level!
What idiot set up a radio link internet connection in the middle of the jungle, and didn't restrict access like any business network manager? Next up, researcher in the middle of the jungle watches porn, suddenly surrounded my monkeys.
Here's what actually happened (my guess). Someone tried to save time, money, effort, and knowledge. They got a free computer that someone said they could borrow. They got a random radio connection that someone said they could piggy back. They configured nothing. They checked nothing. And, having spent zero dollars on a primary tool, it failed them.
Well, you know what, the twenty year-old swiss army knife that I stole from my sister when we were ten, didn't fit the number two robbertson screw that I was using to build my $15'000 deck in the back yard this weekend. What a piece of crap.
What to install then? 2008 R2? That's what it takes for an uncrippled version. It's also twice the cost of the hardware needed to run it. (or more)