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If the merger is approved, I think this will be Nokia 2.0. Other than a couple of games, A/B is a very toxic property and would have likely ended in bankruptcy or dismemberment as it collapsed. The scandal A/B is embroiled in is nasty. MS and others could have gone after the few worthwhile assets and let the rest wither away. As it is, MS probably could have driven a much harder bargain for the couple of worthwhile assets.

As others have pointed, MS could spent some this money on fixing chronic issues users have been complaining about for years – like a real QA department.

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OscarCP, wdburt1

My experience with customer support even with internal company help desk is erratic at best. I have those I am not sure what language they were speaking, I have had script readers, and general purpose morons.

I had one internal desk mental midget insist the problem was a hardware problem on my end claiming my router/modem was bad. Dimbulb (more like burnt out) would not listen to me when I said other equipment was able to reach the internet through the same router/modem and rebooting did not fix the situation. I was not going to do something I know was pointless and stupid because that is what the script said to do which I already done anyway before calling. It turns out the problem was the company vpn needed to be reconfigured and I had no idea how to reconfigure it. Comcast and the other slum lords of customer service have strong competition from others.

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Charlie

My concern is the court is in a foreign country with very lax procedures bordering on legalized lynching.

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Cybertooth

I would answer the question in 3 parts. For pros, they have the knowledge and skills to secure Windows using tools provide by MS fairly well. For tech enthusiasts, their knowledge, while good, tends to be spotty. But their overall knowledge will help them figure out how to secure Windows like the pros. It may take more time as they research what to do. The general user is in trouble. They lack the skills and knowledge to properly secure any OS by themselves. The main weakness Windows still has is it not easy to secure by general users by themselves and the default security settings historically have dismal.

I see the problem as more a disconnect between MS and the general public. They historically never really understood the consumer market for any product. The consumer market (for any product) is made up of people who need the device to work properly with minimal configuration by the user.

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windbg

My take is to be aware of security issues that are circulating and whenever possible fix those that affect me. But I think the bigger problem is not some BIOS issue but social engineering attacks with/without malware. Many of the issues breathlessly hyped are not something that are going to be used against a random person. If they are used, they will be used against more lucrative targets.

Social engineering only requires one to have a bad day; something we all have.

I put the Dell issue in the category of fix it when convenient in the next few weeks if it affects you. Also, pay attention if there are reliable reports of it being actively used.

Also, these individuals have forgotten the primary purpose of icons, communication, which Ascaris noted. The whole point of having a set of standard icons is for users to know at a glance what the function is.

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td97402, Ascaris

That has been a big problem ever since the web became popular. Too many sites look ‘cool’ for the time but are unusable because of poor visual contrast and inconsistent visual clues. One of my main complaints is using excessively small font sizes to cram more on the page. My aging eyes prefer a larger size near the size normally used in a book.

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Charlie

If you do not run specific Windows only applications or do not use macros in MS Office Linux could be a very viable alternative and much cheaper than a Mac. There are many desktop Linux distros that are very user friendly. Also, not mentioned the official distro level documentation is usually very through and complete and once you get use it pretty easy to understand. Also if you know the lineage of the distro you can use the parent distro’s documentation as an additional refernce.

On point about running the terminal, when I do some more serious work on a Mac often the instructions include a line about opening ‘Terminal’ and type in the command. Very Linuxy.

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doriel

Your situation, very common in business, does tend to pin users to Windows at work at least.

I have one remaining Windows 7 box that does not go online ever. I wonder how many older computers are not able to go online and still use an EOL version.

While there is an impression the elderly are technically clueless, I wonder how many of those who fall for the MS support scam easily fall other non-tech scams. Also, I wonder how many who fall for scams in the twilight years routinely fell for scams in their youth.

I have not had one these calls but I routinely the car warranty calls. Unless I am expecting a call I do not answer any unknown calls.

Dumb move by IBM’s bean counters. CentOS served many as a poor man’s RHEL. If you were willing to get your hands dirty it was fairly straightforward to set up. For those who needed a reliable option and had no money it made a lot of sense. Another question, if CentOS is becoming testing version for RHEL what happens to Fedora?

As noted by others, Linux switching server distros is somewhat a pain but not something a competent Linux admin or many skilled users would be scared of doing. Debina and Ubuntu have serve versions and are very popular.

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Nathan Parker

Too many policies are the ‘we must do something’ type because those demanding the policy do not understand the real issues. These policies are often counter productive because they unintentionally make the victims do something very similar to what you want to avoid.

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OscarCP, wavy

I use a strong, unique password for every site I have an account. They are managed using a password manager. Others I know do the same thing but with pen and paper at home. The key is not to use guessable or easily cracked passwords and to not reuse a password. If a site I have credentials on has a hack the only login is for that site, I only have to update that site.

This has been a problem from the beginning.

Please, don’t remind of those nightmares. When the mainframe went done you were toast. You were also toast if the connection was ever lost some reason.

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doriel