New Software anxiety....

[Empress Palpatine]

Lo and behold....I go to my computer and Microsoft presents me with a new thing to install, Internet Explorer 7. It is supposed to be improved (this I will see over time), but it looks different ;and I will have to get used to it. Anyway, my evening got chewed up installing it and reading all these directions, etc. If I am slow or if anything gets technically weird on me, this is why. So far, I have been to two of my web-page haunts, and the pages look and work the same (thank the Force!) Has anyone else installed this new version of Explorer? Any difficulties?

[Darth Devious]

I am a unix user, and abhorr any microsoft product. the reason is because,when you installed that new product, you dont know what else microsoft saw on your computer.


The fact that microsoft was able to see that you used an older version is disturbing. It means that they are scanning your harddrive. You dont know what other information that are getting.


What if microsoft decided to sell information it got off your computer? How would you know? You might even be unwillingly giving microsoft permission to do this JUST BY RUNNING THEIR PRODUCT!.

If this seems orwellian to you, it should. Its straight out of 1984.

I think I recommended this before, but get a mac.

[Seti-I-Shadim]

Empress,

I've had the new IE since it came out and it has been problem free for me so far. It does take a little while to get used to the differences between the two versions though. But from my knowledge, there has yet to be any major security flaws like IE 6.


- Seti

[Empress Palpatine]

I am not sure I have any secrets that would interest them. (They'd say...my my what a Star Wars freak....). I suppose that if it ever became neccessary to have true privacy, I'd have to get off line,...like, for instance, if I was declared some sort of enemy of the state..... A computer is a poor receptical of secrets. The nature of the computer is a goldfish bowl, a glass house. There is always someone who knows way more than you ever could and could access everything. I guess if you want no one to read your diary, you would have to write it on paper and lock it up in a trunk in your house. Otherwise, there is some guy in Russia hacking their way in somewhere or some nosy employee of Microsoft.....

For some reason this new Internet Explorer 7 won't let me do the pick a card thing on James Wanless web site. I could with the Internet Explorer 6. Anybody have this sort of problem?

[Darth Devious]

You computer only looks like a gold fish bowl because your operating system was designed to make it that way. Thats why windows users are the only people who worry about viruses and stuff. but then, most windows users find the necessity of learning something different to be unacceptable.


In any case, I wish you luck. Let me know if you ever want something better. Its a whole different world.

[crytes]

I have differnet computers running windows and linux and IE7 apears to have ripped some off the features of firefox which will be an improvemnt. From a technical stand point open source is always way ahead of micrisoft. Its only in the support for program like games and stuff that linux is lacking at all and that is peposfully done but microsoft to insure their monopoly.
Crytes

[Mrs. Darth Vader]

I do not think that Windows is the reason people see the computer as a gold fish bowl but weather or not you grew up used to computer or you are from the older generation where papper and pencil was used. If I want to keep relitive secrecy i use pen and ink. If I want total secrecy, Like Stonewall Jackson, I keep it in my head and tell or write down nothing. If I want broadist publicity i use computer.

[crytes]

but there are way for those who know how to get it. in all types of medium, and it's best to learn if you have secrets of anykind to properly secure them. Lock your notebook up in a drawer for example use criculer logic to avoid subject that may inadvertantly lead to the gleaning of that secret inside your head. Use an operating system witten primarily by college students and hackers whanting military grade security and adding restrictive permitions and firewalls and ip rerouting. It all depends on the value of your imformation to others and the potentail for damage to you if they get it.
Crytes

[Darth Devious]

crytes, you sound like a member of my school of thought. I really think Linux/Unix should be the sith operating system of choice, but I also acknowledge that not all of the sith on the board have the necessary mentatility to deal with such a complex os. That is why I recommended a mac.

[crytes]

mac osX is quite similer to linux but from what I can tell it's not as custumizable. I just hope the wine projrct continues to make progress then I can abandon windows all together and still play my games. And it's not nesisarily mentality most people useing windows don't really know how to operate it either but all the information you need is on the internet I think its setup time that discourages most people. Gentoo for example I think is easy as far as source distros go but it takes about an hour for me to install and I would have to write my own skripts to automate it.
Crytes

[Darth Devious]

Mac Osx is based on free bsd. What mac did is screw up the directory structure, and build their own desktop manager. My biggest peeve is what mac did to the (sacred) unix directory structure. Now that macs are using a standard pc intel platform, a user can theoritically convert any winbloze pc into a mac.



The wine project has been in the works since at least 1996. every time it almost gets caught up with the current winbloze, microsoft comes out with a new os.


If its wine you are waiting on, try the codeweavers linux distro. www.codeweavers.com, me thinks.

[Empress Palpatine]

It's all geek to me.....

I have heard it said that Mac and Windows are getting closer. Macs are nice. The fact that I ended up with Windows was happenstance. My computer was a gift way back when.

But lucky me! We just got told that Verizon has put fiber optic in our neighborhood. Our DSL will get faster and smoother they say.

More fiber in my diet....