Windows 10

beauf wrote: »

But they've installed this without telling people. They ignore the options to turn off tracking. They installed the same tracking, on older versions, 7 and 8 without telling those people. So regardless if its harmless or not. Its a very unprofessional way to behave. Odd even.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/even-when-told-not-to-windows-10-just-cant-stop-talking-to-microsoft/

So basically you can't trust anything MS says its doing when you click a button. That's some corporate motto.

Tracking the IT illiterate is ok because they don't know about it ? Wow.

You really can't trust what any company says, not just Microsoft.

Also, here's what I said:

I'd argue that the people most in need of automatic updates are the people least interested in who is tracking what.

So I didn't say "Tracking the IT illiterate is ok because they don't know about it".

Even if you tell the average person that Microsoft, or Google, or Apple, or your ISP is tracking what you do on the Internet, or on their computer, they wouldn't care.

People haven't cared over the last 15 years, and they're not going to start now. Over the years I've despaired at people who knowingly signed up for absolutely everything, people who give away their details to websites just to look at "15 incredibly cute cats who do something you won't BELIEVE!"

Nowadays, I'm a little more accepting about it. If a little tracking, on the order of about 130Kb an hour, helps to deliver a better product for me and everyone else, then what's the major problem? People have already made their minds up that this is a trade off that is acceptable to them.

I do think it's unacceptable that they reset the tracking options on some peoples computers, but is it enough to stop me from recommending Windows 10 to my friends and colleagues? Nope. Even the top Infosec professionals recommend Windows 10.

beauf wrote: »

Its the end result regardless of how you phrased it.

No, it's not. Even if you tell the average person how they are tracked online, they don't care. Is it our responsibility to decide for these people how they should interact with a computer? I don't believe so.

beauf wrote: »

My only point that people should be informed. If you are installing Win10, (or 7 or 8 now) they should be told it may update itself, it may be tracking you and/or your data. No one really knows what its doing. The updates may break your machine. No way of predicting what it will do now.

So if you have machine that has a poor internet activity. These updates that you can't control have a big impact. Who knows what hardware they'll support either.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/01/skylake-users-given-18-months-to-upgrade-to-windows-10/

Its very different than has gone before.

Fair enough. I'd agree with you, but counter that the tracking and the automatic update policy is mentioned in the terms and conditions you agree to when you install Windows 10. Isn't that informing people?

When it comes to hardware support, I think that what Microsoft has done with Windows is unprecedented, there is decades worth of hardware that is still supported. It's unusual that they wouldn't support Skylake, given their history, but only because of it's history. Would it be a surprise to read that Apple or Google doesn't support the latest hardware on 5 year old versions of their software? No, it would not, because it's standard practice all over the industry.