Misc. Ramblings

There is a lot of huffing and puffing over the recent use of the Microsoft Update service to automatically download a non-critical application. Said application, called Windows Genuine Advantage, checks among other things, to see if the copy of Windows you are using is legally obtained. If it can confirm this, no problem. If not, from what I understand, it will pop-up boxes telling you to stop using it (i.e., your supposely illegaly obtained copy of Windows).

In many people's minds, the problem is that MS used the download service for something that is clearly unrelated to patching vulnerabilities. Although, I am sure, MS disagrees with this, I have to question what else MS may decide is in its best interest, but not necessarily of their customers.

I've talked before about the lack of trust that some people have when it comes to MS so I won't repeat it here. But this is an example of what I meant.

That said, I've come to the conclusion that for most people, they should continue to use the automatic setting because they won't get the truly critical patches otherwise. But for those 11 geeks tech savy readers of this site, you may want to set one of the other options so that you can wait and see what kind of reaction hits the Internet. If nothing much happens, then go ahead and manually down the patch. But if an instant uproar occurs, you may wish to wait awhile.

Better yet, switch to Linux. For all its problems with buggy opensource software, at least you don't have to worry about this kind of fubar.

Aloha!