Microsoft and the Cost to You of Constant Patching

We tend to stay away from highly opinionated postings and prefer to offer usable tech tips in our Bare Feet Blog, but this topic is one that seems to address both: the not-so-hidden costs of working in the Microsoft platform.

Windows 2000 bug starts virus war

A new security hole in the Windows 2000 operating system was unveiled this week and now the hackers are actually competing amongst themselves to see who can cause the most damage!

Viruses and worms with Windows is certainly not a new story. But it is an ongoing — and for many unaddressed — expense for businesses large and small.

How does a company (Microsoft) increase value for itself or its customers when it is continuously distracted by products that are a) several years old and b) it no longer sells? We recently pitched a job for a Los Alamos company that has a lot of high security government contracts. They told us that a lot of the work stations at government facilities using their software are actually running Windows 95! For a moment I feel sorry for Microsoft, having to deal with these old systems they would like to pretend don’t exist. Just as I feel sorry for the Los Alamos company that has to support that dinosaur too.

But it doesn’t last long. Microsoft created this monster of high-priced operating systems in a monopoly marketplace with no incentive for them or their customers to explore better options.

It is clearly hurting Microsoft, as they continue to delay the release of Longhorn aka Vista aka their new and improved OS. I mean it’s got to be hard to get anything done when there is constant work fixing and shoring up the current product line. I wonder when the stockholders will notice that this is not the most leveragable business model.

For small business owners, it is yet another opportunity to consider switching to the Mac platform. 99.9% virus and worm free. Networking built-in by default. Word, Excel, PowerPoint are all seamlessly usable on Mac and PC, regardless of where it was created or is being read.

For small business owners who can’t afford a full-time IT staff to apply the constant security patches, it really is far more cost effective to own a Mac. They are not more expensive out of the box anymore and feature for feature are often less expensive! You don’t get those flickering monitors that come with cheap PCs and you do get an amazing user experience. Yes, of course you can transfer your files to your new mac, and you can even start with a Mac Mini and continue to use your current PC monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

Aloha,

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COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Roxanne
URL: https://www.barefeetstudios.com
DATE: 08/22/2005 06:44:46 PM
More on the same topic – 35% of business users polled blame Microsoft and 40% blame the actual virus writers. It’s a sad variant on that cliche: “If you build it sloppy (Microsoft), they (the virus writers) will come.

https://news.com.com/2100-7349_3-5838512.html

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