Issues with updates that break things
The first time that Windows Updates broke things, I shook my head and remembered that accidents happen. The second time that things took a turn for the worse, I used the Microsoft version of time travel and reverted to an earlier point in time. I don’t need a third time. As the company that doesn’t sell doors gets ready to catch those pesky pirates with yet another round of software stumble-blocks, I’m worried that actually purchasing legal software wasn’t the best choice.
Here’s the deal. After waking up to find that my computer had restarted due to necessary updates, I also noticed that Outlook and Explorer 8 were both broken. Completely. Now, there are other ways to get my mail, and I don’t actually use the big E for anything regular, but it required a solution. From my vantage point, simply not applying patches doesn’t count as a reliable model. And I’m not hearing offers to compensate me for lost time and productivity. The TCO and ROI of W7 are inversely related.
If I simply started booting into Linux (and yes, this machine is dual-boot), I wonder what I’d have to do without. Firefox is responsible for about 85% of my CPU debt, so that wouldn’t be an issue. I can print, I can listen to music, I can read ebooks. On the flip side, my family tree packages would be sorely missed, and my local web services would require some reconfiguration.
Twice already. A third time might be the tipping point. Are you listening, Microsoft? Get the Windows Update issues cleared up. I won’t wait around forever.
