According to a recent articles pulled from the AP wire and routers, Microsoft’s operating system software is more vulnerable then ever. This of course is no surprise to a geek such as myself but to the consumer this is concerning.
Your typical version of windows XP Home Edition will cost around one hundred dollars. What’s the selling point for upgrading? Security, technology, and support, ease of use, performance? Let’s take a look at each of these selling points.
Security: Microsoft Windows XP home, pro, and 64 are the most vulnerable versions of windows to yet be released. Hundreds of security holes have been found, Millions of computer around the world have been exploited by hackers and virus writers because holes in Microsoft windows XP software.
Technology: Windows XP lets you remote connect to another machine that’s been setup for remote desktop, XP lets you easily view pictures, XP lets you burn CD’s, and XP has more built in support for more hardware then any other previous operating system. But let’s take an alternate look, VNC and TightVNC are both freely available software that have the same basic features included in windows XP. Tons of freely available image viewing and editing software are freely available. CD-Rom burning software is also freely available and plentiful. Built in hardware support, while nice is unnecessary. Any reputable and some unrepeatable companies include software drivers with their hardware.
Support: The help system in windows XP has done nothing but bloat. Now with new security vulnerabilities actually originating from the help and support system in windows XP it’s a wonder why it wasn’t just kept simple to begin with. I’ve found the help and support system in windows XP to actually be more difficult to get information from.
Ease of use: Windows XP is the most complex piece of software Microsoft has ever released, in XP home most of the advanced options are hidden away, which make XP home even more vulnerable to security exploits because home users have less control over their computers. XP pro can be incredibly difficult to use, just ask any one who’s used EFS or encrypted file system and locked them self out of there own computer.
Performance: This alone is the biggest; Lie to be handed down by Microsoft. Windows XP is more complex, more bloated, and more vulnerable. It gobbles up resources like a hungry in-law at thanksgiving dinner. Windows XP is in my opinion the second slowest of all Microsoft operating systems. The slowest being Windows ME because of its terrible memory management. Any search on pure benchmarks will find that xp is faster then 98, but these benchmarks don't take into account that windows XP in a default install has at least 30 services running. These services take memory, and cpu power. Which is why it's recommended you run XP with at least 256mb of ram, as opposed to 98 which runs fine with only 64mb.
So to recap, why are we using windows XP, when windows 98SE is able to do everything XP can do with a little help from free software? Is it the hardware companies looking to sell faster products to keep up with the MS bloat? Is it Microsoft looking to make more money by selling inferior products that make users upgrade thier hardware? Is it both? Leave comments.
Topsight.net
http://www.topsight.net/article.php/2003101616420013