10/2021-TIRED of Big Tech?
I know I am. Way too many ads and tracking. Windows 10 is now a type of adware, and Windows 11 seems to be mostly hype too. Office by subscription is now about 10 times as expensive as it was a few years ago, at least for the average home user. Apple is now limiting or eliminating upgrades and repairs on many of its’ machines as well as changing ports every few years as usual. Google continues its’ attacks on privacy as usual along with Facebook and others of course. All the big companies want you give up your data to the “Cloud” too of course, which means THEIR servers, and YOUR subscription money.

Ah yes, the “Cloud”. It’s increasing in use daily, sometimes a great convenience, other times a nuisance in terms of lack of control, lack of privacy, and possible lack of security.  Around the “cloud” and other IT functions, misleading “branding” that makes everything sound innocuous or “safe”, ignoring any or all technical details. Understandably the average person with no technical knowledge may need a label of some kind, but a lot of this branding is purely for sales people and has very little to do with the actual product or service. Technical detail should be offered up front, at least as an alternative to the possibly misleading “brand name”! That’s all for the moment.

6/27/15-Watch out for scammers calling up claiming they’re from Microsoft or ‘Windows”, they may install remote access software or possibly a virus on your computer and may also want $100 to $350 a year for support they will probably never deliver. Old scams but they seem to be getting more prevalent recently.

9/13/15-Windows 10 is now pretty solid, after testing the Preview since last November many bugs have been squashed. Privacy concerns are there but can be adjusted pretty easily.

1/3/16-Watch out for the Windows 7 to 10 upgrade, it fails in some cases, wiping out the main user profile. Back up thoroughly before upgrading a Windows 7 (OR 8/8.1) computer to Windows 10, and it would probably be a good idea to wait until June or July 2016 when Windows 10 has had more bugs fixed. Don’t forget the upgrade is free until July 29, 2016, and many Windows 7 users may not have a big reason to upgrade at all.

1/13/16-Firefox getting drowned out by Google Chrome? Apple’s iPhone knocking out all competitors? Are tech buyers just buying by popularity? Firefox is still a very worthy browser, even if it’s not quite as fast as Google Chrome. Firefox also has less bloat and is NOT tied to Google, Microsoft, OR Apple, another good reason to use it. Apple’s iPhone is excellent but it seems that most people buy them because their friends have one! The Moto G and possibly the Lumia 640 are both much better deals in many ways for most average people. I’m afraid Marketing and Fear Of The Unknown are trumping analysis and research in many areas.

7/4/17-Ransomware getting out of hand mostly due to older Windows computers not getting security updates. Although security updates CAN sometimes be problematic, security updates should be installed as soon as possible.

4/6/19-“Cloud” continues to be advertised/promoted like candy, but choose very carefully!