Are people scared of installing apps on Windows?
Monday, July 5, 2010 at 8:36PM In a blog post titled What I would do if I was in charge of Windows 8, Novell’s Miguel de Icaza* opines on what he would do if he was in charge of Windows 8.
I’ll wait while guffaws subside… For isn’t this a case of ignoring the log in your eye while looking at the speck in another’s? I.e., sheez, Mike, if you were so with it, why couldn’t you tell your bosses at Novell what they could do to make Netware/SLED/whatever they are pushing so much better, and more successful?
However, I digress….
What made me sit up was this obviously uninformed statement made by Mikey: “….that people are scared of installing software on Windows.”
Jaw agape, I hastened to read the blog post again. However, the misstatement was still there!
How could someone as supposedly intelligent as Mig make such a silly statement?
Let me rattle off some companies that are retail ISVs on Windows: Oracle, Symantec, Adobe, SAP, CA, Autodesk.
It would be fair to say that virtually all of these companies produce revenues that are a multiple of those of Miguel’s parent company.
So it begs the question: if people are so afraid of installing apps on Windows, how come these companies are so successful?
Yet, in some absolutely retarded fashion, he decides to take freetard myths, and attempts to pass it off as the truth, no doubt pleasing the imbeciles among his followers.
Hopefully, someone in his circle would decide to take pity on him, and tell him the truth before he exits his RDF and makes a mockery of himself by regurgitating this nonsense in polite company.
UPDATE: Frank Owen, a co-founder of TechVirtuoso, tweeted this great observation on this issue:
“I think that is the problem for most Windows users, they will install ANYTHING! Especially if it comes in the form of a popup.” Frank Owen, @fowen, via Twitter
Original story at NetworkWorld
*By all indications, Miguel de Icaza is someone of some import among open source types. He seems well regarded amongst his own kind.
Reader Comments (5)
John
From discussions with other parents at my childrens school, this statement is absolutely true. Most people do not understand which software is safe, or how to detect malware. They do not understand how scanners work, they do not understand or care
They don't want to 'break' their computer so they do not install ANY software. Repairing computers costs money, and that is a disincentive. They cannot afford to be without their computers.
In my view, Microsoft needs to come up with a platform that is more resistant to malware and virus. It's seems far too easy to compromise Windows at so many levels that customers are not able to build trust in Microsoft as a vendor.
Regards
greg
"By all indications, Miguel de Icaza is someone of some import among open source types. He seems well regarded amongst his own kind."
If "by his own kind", you mean Redmondites, I might agree with that. But I think within the open source realm, you'll find many that don't particularly care for his efforts in (mostly unsuccessfully) pushing the patent-encumbered Mono within Linux circles. Thankfully, Mono has yet to gain much if any traction, which is a good thing both in terms of avoiding any potential patent traps and maintaining a good level of system performance.
@Greg: I appreciate the concerns of users in your poll.
However, the fact remains that the Microsoft Windows platform is the most installed-upon globally. And by a long stretch.
As to making Windows more resistant to malware, it is. A read of the security blogs and a Bing search for OS malware vulns would reveal that Microsoft Windows, since the Windows Vista(tm) era, has consistently had the fewest numbers of vulns of major OSs. Furthermore, Windows has had the fastest time between discovery and mitigation of any OS. Period.
The old adage of Microsoft not building a secure OS is no longer valid.
In fact, I welcomed Linux to the Big Leagues (of malware victims) here : http://bit.ly/bmr9zP
Finally, Frank Owen of TechVirtuoso, tweeted a very apt statement which I have updated my post with.
@Will: I am surprised to hear that.
The fawning tones with which he is addressed in print had made me think that the Linux/open source communities had deified him. It is good to know that he is thought of as an interloper.
Which is exactly the error you are making with thinking that he is regarded in any esteem by Redmond.
I believe de Icaza was at either MIX10 or TechEd 2010 earlier this year, and i didn't see people regard him as anything other than what he is: a capable duplicator of all things Microsoft.
Plus, his statement was very off the mark!
BTW, if you'd care to chime in on de Icaza's original mission, to define a new Windows, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Other than use a Linux distro, of course. :-)
@John
I don't necessarily think he is regarded in any esteem by Redmond. The "by his own kind" part was sort of a joke. I don't really know how they view him, though I think you gave a perfect description: "a capable duplicator of all things Microsoft."
To be honest, about the most I keep up with Icaza and his work is when I strip Mono out of a Linux distro, if need be. No need keeping it on in my opinion when any app written in Mono always has a lighter, more capable equivalent written in something else (Tomboy --> Gnote, etc.)
I don't really want to go into the whole Mono debate here other that to say that there have been valid technical and legal arguments raised against the use of Mono within Linux, and in addition to that, I haven't yet found any application written in Mono that exceeds its peers in any metric except system resource footprint.