All Hail Not Being Paranoid of Updates

[MysticEdge]

So, in my more rebellious days as a OS Buccaneer, jumping from pirated copy to pirated copy of windows, averting the turbulent waters of the loathsome WGA feature, sailing the Napster, Kazaa, and Limewire seas downloading and "acquiring" any song or software that my naive, swashbuckling heart desired, I feared and dreaded the demonic-seeming "Windows Update Manager". It was the ruin of many an illicit windows version install.

---"There are updates waiting to be downloaded!" The seemingly innocent pop-up bubble says to me.

---"Back! Back foul beast!" I say, and frantically un-select each and every update that windows has to conveniently decided my computer needs. ESPECIALLY the menacing "Security" update. "No, do not notify me of these bloody updates again!" And I retreat back into the solace of yet another pirated video game.

Now, while I, like many of you, neither agree nor support the corporate, capitalistic monopoly that Microsoft has reigned down upon the average computer-user, it should be noted here that I do believe piracy is not the correct way of going about trying to change things. I'm merely stating my former indulgences in the dark side of software exchange for empirical benefit.

To end this slew of metaphorical merry-making,

An issue I've had with a crackling left audio output, which I had ceaselessly been attempting to remedy through tutorials, tinkering, and other tampering within this brave new world, has been miraculously cured by one of those delightful little updates that the Ubuntu Update Manager saw fit to bestow upon my system, and I just wanted to take a little bit of time to express how thankful I am not to have to be afraid of updating my system. It brings a lightness to my heart that can scarcely be articulated.

So thank you Ubuntu, and by Ubuntu, I mean all of you, so once again thank you.

I look forward to the day when I shall be able to give more back to this community and concept than I receive. But at the moment, all I can do is be very grateful for the help and benefits I am receiving.

Cheers

[3rdalbum]

Good story! In the past, Ubuntu updates have occasionally broken people's systems, but things are much better these days. Ubuntu has a "staging post" for new updates called the "Proposed" repository so any problematic updates will be caught before they reach the majority of Ubuntu users.

I never used to apply any updates unless their changelog showed a bugfix for something that affected me. Now I'm applying all the updates, even the ones from Intrepid-Proposed, and everything's working fine. The Ubuntu developers are taking great care with their updates and that means a lot to me, obviously as much as it means to you!

[uberdonkey5]

Can't agree more! I hated that my windows system over the period of a few years became so HEAVY from continuous updates. Also, the time I wasted having to install them. What really took the biscuit is when I was using a vodafone connect pen (modem) with 1GB max usage per month, and a single ('free') adobe acrobat update completely wiped me out,requiring me to pay quite large excess usage fees just to do the things I actually NEEDED to do.

Even in Ubuntu I turn updates off. I back up occasionally (when I want to) and at the same time check for updates that I want and install just what is necessary (usually just security updates).

I hate having to waste time for a working and useable system because the windows OS is intrinsically unsafe and open to attack. Its like building an affluent looking mansion in the middle of a Brazilian favela.. even though the place is pretty you are constantly in fear of attack and having to spend more money and time on defence. Linux is more akin to having a detached bungalo in the countryside, where if one day you forget to lock your door, the chances are that nothing will happen :D

[MysticEdge]

Indeed!

And just as a side note, I promise that all my threads won't begin with "All Hail"

I've just been in a hailing mood lately. You know how it is.

[uberdonkey5]

:lolflag:

[poetstorm]

That is true. It was Windows updates that froze my laptop and spurred my dive into Ubuntu. Honestly though I'm still scared of Ubuntu updates. I have managed to get everything working fine and I'm afraid to rock the boat so to speak, because I don't really know how to undo or fix something yet. I'm still new. Maybe someday I'll get there. :)

[Mason Whitaker]

Oh, I love the fact that the Vista side of my desktop has frozen many a time from Windows Update.

Honeslty, I can't wait to dump Vista and have ubuntu on full partition.

[ice60]

MysticEdge, you sound like a complete fool, along with everyone else who sees nothing wrong with his post.

[Sealbhach]

MysticEdge, you sound like a complete fool, along with everyone else who sees nothing wrong with his post.

I thought it was a great post. I don't usually see rude comments here, people are usually respectful. What's up with you?


.

[Mason Whitaker]

MysticEdge, you sound like a complete fool, along with everyone else who sees nothing wrong with his post.

What? the part where he openly admitted to being a pirate? or the part where he says he's not afraid to update ubuntu?

Honestly, he does sound like an idiot, like there was some divine change from Microsoft to Canonical that would make him trust security updates. I mean honestly, wouldn't he be annoyed by the Ubuntu update bubble as well?

[ice60]

I thought it was a great post. I don't usually see rude comments here, people are usually respectful. What's up with you?


.
everyone suffers because of people like MysticEdge. he is totally clueless about windows security and is probably sending out 1000s of spam emails a day as well as being a zombie on a botnet.

there are other things too i can't be bothered to talk about. but, if no one else can see these things good luck to you all!

EDIT: to sum it up it's the clueless, selfish - i'm ok and screw everyone else, attitude i don't like.

[eternalnewbee]

I thought The author was honest.
See no reason to insult him/her. That's my humble opinion.

[ice60]

I thought The author was honest.
See no reason to insult him/her. That's my humble opinion.
yeap, i don't expect many people to see anything wrong with MysticEdge's post, i know i'm the odd one out, just look what everyone else has written, most people think it's a fantastic post.

there is one problem though with all your thinking and that's you are all wrong and i am right lol, that's why i don't mind pointing it out. :lolflag:

[eternalnewbee]

there is one problem though with all your thinking and that's you are all wrong and i am right lol, that's why i don't mind pointing it out.
Well. I see two possibilities:
1: You're right:guitar:
2: you've got a high opinion of yourself;)

[ice60]

I thought The author was honest.
See no reason to insult him/her. That's my humble opinion.
actually, i'll be serious for this post and say one thing i think is important that perhaps some of the younger people here might not have thought about - being honest isn't good enough, you have to have a moral-centre from where to judge things from.

e.g. knowing right from wrong helps you know the difference between a terrorist and a freedom-fighter. without good morals it's easy to follow the steps a terrorist takes and not find anything wrong, with morals you can say "hang on a second! - chopping the head off an innocent person is wrong" lol

anyway, i admit i might be a bit drunk and sound slightly loony atm, but i stand by what i've said even if it might look a bit OT \\:D/

[eternalnewbee]

anyway, i admit i might be a bit drunk and sound slightly loony atm, but i stand by what i've said even if it might look a bit OT
I knew it!!!
You are forgiven:lolflag:

[MysticEdge]

*chuckles*

I find this ensuing conversation about whether or not I'm a fool to be rather fascinating.

To address an issue you brought up ice60. The key point where your accusation was weak, was that you assumed that since I didn't use windows updates for security that I had no security at all. I went to great lengths to ensure my computer was not being used by the forces of evil with AVG free, Zonealarm, and other software.

And many of my friends who ran legal copies of windows had enormous amounts of trouble due to the windows updates. So much so that it became a running joke between us.

Frankly, as I've had extensive experience with windows machines in both pirated and legal versions, the windows innate security is quite vulnerable, so even if you use all the security updates, you can still be a zombie bot, send out spam emails, etc...

I can see why you said what you did, but as this post was clearly meant as a humorous little jaunt, it'd be cool if you weren't so rude to people in future. This is a friendly forum, and saying that someone is a complete fool might hurt people's feelings man, regardless of how right or wrong they(or I) may be.

But I found it all quite entertaining so no harm done. Just don't assume so much next time.



Cheers

[MysticEdge]

Also, I appreciated that you used the word "fool" and not "idiot". That showed that at least you have some class in the ways of insulting people.

So in that respect, good show man, good show.\\:D/

[Mr. Picklesworth]

Heehe, this reminds me of an experience earlier today. I was about to play Left 4 Dead (HIGHLY recommended, even though it only really runs under Windows) with some friends, so I rebooted to Windows. As usual, since it was the first time in two weeks I had run the thing, it had updates. I remembered what happened last time and I said:

"Rats, Windows has a bunch of updates to do. I'll have to wait for them to download and install and postpone the system restart, so this may take a while..."

Updates downloaded in the background, installed, and of course the "system will restart in 10 minutes!" popup appeared which I had to change to 4 hours and hit Postpone. It amazes me that they consider this a business-friendly operating system when the updater ultimately forces you to restart your computer. It takes about a minute of light pondering to realize that the inconvenience could be overcome if Windows' idle detection (screensaver inhibit / whatnot) could be used to decide whether it's safe to restart the system, yet they shipped it so that it will restart if the "computer must be restarted" dialog is not responded to no matter what is going on. For example, in a fullscreen game you won't see that dialog until it's too late.

It grinds my gears so much that I must write a new rant about it every time this thread re-occurs.


Having said that, I definitely let Windows run its updates. Just slowly. It deserves to work properly, too...

[ice60]

Also, I appreciated that you used the word "fool" and not "idiot". That showed that at least you have some class in the ways of insulting people.

So in that respect, good show man, good show.\\:D/

it's a shame the mods don't see it that way, or i suppose they agree with you, because i got another infraction for it. my mum will be really upset about that when i tell her.

[eternalnewbee]

I suggest you mark this thread as solved and navigate to this link:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=993089
and cast your vote (if you haven't already):lol:

[Kingsley]

I've had the same installation of an "acquired" Vista Ultimate for almost 2 year without issues. I even log in 2 or 3 times per month to make sure it's updated.

[MysticEdge]

it's a shame the mods don't see it that way, or i suppose they agree with you, because i got another infraction for it. my mum will be really upset about that when i tell her.


lol

(I didn't really laugh out loud. I just considered this humorous, but no one ever understand when I write icth... go figure)

[inobe]

*chuckles*
I went to great lengths to ensure my computer was not being used by the forces of evil with AVG free, Zonealarm, and other software.
Cheers

those application are useless, that is not how you secure wind-os !

those are in fact administrative applications for administrative use, if you are using them' it doesn't mean your secure.

edit: no pwn intended

btw welcome aboard