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I hope so. But organizations, large ones in particular, sometimes act on their own strange logic, or one that may seem strange when looking in from the outside.
That logic might reflect a fact unknown to outsiders, such as a lack of means to implement the needed changes in a timely fashion. Another such reason could be that the bosses don’t want to acknowledge that they have made a bad mistake, and those further down the food chain are not too eager to confront them with those mistakes. Then, at long last, an acceptance of the necessary changes may arrive, kicking and screaming and dragged in by the hair. Or such acceptance may not arrive, and every one in there just has to muddle through, somehow, or look for a job elsewhere.
Things one may learn after some years of observing, and dealing with, large organizations.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV3 users thanked author for this post.
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Nobody here likes to be a party-pooper. But, in the middle of this heartfelt celebration of ditching Windows and Office, a sentiment I can completely sympathize with, I find it necessary to interject a reminder that the world is larger, more complicated than we can ever know, as are its problems.
Large organizations, both government and non, have made correspondingly large investments of time, effort and money in installing, maintaining and operating the Windows OS and, along with that, Office. They have trained their own personal in the use of both. They are not going to gladly ditch all that investment in a hurry. Particularly when the necessary resources are in short supply (often chronically so in the case of government) and everybody there is always in a hurry to get things done and need to keep doing what they are doing without interruptions for unrelated issues. I know, because I am a consultant working with government research organizations. My monthly expense and labor vouchers have to be submitted, in one case, as Excel spreadsheets. And, as I do research as part of my paid work, I need to get information on the work done by others that, oftentimes, is distributed in the form of PowerPoint slides. Sometimes I collaborate online with people that like Word and keep sending their documents in that form. As a result, I need to have Windows, Office and some other MS products, like it or not, installed in my computers. I even have Office installed in the Mac.
There is Office-compatible software, such as LibreOffice, that might be an alternative to Office for some. But as PKCano has pointed out, the way things have been going, and seem set to continue going that way, it would not be a big surprise if MS were to put software blocks that make Office documents accessible for reading and writing only from Office.
From that perspective, things do not look too solid now, and less and less so the further one tries to imagine, without being too paranoid, what is to come.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV3 users thanked author for this post.
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Sorry to disagree, but not everyone is free to abandon Windows or Office, at least just yet: people working for the government and many other, both commercial and not-for profit, organizations are required to use Windows and Office. Case in point: I have to submit some consultant vouchers as Excel documents. Some of the material for my own research is only available in the form of PowerPoint slide presentations.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV1 user thanked author for this post.
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Nice! Especially the search feature.
But, for some reason, maybe because Woody’s is still coming on line, the pages are reeeally slooow to load at the moment (Thursday, at around 10:00 AM EST).
Problem is not in my machine or browser(s), as other sites are getting loaded normally.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV -
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How would this work? Is there a way to detect automatically coercive software, or does the user decide which software is coercive and then employs some feature of, for example, Windows Defender by ticking off a box or clicking on a screen button, for the executable to be removed? Or would WD regularly access a data base of known offenders, much like anti malware software does?
That last approach would worry me, because of WD errors, or sneaky measures against competitors, may cause the detection and consequent removal of something of value to the user.
I do not have Win 10, or WD installed, but if the idea of a coercive software remover proved to be somewhat popular, particularly one that is wrapped into an application already widely used, this might be the beginning of a trend to add such things to other products of MS, or those of other companies.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV -
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There are some places on the Internet/Web that provide a very useful service, for free and to all comers, and both deserve and need support. Yearly, I send some cash to those I use often: Wikipedia, Wunderground (local weather forecasts, nowcasts and warnings), some newspaper sites, etc. For those I trust, I also turn the ads blocker off, and Woody’s is now one of those.
Thank you.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV -
Actually I don’t think that adding 33% extra computers — or CPUs, something that could mean having to parallelize first some complex data-crunching software (if at all possible, in the first place) — would necessarily speed things up.
A job with both intensive number-crunching and I/O from and to a very large data base, as some of the things I do, that cannot be broken into independent pieces to be run sequentially or simultaneously, as needed, and that has been set up already to make the most of the available resources, will take 33% longer to run with the same or a larger number of the computers in the network, if all those computers run 33% slower than before.
In a production operation, whether such a slowdown matters or not, depends on the urgency in getting the results from those jobs and, or how many of them need to be run on a daily basis, among other things.
In the development and debugging of software, the effect of the slowdown will depend also on the personal attributes of the software developer or debugger (often one and the same): strength under pressure, reserves of patience, time that can be dedicated, uninterruptedly, to the job, and so forth.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV1 user thanked author for this post.
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Absolutely. And, if I remember correctly, in the Navy there is the saying:
Don’t just sit there! Get up and run to screw up something!
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV1 user thanked author for this post.
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MrBrian,
Thank you. Your answer makes it clear that someone in my situation does not have to install this out of band update, unless that person then goes inexplicably ahead and installs one of those problematic microcode updates.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV1 user thanked author for this post.
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