Well, I bit the bullet and decided to update my laptop which runs XP to the Service Pack 2.
Due to all the problems I've heard about upgrading to this service pack, I admittedly put it off for as long as I could. I made sure all my data files were backed up again - just to be safe. You will need to allow a couple of hours for the installation.
Surprisingly, I have to say 'so far so good'. There haven't appeared to be any glaring problems. Then again, I haven't used my Cute FTP client yet or any of the other applications Microsoft suggests might stop working when you upgrade.
The bad news for anyone else who runs earlier versions of Windows, is that this upgrade for IE will be done exclusively for XP users. People with Windows 2000 and older will likely have to pay to upgrade their IE.
Here's a quote directly from the article:
"If you're one of about 200 million people using older versions of Windows and you want the latest security enhancements to Internet Explorer, get your credit card ready.
Microsoft this week reiterated that it would keep the new version of Microsoft's IE Web browser available only as part of the recently released Windows XP operating system, Service Pack 2. The upgrade to XP from any previous Windows versions is $99 when ordered from Microsoft. Starting from scratch, the OS costs $199."
You can read the full article here.
So this means that almost 50% of Windows users will be left out in the cold as far as having a secure browser. Or it will cost them money to get updated. This hardly seems fair considering how much money we spend on Microsoft operating systems to begin with.
I switched to using Mozilla's Firefox browser quite awhile back and I cringe when I'm required to use IE for anything now. To me, Firefox just makes sense. This browser is a fabulous working tool in and of itself. By utilizing what they call Exensions, you can modify this browser to what you want it to. Tabbed browsing alone is worth making the switch to this browser.
I don't think it's fair of Microsoft to decide to charge their customers to upgrade a security flawed browser when it's always been offered as part of their operating systems.
I think this is only to be expected after all look at all the people out there who use Windows OS exclusively. There are other OS out there but Windows is what they know and Windows is what they use. Microsoft has been over pricing their code bloated software for years with only a minor whimper here and there of disagreement. So why would we expect anything less than to be gouged one more time by a company who only cares about the bottom line and to hell with customer satisfaction. The world can cry foul and MS could care less as long as the cashregister still goes kaching. Just maybe if people would support the development of the other and more stable operating systems out there this would cause Microsoft to lose market share (realy the only other language they understand) then they would have some reason to listen and respond like a responsable corporate citizen should. -- damn I could have made an article out of this comment - hmmm - still think I might:-)
