Windows Alert: Don't Miss Patch Tuesday!
If you're a Windows user you'd better not miss your monthly Patch Tuesdays especially as this month's - released on June 13 - contained eight "Critical", three "Important" and one "Moderate" update for "the most secure Windows ever". How important is this one? According to scurrilous UK tech news website The Register;
Put simply, all Windows users, unless they're running Windows 95 in an underground Siberian bunker without access to the net, are going to need to update their systems.
Patch size depends on the components you have installed and this month ranges from 161MB to a staggering 1.3GB. And that's just the patches! (It's all the more staggering when you consider you can download a complete Linux operating system - including OpenOffice.org and a heap of other common tools and applications - in under 700MB.)
Of course Linux suffers the
occasional security glitch too, but most 'criticals' are patched within
24 hours and updates issued. Users aren't left waiting around for up to
a month hoping they won't get hit. Like most major Linuxes,
my SUSE
system checks daily and advises if anything's amiss. Not bad service
from a free OS!
Hopefully after this update you won't be left with one of the 1-in-300 PCs that contains malware - and that's a Microsoft figure!
Happy downloading... ;-)
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Comments
who the hell's using windows seriously?
Posted by: meeero | April 21, 2007 7:43 AM
I run Kubuntu linux, and it picks up most wireless cards fine.
Posted by: Anonymous | December 15, 2006 1:21 PM
search google for ndiswrapper, its pretty simple to use and uses your windows driver for your wireless card, works wonderful, hope that you will try it and change to linux.
Posted by: Anonymous | December 15, 2006 1:20 PM
I discovered Linux about two years ago, and I loved the whole idea, but was put off by the fact that I couldn't make it work with my dial-up modem, being a non tech type of person. Now I can't use it because I could not make it work with with wireless adapter. Maybe I have been spoilt by the MS, and take things for granted when it comes to computing.
*********************************************************
Geoff replies:
For less than $30 Dick Smith Electronics will sell you a Linux-compatible dialup modem card - complete with Linux drivers.
You can check out your wireless gear will work with Linux by visiting http://linux-wless.passys.nl. And there are plenty of wireless setup how-tos around. The Linux Documentation Project's a good place to start: http://tldp.org
Posted by: Asif Khattak | July 7, 2006 1:48 PM
Hmmm. You are talking about ISO images, which are used mostly by companies. The Windows Update site provides selected download and the sizes are more like what I described.
Posted by: M Freitas | June 17, 2006 11:45 AM
The figures come from Microsoft themselves. Take this URL:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913086
and scroll down to the "June 2006 Security Releases ISO Image" link. There you'll find...
"Download Size: 161.2 MB - 1346.3 MB*
*Download size depends on selected download components."
--Geoff
Posted by: Geoff Palmer | June 16, 2006 8:54 PM
Hmmmm? Sorry, I am not sure where you got these numbers, but on my Windows Server 2003 the total download was less than 10MB, and on my desktop, including the full Microsoft Office suite the download was about 15MB.
For all patches!
Posted by: M Freitas | June 15, 2006 7:43 PM