Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, today, forced the Autopatcher.com site to discontinue its downloads area. For those who don’t know, this was a site meticulously cared for by a team of people whose only desire was to make the update of Windows 2000 and XP an easier task than using any Microsoft provided methods.
Instead of simply allowing the site to post a notice saying that the software as not endorsed by Microsoft, and that any use absolves Microsoft of any fault, it was necessary to bully the site into submission, with threats of legal action. A simple ‘caveat emptor’ would have sufficed.
For Windows users, this is truly a dark day.
As someone who has been accused of feeding the Microsoft conspiracy theories, I wish to state today, that I do think this is a part of a larger ‘big brother’ plan by Microsoft. It comes at a time when Vista is being attacked from all sides, and Microsoft when not criticized for Vista, is being tormented for not releasing Service Pack 3 for XP. (The amount of circulating FUD is phenomenal, just as Microsoft likes it.)
Service Pack 3 is supposed to be nothing more than all the fixes to date after the release of Service Pack 2 – nothing more. Why then, is it necessary to wait for release, or beta test, software that has been on so many machines for so long? Now we are told by ostensibly reputable sources (writers for major computer magazines) that Service Pack 3 will be a roll-up for XP. That is FUD-speak for ‘That’s all, Folks. There is no more”. It was less than 3 weeks ago I read in another of those ostensibly reputable computer magazines that there was support for XP through 2014, and that a possible Service Pack 4 was already penned into the books.
As for Service Pack 1 for Vista, first we (the public who cares) are led to believe that many changes were ready to be put into the Vista release but simply missed the due date by a short time – kind of like those kids who could never finish their book reports on time, back in grade school. Now we see only tiny fragments of possible fixes, and are told that not much will change with Service Pack 1, and it won’t be coming for a while.
I believe that this is part of a concerted effort to force more people into Vista adoption, and by way of its forced fall into disuse, discontinuation of support for XP before the stated date of 2014.
Microsoft, as an entity, needs a course in ethics as well as a Gantt chart.
[tags] ethics, Microsoft, Vista, Service Packs, Gantt chart, autopatcher, FUD [/tags]