NEWS A move to receiving software updates from Microsoft by CD-ROM has been given significant support by silicon.com readers.
In a poll running from 22 February until this morning, 38 per cent of respondents said 'yes, definitely' to the question 'would a quarterly security CD from Microsoft help your business?'
The question was posed after moves from the software giant following the MSBlast virus and the realisation that many users - particularly small businesses and households - aren't patching regularly because they only have dial-up connections via which to download the necessary fixes.
Of the remaining 62 per cent, only 14 per cent answered 'no' to our question and 6 per cent were 'not sure' about such physical distribution.
Giving some indication of Microsoft's dominance on the desktop and increasing presence on servers - or perhaps the likelihood of non-Microsoft users giving their time to such a finger-in-the-air question - 15 per cent said they would 'stick with other software'.
The remaining 27 per cent seem content working completely online, replying 'I'll stick with downloading fixes'.
In recent reports, analysts told silicon.com that Microsoft, in common with a number of prominent vendors, tends to assume more people have broadband connections than is actually the case.
Others have said the time it takes to put together such a CD after vulnerabilities are found is too long, rendering such an approach useless for some threats.
To take part in silicon.com's latest poll - about a wholly unrelated subject - click here.
Comments
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1. Maurice Coles
Is it not ironic how after having had a spate of viruses that look somewhat like they have been sent by your local Administrator, that Administrators of pcs are requesting updates on CDs! Could you imagine the fun a virus writter would have sending out CDs to major offices with either a virus, or a hacker with Boack Orrifice? Perhaps updates are best left on the web, at least you know where they are and where they come from.
2. anonymous
They make great Tea Coasters, but I am not sure that I would need a new one every week :-}}
3. David Anderson
I support home users, and very few of them even know about patching their system let alone doing anything about it. Most of them are on modem connections, and the suggestion that they spend 5 hours online just to fix "a faulty Microsoft operating system" is enough to engender a very rude response.
I have been trying to get hold of someone in Microsoft to see how I could put together my own CD with service packs and critical patches and allow it to be used from Windows Update, but the response is always "We don't do such a thing, and are not interested in it".
Most of the frontline staff still don't know about the Security CD anyway.
Makes their "blame the home user for the virus problems" attitude look a little suspect.
4. anonymous
Emmm, didn't this use to happen before MS stopped allowing the packing of service packs on Magazine CD. Maybe not direct to your door from MS but at least some magazines gave you out certain patches and updates.
Not that this was perfect or gave all of the updates, but I am sure that if MS allowed the updates to be given out by Magazines again, Magazines themselves wouldn't mind either as it would increase their sales and would be done monthly not quarterly.
5. ben channell
Several months ago Microsoft stoped the IT magazines from distributing them. when the service pack can upto 30,,50,,70,120MB is a long time even at broad band speeds. as for dial up the connection allways drop after 1.5 hours or after 5Mb.
Although most patches are less than 1 MB, ther are still loads that are over 5MB. Even if you can download the larger items while at work (a cost to the employer) few have a CD-R to copie them to to take home. most of the service packs would only fit on to the largest USB data dongles.
I know of atleast 4 large ISP who have disconnected there own business customers due to a virus infection causing excessive spam or IP traffic on the ISP network. how long will it be before a company or a collection of companies get together to prosocute for providing a product unsuitable for task for which it was purchased and not providing updates in a suitable manner. what cost does a business or enterprise put on loss on image credibility or previously restricted data