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Throw the !@#$*! spyware magnet into the dumpster!


I see this as a new definition of the Digital Divide...those who are willing to constantly battle the nuisance of spyware and updates, and those who are throwing in the towel and simply purchasing new machines. Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster - New York Times chronicles one such instance (yes it is a subscription - visualize yankees, yankees and maybe you can log in *grin*).

In the face of a constant stream of pop-up ads, malfunctioning programs and performance slowed to a crawl or a crash - the hallmarks of spyware and adware - throwing out a computer "is a rational response," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a Washington-based research group that studies the Internet's social impact.

Allow me to walk around this one a little:

  • With the cost of a new PC hovering around $500, how much is your time worth to clean-up your computer each week to eliminate (you hope) all of the spyware, adware, viruses, trojan horses, ad nauseum? Hmmm, disposability is starting to look pretty good.
  • Has the PC industry caught on to Detroit's automobile-built-in obsolecense strategy?... Can they 'build in' susceptibility and thus annoy people into buying new machines? Is that marketing genius or conspiracy theory?
  • Is it any wonder that Microsoft has decided to enter the frey? Oh great, now the folks in Redmond get to decide what programs are good for your PC and which programs should be labeled 'bad'...does your chicken coop need a fox to guard it?

    Back to the Digital Divide thought... is the developing world as equally braced for the benefits of inteconnectivity as it is for the onslaught of time-wasting attacks and subsequent repairs? Is that not a digital divide of sorts...or has my cynicism overcome me?


    • Posted by Paul Chenoweth on July 19, 2005 09:15 AM |

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    Comments

    I think this is one of the reasons why people creating low cost machines and laptops for the developing world are all looking at using some dialect of Linux. Can you imagine distributing 1,000, or 1,000,000, or potentially 1B machines to people and villages around the world - and then having to upgrade or replace them constantly?

    Having a stable operating system like Linux instead of Windows goes a long way to reducing the overall cost of the project.

    Posted by: Luigi | July 19, 2005 12:52 PM

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