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Comment by marssaxman | Hacker News Reader

Forced updates for Windows 10 burned all the credibility Microsoft was slowly regaining. Whatever might be going on in there, they still have enough of the old strongarm bullying monopolist in their collective corporate character that their good works really cannot be trusted over the long term.

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My Android has forced updates. I have to put my phone in airplane mode before each reboot and kill the process to prevent it. Chrome has forced updates. A lot of things have forced updates these days, and nobody bats an eye about it. Microsoft does it, everyone loses their minds.

And 'forced' is a stretch anyways, how to block it is well documented, and was months in advance. And you can revert, something Google and others will not let you do.

- Security update != version update.

- Paid OS != Free OS.

- OS update != software update.

I have an Android 4.4 phone, Verizon/Google is trying to force my phone to install Android 5.1, a full version update to a version widely regarded as a lemon.

I paid for my phone. I paid for my Windows license. I paid a lot more for my phone, which Android is trying to forcibly update without my consent to a version which will cripple my phone's functionality substantially.

Then you have the same problem and you should complain as much.

I sure bat an eye about it. I won't use Chrome.

I also deleted all the Google apps I could find on my Android phone, and I avoid storing any of my personal data on it, because Google seems to believe it's their machine, not mine. I'd use some other mobile OS if I had any choice in the matter.

What about forced updates makes them bullies? Or are you just generally angry?

I'm angry about the idea that forced updates might become a normal practice, because that could lead to a situation where it's difficult to find much software I am willing to use.

"Power to the people" has always been the whole point of personal computing, as far as I'm concerned. Give people control over their data, their processes, their lives; that's why we're doing this, isn't it?

That's why I'm doing it, at least.

Power to the user is one aspect of personal computing. But with the rise of mobile and now IoT, the user has also become (increasingly) a 'consumer', and thus the software and hardware are getting more and more locked down. Hardware and software manufacturers will sleep easier at night when their products cannot (or can only limitedly) be modified.

I think the writing is on the wall. Computing devices will split into two diverging branches: one tailored for limited configuration and aimed at media consumption and use by non-tech users, the other providing (hopefully) full freedom to modify, aimed at IT co. and interested hobbyists. It will be quite some achievement if mechanisms to increase vendor control aren't increasingly integrated even into the devices in the second segment, as things like Intel ME/UEFI Secure Boot show.

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