Ask Leo! #608 – Trusting the Cloud, Certificate Issues, Porn Spam, Upgrading to Windows 10, and more…

Ah... A bunch of "newcomers" commenting here. :-)

I started using computers back in the early 1970's, when all we had was a Teletype and a phone line to an HP mainframe computer half-way across the county. The first computer I got to actually touch was a TRS-80 Model I. And, like you, the first computer I bought was an Apple ][.

I've been using MS-DOS since "PC-DOS 1.0" on the IBM-PC. I've been using Unix-like systems since TRS-Xenix (Tandy's version of Xenix, which I believe was from Microsoft at the time). We also had one of the original Macintosh computers at work. I programmed on a "Mac-XL" at one point.

My own computer is a Windows 8.1 laptop, but I use (and program on) several SCO Unix flavors, several Linux flavors, as well as a couple of FreeBSD systems. Except for my local Windows box, almost all of the systems are actually VMs, running either locally, or on one of my company's servers.

Each platform has its strong points. Windows' weak point (for me, anyway) used to be it's very basic "command.com" command line interface. Microsoft has improved this over the years, and the current "cmd.exe" interface is almost up to par with what I need to do on Linux.

Leo, Your question brings to mind my high school days (late 60s) when we used to discuss motorcycles. Everyone had an unshakable opinion about the best and worst. In the midst of one of these discussions a guy said, "What are you arguing about? Whatever one you ride and get used to is the one you'll like best." That bit of wisdom was a real downer to a spirited conversation, but it's a great analog to the computer platform question.

My first computers, in the early 90s, were hand-me-downs from other folks' upgrades -- they were, first an IBM (a 5150 I think, with two 5 1/4" floppies to run it) and then Windows PCs, starting with 2.something. That's what I learned on, got used to, and then bought when I was ready to take the plunge, so I've been using Windows almost since the beginning. If my first computers had been Macs, I'd probably be a Mac user now.

By all accounts, Windows 10 is a good OS, generally well reviewed (at least by those whose changeover has been smooth... and voluntary), but Microsoft has lost my trust in the way the rollout has been conducted. I consider it serious enough that I'll keep my Win7 machine going as long as I can, but then decide between Linux and Mac. I suspect Mac will win out, mostly because of the similarities to Widows -- I don't want to start over from the beginning.

So, I'm neither a true believer nor a hater. I just want a machine that does what I want it to. I guess that qualifies me as agnostic.

The main reason I signed up for the Ask Leo news letter is because of your site coming up in search results to computing questions several years ago. The answers that you gave were easy to understand and informative so I signed up to see what else I could learn from you. You've provided me a lot of good info over the years and some of the articles that don't necessarily have to do with computing but a way of thinking about things are great. Keep on translating Leo your good at it.

"I don't know everything and that which I do know, I stand a good chance of having forgotten." - In some ways, I think I now know less than I ever did. I no longer make an effort to remember things I'd have tried - or had - to remember in the past. Instead, those things are now saved in bookmarks, address books, OneNote, etc. and can be searched for and accessed using whatever device I happen to have in my hand. Total recall!

For example, a few years ago I could have reeled off the phone numbers of my 50-or-so most frequent contacts. Today, the only number that I actually have committed to memory is my own.

Computers and the internet are certainly changing how our brains our wired.