You’re All Set—Trust Us!

According to a July 2015 study, 90% of the computers in the world were running on Windows - and that was before the advent of the highly popular Windows 10 operating system.i

Lance Ulanoff calls Windows 10 “one of the smartest, most consistent and well-thought-out Windows updates in a decade.”ⁱⁱ Microsoft has been on the upswing these days, creating (or buying and rebranding) and upgrading versions of its popular Office programs for other formats like Mac, iOS, and Android. And to top it all off, many people with earlier versions of Windows can upgrade to Windows 10 for free - a marked departure from the old Microsoft.

However, it seems that Microsoft could not leave well-enough alone. It started pressuring Windows customers to upgrade, even downloading the upgrade in the background, and in some cases even updating (or attempting to update) the operating system without the user’s permission. When this happened to travel agent Teri Goldstein, her computer became unusable, threatening her business. She sued Microsoft and won $10,000.ⁱⁱⁱ

Now here is where it becomes even more problematic: at one point the Microsoft upgrade dialog box gave you these choices - and only these choices:

Upgrade when we decide - click “OK.” Upgrade now - click “Upgrade now.” Upgrade when we decide - click the red X button in the upper right-hand corner.

Since when did clicking the red cancel button equal, “Go ahead and do it anyway”? I love how the flacks at Microsoft breezed by this one: “This notification means your Windows 10 upgrade will occur at the time indicated, unless you select either Upgrade now or ‘Click here to change upgrade schedule or cancel scheduled upgrade.’ If you click on OK or on the red ‘X.’ you’re all set for the upgrade and there is nothing further to do.”^v

“You’re all set,” and welcome to the People’s Republic of Microsoft.

Here is why I am spending some time on this: Microsoft is not the only software company that wants you just to sit back and trust them. It is not unusual for software companies to:

1. Offer “free” performance enhancement tools that degrade performance.
2. Include “dashboards” that actually hide the most important information.
3. Force you into certain data practices that are not in your best interest.

Our company, DBI Software, is one of the “DBTA 100 Companies that Matter Most in Data,” along with companies like Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Rackspace, and Cisco.^vi So we see what is happening out there, and it is crucial to ask the tough questions and insist on getting the information you need.

As a top executive, you need good information to make good decisions. Just be mindful of the fact that your database vendor may not be the best source of information, and that you may have many more choices than you think, and better ones at that.

What You Must Know

Your software vendor may be making choices for you without your knowledge, which are not in your best interest. Information is available, and there are other options.

If your IBM DB2 LUW database isn’t keeping up with performance demands, or if you’ve just been handed an emergency purchase request for CPUs and memory - or you want to prevent this from happening in the first place - contact us. We’ll diagnose any database problems for free in about 15 seconds, solve a problem in two hours or less, and save you hundreds of thousands of dollars in CPU’s, memory, licenses, consulting fees, and wasted time. Frankly, we’re not very popular with hardware and database license vendors, but your CFO, shareholders, and customers will love us.

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