Discussion on:

10 technologies that are just plain broken

Thanks for pointing out some flaws in various pieces of SW.
As a retired Systems Engineer I still resent the internet for business use. Your description of the browsers and the anti-virus SW are no promotion for the cloud. That to me is a fad that will disappear or needs to changed dramatically for business reliability and security.
Years ago some ergonomically thinking furniture designers came up with desks that had an opening to put a monitor in at an angle that would be right for the user. Nowadays you can do that easily by putting a flat screen on the desk at a variable angle of 20 to 40 or 50 degrees. May not work to well for people like me because I use 2 big monitors.

... are incomplete. Ever notice how TV newsrooms deal with keyboards and monitors? Under the desktop surface, keyboard at correct write angle, monitor at correct angle for viewing when glancing downward so as not to distract the viewer of the broadcast.

The problem is that the viewing angle for a monitor and the strike angle for a keyboard are dramatically different. Thus, your "so-so" remarks about tablets - and the "broken" status of any desktop - touch screen. Unless, of course, you are talking about that whiz-band Microsoft Windows table computer that "Hawaii Five-0" has been showcasing for two years now. Still, this is a collaboration tool for sharing data - not a content-creation tool.

smartphones, tablets, and netbooks all face the same trade-offs ... portability versus screen size versus keyboard ergonomics. A smartphone keyboard can be used fairly effectively as a "thumb board" but, for extended use, it can become very uncomfortable.

Smartphone screen size make readability a problem - especially for complex applications with lots of options.

10" tablets have good readability but the device won't fit in your pocket. The 7" tablet is a good compromise but often weighs a bit too much for holding and thumb typing. If you have to lay it down, you're back to the original problem, screen angle for viewing vs strike angle for data entry.

A tablet is designed for one-handed data entry - which is not practical when needed to enter complex (non-binary) information.

As for a few of your other points, I have run into very many of them. Though I do agree that if you don't have access to MS Forefront or Symantec Endpoint, MS Security Essentials is the way to go. I've got to say thought that I have piddled with a few of the Others and "AVG Free" seems as good as anything I have seen.

Then again, after thirty years in IT, I have never been compromised by anything because my AV protection has always identified malware.

Oh, and Adobe's weekly updated on Flash updates (which ALWAYS require administrative interaction) are exceedingly frustrating.

One more point. Web browsers are like picking shirt colors. Everybody prefers something different - and the choice is usually not rational. It is about preferences - often established in childhood.

Web browsers are like your front door. As soon as you open it, you are inviting the world into your home. They provide no protection whatsoever from criminals - but follow a few basic rules and you'll be safe:

1) Use a fire wall. (The built-in Windows firewall is sufficient.)
2) Install a router between your cable/DSL modem and your computer/LAN).
3) If you have Wi-Fi, secure it with WPA2 encryption (or, at least, WPA-PSK).
4) Use AV software. (Most any free solution is sufficient.).
5) Use a spyware detector. (MS Windows Defender is sufficient.)

The rest is common sense. If it smells 'fishy' it probably is. Keep your AV and malware protection up-to-date, along with your applications.

Don't panic.

You forgot the Fax Machine. When will it die & be replaced with something BETTER?

I haven't used Quickbook in years but Quicken has it's share of problems. I report all kinds of situations but I never hear from them. I do not know an alternative but that still does not mean Quicken is really good. The interface is poorly designed and just gets added to each year instead of launching a version with 2 interfaces, one for users who do not want to switch or want a slow transition and one for users who would be happy to give a try.

A little example: I cannot download information from my credit union for a simple checking account. The same is true for one of my brokerage accounts.

Although each Browser vendor is slowly adding new (old?) HTML5'ish functionality to their products, they all seem to rowing in different directions, or at best focusing on totally different priorities. This is reminiscent of the early days when IE 6 added all kinds of neat functionality that was not compatible with any other browser on the planet.

Yes, I agree that Flash is a bit fat and given its complexity (from having to be ported to multiple platforms) can even be a bit buggy. But, until the Browser boys get their act together, FLASH is the best solution to implement consistent web based applications on multiple platforms.

Geesh!

One would think the world was going to end. If the author is going to be a flame thrower bring proof there is really a fire. Reading that he is an Linux focused person is a clue as to his anti-PC diatribe. Yes, there are issues with all these technologies, but from my perspective most work reliably enough to be of service.

Are the people writing antivirus applications actually ever out in the wild removing viruss themselves? It seems these applications are trying too hard and ignoring or not keeping up with the most common types of malware. They are all useless and cause more harm than good. All too often i have removed a legit anti viruse to stop a computer from locking up. Agree with MS Security Essentals.
Acronis used to be amazing... It was easy and it worked. Now it's bloated, confusing, and a complete failure for even the simplest application I have tried. I even prefer Ver 9.
As for desktop multi touch, I hoping to see a smooth Kinect Desktop experience.

Loved for that one... outlook and web browsers ... (???) how is one suppposed to live without these.... ? can one even imagine life without these.... if u can tell one how to bypass these....then one will be very happy (:)

Exchange is great when it works but if something goes wrong it can be a nightmare. MS Support Exchange specialists only support a specific area or functionality of Exchange. They usually cannot and will not help with other problems because the product is just too big. Doing a clean install of Exchange is not particularly difficult, but fixing things that are broken can take hours or days. Looking up an error message often results in no information found. Upgrading an existing Exchange server with any hiccups in AD or DNS is a nightmare (both AD and MS DNS are well known for their fragility). These reasons are why all Exchange operations should be performed in a test environment before being attempted in production. It is too easy to do something that will take down the enterprise.

Exchange is very powerful, but for small clients with no dedicated IT staff, Google Apps is a much simpler, lower cost solution.

I'm very glad to know that skipping the upgrade to Acronis 11 was a good decision. Thank you!

The Linux implementation of SAMBA is something that should just work but very rarely does - and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to what works and what doesn't from install to install, distro to distro. It is all just random and magic - and not the good kind of magic that turns pumpkins into carriages, either. For the longest time I've heard that it is Microsoft that keeps breaking things that SAMBA then needs to reverse engineer in order to fix - but... I never have problems with integration between my OS X and Win systems... In the end, I'm not concerned about the philosophical reasons WHY this happens, the fact is, it only happens to SAMBA on *nix platforms.

I have heard about some really odd issues with the SMB protocol and how it has some one off functionality (I remember reading an article where excel when saving or updating a file it would send some odd command that Windows processed correctly, but didn't really fit into the standard functionality of the SMB protocol)

But a lot of those have been with *nix client access to Windows SMB resources. At one point, back around Debian Sarge or Potato, I was an expert at configuration of the SAMBA config file and setting up the SMBD and NMBD daemons. But over the years it has grown increasingly complex and difficult as Microsoft has changed significant parts of how SMB passthru authentication and authentication encryption works and domain membership, trusts and related security principles. Things started breaking - in particular gui network neighborhood browsers were among the first problems I saw, but from there it just became a random list of what would or wouldn't work with every new install. It even has included raw throughput speed (FreeBSD prior to 7.x had a documented problem with transfer over gigabit NICs). It is just always one headache or another, it seems. Meanwhile, Windows and OS X have been happily shaking hands with very little user effort the entire time. If Samba isn't *broken*, it is absolutely far too complex and difficult to reliably configure.

Quickbooks - Why not include the entire Quicken lineup? What you describe about QB is no better for the consumer Quicken and Quicken Essentials in my own experience. Even paper and pencil is easier to keep track of.
Acronis - No experience; no comment.
Ubuntu Unity While I accept that Ubuntu is the most user-friendly version of Linux currently available, quite honestly none of them are consumer friendly--they still need too much manual tweaking to make them work right. Unity may have been an attempt to improve on that by making a more polished, usable interface, but under the skin it still needs work. Hobbyists and techies don't have all that many problems with it--it is easier than most--but putting it into a consumer's hands is just asking for trouble.
Flash - This one I agree with whole-heartedly! Ever since Adobe bought Macromedia, Flash has gone downhill, turning real web developers into lazy sketch-artists who think it can do everything for them. I can't even number the websites that are almost worthless because they so heavily rely on Flash to provide navigation services; something it was never intended to do. I run into a Flash-heavy site and quite honestly I choose the low-bandwidth option--if available--simply to get away from it. Ten years ago developers had to use HTML; I'm glad HTML5 is finally stepping back up to show Flash as the broken technology it is.
Pulse Audio - Never used it--no comment.
Web browsers - Agree--and disagree. Most definitely some are better than others, but then as you say, each is designed to have different strengths. I personally find the single most-used browser is also the most problematical but the others seem pretty good. I have a personal favorite that most other techies would claim is the worst of the bunch--but it works more reliably for me than any other I've used now that I actively block Flash.
Outlook - Ah, the complaints I hear every day about Outlook. Full inboxes preventing access; calendar and schedule changes often not disbursed until hours after the scheduled change no matter if the schedule was pushed forward or back. Simply not user friendly or business friendly. Sure, it uses MS Exchange, but with that kind of poor reliability, surely there's something better out there. Any company that relies on Outlook alone for its inter-office communications needs to have its IT department examined.
Predictive Typing - I have to agree. Better for it to make its suggestions and leave what you typed alone than to auto-correct a word not even in its library. PT forces the writer to spend time looking for misspellings that such apps are supposed to prevent.
Consumer-grade AV - I'm going to partially disagree because any AV is better than none, though admittedly some are better than others. Just keep in mind that the most popular AVs are often the first targeted for bypassing--so choosing one like Panda might give you an edge.
Desktop Multi-touch - We really don't know where this is going yet, so to say it's broken out of the box is simply jumping the gun. Today's desktop form factor is quite honestly obsolete--we've been using it for over 100 years if you include the paper-and-typewriter as a logical progenitor. The mouse itself was a massive improvement over using cursor keys to put the cursor where you want it, but it's still a relational device less accurate and slower than actually touching the location on the screen. If anyone remembers the light pens of the '80s, it had the advantage of accuracy and speed, though included the drawback of having to pick it up and put it down. The light pen even allowed you to 'draw' directly on the screen, albeit crudely.
If you want my opinion, multi-touch has only barely started and seems likely to supplant the keyboard/mouse for most tasks. This isn't to say the keyboard will go away, but I think the mouse is almost gone.

The corporate edition is more trouble than it's worth. And I'm endlessly helping people who've done their taxes in one of the regular versions and no-one (even the IRS) understands that they've paid totally the wrong amount. It's no substitute for having a clear understanding of the tax code. If you understand the tax law then it can speed things up but I switched back to paper.

Haven't had a major problem with Outlook but then again I am an Exchange expert. Exchange itself was designed by people with no consideration of the real world. Two basic problems with it, too hard to upgrade, they assume you have another server which in reality small companies don't (so you have to reinstall the server on a PC, then wipe the server and move everything back from the PC, which takes forever and is stupid), plus the Active Directory integration is great but it would be nice if there was a way of not having it integrated if you wanted to. But the difficulty of upgrading it is a major issue, it's just too damn difficult. If you're dealing with a company that has 100 users and everything is on one box, the Microsoft method of upgrading is vastly too complex.

I agree with Flash, constant pain, glad that HTML5 will make it obsolete.

Doesn't seem to be so integrated with AD in the latest version (2010). Instead of adding extra email aliases and setting mailboxes limits in AD, I found I had to use the Management console.

I was going to mention Vista but it works quite well compared with Vista. ME didn't work with drivers, more BSOD's than I've had hot dinners!!

Seems like Outlook is always getting futzed when we switch back and forth between docking our laptops (direct-wired to our company LAN), and using VPN access over wireless (at home, on the road). SO tired of being prompted for my password (and it not saving, even though I check the "save it" checkbox).

I have tried to use Quckbooks - I am treasurer at our house of worship - and it is a nightmare. Sure - if i was working with QB 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, maybe I could figure it out. But it just can not do what I want it to do. I have fallen back on Excel spreadsheets for most of our bookkeeping, and QB is just for "official" stuff. But it is bad, bad and bad.

Most current antivirus software is as bad as the stuff it's supposed to prevent. It can grind your machine practically to a halt. MSE and Forefront, though, seem pretty good.

I'm surprised MS Office hasn't appeared in the discussion. Either Microsoft has fixed everything in it, or all the IT pros here have long since despaired.
:-o

There has been nothing from Microsoft that isn't broken, at least in the first couple of revisions. I remember using VMS which counts it's time between reboots in decades. That is why it was used in deep space probes.

iTunes should be on this list

Tried many of the anti-virus programs over the years. All seem to failed at one time or another. I now use System Mechanic Professional, which requires removing all other anti-virus software. Have had no virus attacks in the the past year. Surprised that no has mentioned this combined, file clean-up/anti-virus software todate.

I'm a long time mouse, trackpad, touchpoint user on Windows, and still comfortably use that at work. But after a good experience with iPhone and iPad... and working with os X helping friends with Mac's, I got a Mac Mini with Apples magic trackpad. Multi-touch and gestures start to make sense when that much space is piled on. The magic Trackpad has a huge surface area compared to any other trackpad I've seen. There is actually room to use multi-touch features and gestures, even up to four fingers, without feeling like you are trying to squish your hand into a beer bottle. The size also presents a reasonable analog to the screen without having to increase the pointer speed to the point where fine movements become impossible. The integration of the magic trackpad features with Apple's OS is extremely smooth and has become transparent to me after only a very short time. Actions feel very natural and translate well when switching between the desktop and touch-screen tablets or phones. I find that manipulating objects with the magic trackpad now feels like I'm working on a touch-screen monitor, without having to actually reach up there and mess up my screen.

Web browsers are good if considering so many different technologies working together in heterogeneous environments.

"I don???t care what mobile platform you are using, predictive typing is horrible and tends to cause mistakes than it prevents. "

did you miss the word MORE?

How do two products that grab commanding market share (Outlook and Quickbooks) manage to do this if they are so broken? Outlook has been the tool of choice for all of my employers since it was released in spite of having worked in 3 different industries during the same time. Quickbooks trained personnel are in demand in every market in the country for small to medium enterprises.

I sdon't have Exchange, but I do use Outlook. Not as much as I used to -- there have been a couple of "upgrades" to Outlook that have simply discarded critical information I had saved in it, so I don't rely on it for that any more....

I'd like to nominate Apple's Bonjour. This "experimental protocol for small networks without DNS" gets shoved -- like iTunes.... -- down the throats of everyone who uses QuickTime on Windows, even if you're on a network that isn't small and does have DNS.
That might not be so bad if it actually worked, but we get periodic issues where printouts appear on the other side of the campus because Bonjour decided somebody else's printer was the best match to the name the user selected, based on criteria apparently beamed down from some distant galaxy.

Many otherwise interesting articles in Wikipedia are severely crippled by its messianic and stubborn licensing terms which mean that very little decent audio, image or video content is available. Have you ever tried to listen to an audio snippet on Wikipedia from a "normally configured" PC? You can't. You have to mess around trying to find the right software, drivers and codec's to play the obscure .ogg format. It should "just work" and it doesn't.
That's a powerful of exampel of how a blind commitment to a principle (open sourse in this case) just makes many peopl's life a misery...

The article was going well until you said that consumer antivirus software "does more harm than good".

This pretty much compromised the credibility of the rest of the otherwise interesting & informative article.

I must say I find it very surprising that some people find Unity to be broken. I for one love the new look and I sure hope they stick to it for the long run. It's different, it's useful, it's sexy, what more can I ask for?

I must say I find it very surprising that some people find Unity to be broken. I for one love the new look and I sure hope they stick to it for the long run. It's different, it's useful, it's sexy, what more can I ask for?

It is far from true that computers running Linux or Mac OS cannot get viruses. I have personally witnessed viruses infecting macs many times. In fact, I know many people who don't have any antivirus programs running on their Macs because they believe the myth so strongly. The only solution I could find for their virus woes was to reinstall their OS and then try to convince them to get an antivirus program.

I find the biggest sources of viruses these days to be instant message programs like AOL, Yahoo, MSN etc. Then, of course there are still the sketchy websites that let you download naughty videos, free software that isn't supposed to be free, watch cable tv channels online for free, too good to be true spam messages in email,etc. These often cause viruses regardless of the OS.

The only reason why computers running the various Windows OS's seem to get all the viruses is because there are simply way more people using Windows than any other OS. Therefore, to get the biggest bang for their buck and the biggest terror result for their efforts (I name virus programmers as among our terrorist enemies, more needs to be done to catch these guys!), virus programmers write most of their viruses for Windows. Think about it. If you were a bomber, would you blow up an outhouse in a remote area of a national park, or would you blow up a convention hall packed with conference attendees? Which would scare and hurt more people? The same logic holds true with viruses.

As more and more people start getting ipads, iphones, macbooks, mac PCs etc. we will see more and more viruses written for Mac. Mac use is on the rise, so it's only a matter of time.

I don't know if Linux use will ever take off. It's too complicated and frustrating for the average person just to get Linux to install and then to do basic functions that most people don't bother with it. If they ever manage to make LInux as user friendly for the average joe as say Windows or Mac and if video game and productivity software companies start making Linux compatible programs (sure you can force Linux to run Windows based programs, but it's not easy), then it might become more widely used.

In the mean time, regardless of what OS you use, get an antivirus program. Sure they aren't 100% effective, but that is because the evil virus writers relentlessly keep coming up with new viruses. It's like trying to come up with a vaccine to fight off a disease that is constantly mutating and becoming immune to whatever vaccine you develop faster than you can get the FDA to approve the vaccine for use.

The best defense against viruses is to try to only download stuff from trusted sources and avoid the scams and sites with illegal content. Abstinence is more effective than using a condom.

Hang about - Exchange has been rock steady for 10 (15?) years. Think you just put that in to get comments ;o)

Peter
http://www.peterbennett.net/music/

Vindication, at last! So incredibly futile is trying to work with QuckBooks on a network, that after more than 15 years of constant battle, (and having to make excuses for my otherwise healthy, happy network) we're finally looking very seriously at any and all alternatives. The really definitive factor in the decision is that Intuit treats the issue as though it doesn't exist, despite years of support forum questions pleading for a solution. One can only guess that their developers know accounting and little else.

I have used AVG paid for versions ever since it has been around, it has only let me down once, a couple of years ago. I would recommend it to anyone if asked.

How could you have overlooked Hotmail? It is the most hacked email in the world . It's probably hijacked more than all other the free emails providers in the world put together. And they reject entire domains as spam.

Siri the best I've tried but far from perfect.
My exasperated cry to Siri "You are hopeless"
Her reply "Am i?"

This software has been an ongoing nightmare for many version (9 and up). I will not purchase any new versions, which by the way, come out every year. What software do you recommend to replace it for small business?

Hate Flash and wish web developers would stop creating Flash intros and complete websites in Flash. Annoying as all heck.

As far as browsers - love Chrome. After being with Chrome I now hate IE.

Outlook and Exchange - I don't bother to use Exchange, so much easier not to.

Predictive Typing and Touch-Screens - When it comes to typing a message I don't really care for either one and the two together is even worse! I dread the day when I will be stuck getting a phone that no longer has a full keyboard. I will hold onto my phone til it dies because I really do NOT want a touch-screen only phone.

Anti-virus is a hit or miss category. Everybody has their favorite AV and for each vote of favoritism there will be another who votes against it. Personally I have had good luck with Free Avast! at home and purchased Small Business Kaspersky at work. Although Kaspersky can sometimes drag on resources, it has performed well for us for several years now.

QuickBooks should just die. I can't believe there is not some open source equivalent. There are dozens of book-work apps, yes - but none as comprehensive as QB. This baffles me.

Flash - I think Steve Jobs has successfully killed that.

Unitiy - Blows!

Web browsers? with the advent of non-IE browsers, years ago, we all have the same access and ability to submit RFE's (request for enhancements). If you don't like the current state of your browser, drop a suggestion in the box, then get all of your friends to vote for it; simple.

Outlook: die! die! die! - but what would business, that has grown so comfortable with it, use to take it's place? This is an OS community blunder that only Mozilla Thunderbird is taking seriously. Evolution, really? I say kill Outlook, but the obvious question is replace it with what? Outlook represents a security blanket to many users, replacement must be done seriously or not at all.

Consumer-grade antivirus; this one would take care of itself if MS could make an OS that wasn't built on a swamp of insecurity. I don't believe they have any intention of fixing what is inherently broken (they've had nearly 12 years after the last re-design); it requires another re-design and who want's to spend money on that? We've got new features to push!

I can't believe Java hasn't been mentioned. Java is about the most broken technology in the computer industry. Since Java first came out it's been a nightmare. You often can't have two different Java applications running on the same machine because one app uses one version of Java, and the other uses a different version. And heaven forbid you accept Java's constant request to update, cause then your Java based application ceases to work. And then if you're lucky completely uninstalling the app and Java and reinstalling them MAY get your app working again.

Quite a response, eh? All ten points are valid (particularly flash) but perhaps this is an appeal for standardisation? This could be poison to those that earn a living from the "closed shop". If competition was a level playing field then people might not gripe but you take what you can.
Flash,HTML5, etc would benefit from the free exchange of ideas but not an individual, or so the wisdom goes.

Roy.

DRM.