The Hidden Cost of the Internet

The invention of the internet has made system maintenance far far more expensive and time consuming than ever before in the history of personal computers.

The internet allows you to connect to any other computer on Earth, and this has major negative ramifications in terms of security and compatibility. You have to constantly upgrade every piece of software with security fixes, patches, service packs, and even new versions.

I have a 30-year-old version of an Apple OS that is completely safe to use, because it doesn't connect to the internet. But on another computer that DOES connect to the internet, it would be digital suicide to run an un-patched version of any OS that is more than a year old!

The internet brought shared digital content to the masses. This means you must keep up with what everyone else is doing. The technology enthusiasts at the front of the pack are dragging everyone else along with their constant upgrades. They create the websites that require you to upgrade your browser, no matter how happy you are with your IE 3.0. or Netscape 2.0.

For 99% of the planet, Adobe Acrobat 3.0 was just fine, but we've all been badgered into upgrading and upgrading until now we are up to Acrobat version 8.1.2 and counting. New versions of Acrobat contain features we apparently "must" have, and then are quickly followed by security patches we "must" apply to fix critical holes in those very same new features!

Not a week goes by that some piece of software I have (Nero, McAfee, Windows, Adobe, iTunes, Quicktime, MS Office, WinAmp, BitTorrent, Visual Studio, Ubuntu, Dawn of War, etc) doesn't exclaim loudly that I must apply new updates right now, and often with a computer restart! In every case I had some other task in mind that I wanted to accomplish rather than spend 15 minutes feeding the upgrade monster.

None of this was necessary (or even possible) before my computer became connected to the Internet at all times.

As a Software Engineer, I know I'm part of the problem. I push technology forward, and you all had better keep up with me or I'll turn your computer into an expensive paper weight! Now more than ever, the Internet makes you dependent on external systems and external servers (that I help create), and you must keep upgrading in order to remain compatible.

I understand this incessant drive for progress. But in my other hobby as an amateur computer historian, it amazes me how difficult, expensive, and time consuming it has become to maintain a modern personal computer. Anyone who isn't a technical Jedi will soon find their computer overwhelmed with spyware, adware, trialware, viruses, software conflicts, and a constant flood of confusing "you must upgrade me now!" popup messages that come from every piece of software you have installed...and even some software you don't!

Sometimes you are overwhelmed before you even get your computer out of the box, because most modern PC's come loaded with many dozens of trial-ware apps that you don't even want. And all of those programs will pester you relentlessly when your trial period expires! The only way to get rid of them is to fully un-install them.

Anyone reading my blog probably thinks un-installing apps is easy, but I'm hear to tell you that well over half of all computer users either don't know how, or are afraid to because they might corrupt the system if they remove the wrong thing.

I don't want to look at the past with rose-tinted lenses, because obviously the computers of the 80's were primitive. Obviously the Internet is awesome. But back then it sure was nice to know that once you got the OS and software installed, you never had to mess with it ever again!

There is no easy solution to this problem. It would take some kind of major cultural shift to slow the pace of change or to put more controls on how the internet is used (and trace attackers).

Until consumers make quality and stability a major priority, we are pretty much stuck. Oh, consumers WANT to make quality and stability a major priority, but the truth is that there aren't a lot of competitive alternatives for most types of software programs. Nobody can ever compete with Microsoft, so the best we can do is rely on volunteers to create free software like Linux and OpenOffice. But those kinds of programs are still way beyond the skill-level of your average user who thinks the internet is a big blue lower-case "e".