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Take it or leave it: a survey study on operating system upgrade practices
Farhang S., Weidman J., Kamani M., Grossklags J., Liu P.  ACSAC 2018 (Proceedings of the 34th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Dec 3-7, 2018)490-504.2018.Type:Proceedings
Date Reviewed: Aug 19 2019

Periodic software updates are a necessary evil to keep computers and other digital devices protected from viruses and other malicious forms of exploitation; still, many users resent reminders from vendors, often finding them rather aggressive and annoying. These are the down-to-earth conclusions from a most welcome survey loosely targeting users of Microsoft operating systems.

This survey is welcome in that no other such studies exist. It was recently carried out by contacting users of different Windows versions, asking them if they took advantage of the free chance to upgrade to Windows 10, and their reasons for doing or not doing so; opinions were asked about perceived productivity gains, satisfaction about the whole upgrading process, and perceived upgrading costs, monetary or otherwise. Great importance was given to security concerns, often related to end-of-life (EOL) dates, that is, the date after which a software product is no longer officially supported by the vendor. One of the most disturbing findings in this respect is the percentage (4.2 percent) of users continuing to run systems and applications, even critical ones, after their known EOL dates, mostly due to legacy problems with these systems and the applications they must support. The final discussion centers on better upgrade messaging by vendors, stressing not only (as they already do) security concerns, but also outlining some kind of roadmap to be followed up to, and after, EOL dates.

The survey covers only the recent migration to Windows 10 from other Windows versions; future studies should be expanded to cover the updating processes of other software products. Moreover, being one of the first structured studies of software upgrading habits, the survey does not rest on any solid scientific methodologies. On the other hand, this survey could potentially establish solid scientific methodologies for future studies--the authors should be very proud.

Reviewer:  Andrea Paramithiotti Review #: CR146660 (1911-0394)
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