
Even in remotest Africa, Windows 10 nagware update burns satellite link cash - alister
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/03/windows_10_upgrade_satellite_link/
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cathartes
Living and working in rural locales will leave you with the feeling that many
software developers assume you've got the same fast, unlimited connectivity
that they have. For users like myself, with each forced batch of updates you
can almost hear some well-connected urbanite scoff about pilfering "only" a
few extra gigs from your connection, this week. "They won't even miss it!",
they muse. And for the average user with metered connectivity, that's probably
true--until the bill arrives. Or, like in parts of Africa or eastern Europe
(where account usage is typically prepaid), when your data quota for the month
maxes out (== connectivity loss) hours away from the nearest company service
desk or kiosk within a week of topping off your account and barely doing more
than checking email. Unlike me, however, very many people so afflicted by
second or third world connectivity don't have the luxury of not using Windows
. . .

~~~
xviia
Obligatory article about YouTube: they reduced the size of the page from 1.2MB
to a 98KB. All of a sudden, average page latency INCREASED because people in
remote areas could now access YouTube (where previously browsing the site was
too slow)

[http://blog.chriszacharias.com/page-weight-
matters](http://blog.chriszacharias.com/page-weight-matters)

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hackney
Satellite internet has I think a 5 or 6gb/monthly limit. Nature of the beast.
After that you lose connection. No idea what exactly the spec is for africa.

~~~
snowwindwaves
That may have been the plan you were on but there are all the kinds of plans
available. A remote hydro electric plant I worked at got some kind of malware
and burned through several thousand dollars of bandwidth and the ISP forgave
the bill on the condition that they upgrade to a more expensive plan, probably
from $700 a mo to $1000

~~~
hackney
I was more pointing to the average end-user who in no way will get anything
but basic satellite, as I assume the article was, and not a resource capable
entity. I would hope a power plant would not let windows anywhere near them.

~~~
cathartes
Even in power plants, Windows tends to be the rule rather than the exception.
The wind, hydroelectric, and solar facilities I'm familiar with run entirely
on Windows, right down to the SCADA and process control systems.

