Download services

Download services

A short introduction to download services.

Download services are becoming a dominant source for downloads amongst people. We now have the ability to download near enough everything that could be bought in a shop. The mobile industry itself is benefiting from download services, 41.1% of smart phone uses downloaded apps or software for their phones.

The download services that I am going to discuss are:

1)      Patches.

2)      Upgrades on software 

       After completion on this whole section i will update it and include more examples so this is a taste of what is to come.

Patches

What are patches?

A patch is a type of programme that is made available by a software company to fix problems like bugs on a piece of software, glitches, security problems, or even to just simply make that piece of software run more smoothly. One of the most notable patches is hot fix by Microsoft; a hot fix is a patch that can be installed without having to restart the system which is great if it is something as important as updating a web sever for instance. A Hot fix can also described as a programme that automatically will update your computer to make your computer browsers run more smoothly and even to address security issues that may have been caused by a piece.

 Advantages of patches

Local servers- Downloading patches from local servers can be faster than downloading patches from an online service, which means that you can receive a potential important update faster than usual. By downloading patches quickly it will mean that you will have more time to complete other tasks that need to be finished elsewhere. I also personally think it may also be worth mentioning that downloading patches locally instead of an online service may mean that your security potentially won’t be compromised from threats such as viruses, so there is good reasoning into downloading from local servers.

Internet access not needed- Computers that don’t have internet access can receive updates on their system. This means that your computer/laptop can continue to receive important updates for your system to help remove bugs/glitches on your system to make it run more smoothly and effectively. In addition to that any software that you as the user have put on your system can receive updates top remove any glitches that may have occurred prior to the release of that piece of software. I personally believe that having these patches made available for people that don’t have internet access is good because they will have software on their system that needs to be updated to remove glitches/bugs on that software.

Fixing bugs and glitches- The main advantage when discussing patches is that it sorts out any potential bugs/glitches a user may have encountered on a system or piece of software. It can be considered an advantage if the user experiences periods of ‘lag’ on the system, because these patches ensures that the glitch is sorted out, and ensures the smooth running of the system. I personally believe this is a good for a user because they can enjoy their purchase while the company that made that system enjoys some income whilst keeping the user happy with the smooth running of the system.

Disadvantages of patches

Taking up of HDD space- One of the main disadvantages when discussing patches is it takes up hard drive space which is annoying because if you have a low amount of storage space you may not be able to put more programmes on your system without deleting updates. Deleting these updates will almost surely bring back those glitches experienced before by the user, leading to dissatisfaction and probably extra costs of having to upgrade their system.  I personally believe that patches should be made available only when the HDD space it will take up is kept to a minimum because for a user it’s annoying if your HDD space runs out which means extra costs for the user.

Compatibility with business software- Patches has have been known in recent time to be compatible with business software so knowing exactly what to download and when to download is important. You as the user should be aware that if it is a programme update leaving it for a week or so may be best until it has been fully tested because it can have implications for the running of your computer such as making it run more slowly. I personally believe that companies don’t seem to understand the implications that patch can have on users systems, so perhaps a beta test should be run on these patches to check that for all systems it is fine just to remove any negative comments that may be made about the patch.

My experiences of patches – I personally actually think that most patches work fine for me especially the security updates. I have experienced glitches on computer games that were very annoying, but when a patch was made to stop that glitch in the game it worked fine, so overall I can only be happy with how patches work and run. I suppose in a sense some may not like patches, because if they were using that glitch to cheat in game they cannot do, so you can understand why patches are met with hostility however I personally like them because bugs are very annoying and stop enjoyment in computering.

For my last discussion for this week I am going to talk about upgrades on software.

Upgrades on software

Advantages

Improvements- The main thing to remember when upgrading computer software is that as our computers become more and more advanced the things that we can do with they increase as well. Upgrades on computer software allow us to take control of those extra features and as such we have the ability to be more interactive with our systems and in a sense personalise it to what we usually use our computers for. I personally believe that upgrades on software are great because there may be a few faults. /omissions on a previous upgrade that need to be addressed and as a result we can have a better system through a simple upgrade.

More efficient system resources- Every time you as a computer user open a new programme a competition occurs with other existing programmes for system resources. However what happens when there are no resources remaining, your system will gridlock. However if you upgrade you’re   software carefully you can reduce the amount of memory being used which leads to faster and smoother running of that piece of software.

Crashes- 

I think it is fair to say that nearly every computer user has experiences of computer crashes of some sort which for all who have experienced it result in panic and frustration at the same, however all these problems can be averted by proper maintenance of software on your system. Corrupt files can cause programs to stop responding, but regular maintenance can repair those corrupt files and keeps everything running in a manner that you as the user will feel most confident in when crashes may occur in the future. I personally believe that you should regularly maintain your computers software because extra costs need to be made when repairing your system by a repairman so it is defiantly worthwhile to do.

Better security – I think it is fair to say that we cannot take security on our computers for granted considering the personal data that we hold on our computers. Proper software maintenance assists in system security, so users should check for patches on system security and other security related updates because it removes problems before they have occurred for you. I personally believe this is highly important, even though we have anti-virus software on our systems, better security elsewhere can make our system less likely vulnerable to threats, and considering the magnitude of viruses/threats now updating your systems is of the highest importance.