Advice Wanted

[stoutfellow]

I am contemplating taking the plunge on a couple of computer-related items, and I'd appreciate any advice, warnings, cautions, explanations, or whatever anyone reading might care to offer.

1. I have avoided Facebook for a long time. However, the number of people I know who rely on it - and have asked me to come join them - has reached a level that makes me reconsider. Family, former Bujold listies, old friends from high school, the occasional former student... I'm still leery, but I hope that with appropriate precautions I can avoid some of the unpleasantness I've worried about. Does anyone have suggestions as to what precautions are necessary? ("Don't Do It" is, perhaps, a reasonable answer, but it's a bit late for that one.)

2. Windows 10.... I recall hearing that a fair number of the early problems have been worked out, and given the limited-time free installation and the general necessity of keeping up, I'm leaning towards going ahead. I'm a bit bothered by an assertion that W10 won't play shows off DVDs - which capacity I just discovered recently, and I'd dislike losing it - but I do have a DVD player hooked up to my TV, so that's not a deal-breaker. Other than a full backup before installing, what other precautions should I take?

Anybody?

Comments

[mmegaera]

1) I took the FB plunge a couple of years ago to promote my books, which has not turned out to be a good primary purpose for it. OTOH, I have connected/reconnected with a lot of people I'm really glad to be connected to again (including my childhood best friend, and someone whose company I really enjoyed when I was in high school, and am now enjoying again -- they both found *me*), and I have not had any negative issues to speak of. I will tell you that unless you use this link (https://www.facebook.com/?sk=h_chr) as opposed to just the facebook.com link to read your wall, FB will continually switch you back from "most recent stories" to "top stories". This is extremely annoying. Other people will probably chime in with a lot more horror stories/thingys to use to make FB better.

2) I'm having my computer guy do my Windows 10 update for me on my desktop (I just bought a new laptop, and it came with 10) while I'm on my Long Trip, since he's going to store my desktop for me while I'm gone anyway, because I use a fair amount of outdated software (that they will pry out of my cold, dead hands [g]), and he will make sure that either Windows 10 will play with it properly, or he'll tell me I need to stick with 8.1 for now. This is not something I am capable of determining/implementing for myself.