[jumpy]

Damn! so much rhetoric lol
All I know for sure it that having removed SF my DVD-RW no longer spinns up endlessly when I boot my machine. It never did it before SF, it did it during SF, and now SF is gone from my system it doesn't do it anymore.
Suggestions like 'why don't you format your system and test your stuff because how can you categorically say SF is causing the issues' is just not practical or fair for most home users. Indeed I don't see why I should have to play at 'beta-tester' for a product that I had to pay good monety for - therein lies the root of the problem for most users and the split between those who know SF is responsible and those who think SF has nothing to do with these problems, and those people like me who noticed something amiss with their system and didn't want to gamble on the chance that everything would turn out just fine if they leave things to get on by themselves.

I'm not going to comment on weather I think SF problems are somehow 'deliberate' or in some way intentional on the part of the developers, how would I know anyway? I'm just little old me who noticed that my PC was experiencing some of the symptoms of the 'troubles' associated with SF- information about which I saw right here on Subsim.com.

Impartiality and benefit of the doubt is all very well and good Gizzmoe, but I'm sure you can understand how this can rankle those who are fairly sure SF did something fairly serious to their system, particularity when SF is so reticent on giving those who might have trouble a voice with which to explore the problems and solutions raised. I'm reasonably sure SF was not behaving itself on my machine, wheather this is a reasult of some system conflict or shoddy programing, I really don't care, suffice to say I was not willing to trust to luck that everything would turn out ok. Does this mean I have an agenda too?

I think possibly the fact that there is so little official response to the 'troubles' with SF is part of the problem here. Regardless of the truth of the matter, stating that people who are having trouble and complaining about SF are 'beginner level hackers' was a recipie for disaster from the very outset.

Fortunately for me and many others, there are places like subsim.com where average users can get together and share information (technically correct and informed or other otherwise makes no difference to me). Hopefully this dissemination will improve the SF situation one way or another. As the saying goes 'there's no smoke without fire'.
Without any official response to the questions raised with SF the rest of us are doomed to repeat the same old points of view and experience without any real progress one way or another. Until such a response is forthcoming, I can't see any other outcome other than what we have already; Believers, non-believers and agnostics hehe and all that those terms imply.