I already know what the technical answer is and it is no. I know several people that are running hacked versions of XP that are always bitching about not being able to apply service packs etc.
I found out a very long time ago that running hacked software is not worth it. For gosh sakes most of us spend more time on our computers than talking to our spouses. Most are willing to invest $200.00 in keeping the wife happy why can’t people invest $200.00 to keep their computer happy. I own a lot of machines and upgrading them is not cheap so I cringe at times on the amount of money I spend on software but it’s part of my yearly budget as software is important to me.
When friends use my computers they are shocked at the number of applications on them and are always asking for a copy of this or that. I will tell you this people are lot less apt to share their software when it’s their registered license that would be getting passed around. So most are shocked when I tell them everything is legitimately registered.
They always ask why. Most companies allow a 1 week to 1 month trial period and if the software is getting used on a regular basis when that trial period expires I pony up the cash. Case in point Microsoft was very smart when the released their student edition of Office which allows up to 3 installations of the software along with affordable pricing.
To get back to the original question I would say no don’t allow them to update. This may shock some and I suppose the majority of computer users in 3rd world countries would have vulnerable machines. [Slashdot] [DSLReports]