On Nov 1, 10:23 pm, Erik Funkenbusch <e...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> On Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:28:55 +0000, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> > Boiling Water : Windows
> > ,----[ Quote ]
> >| Take a user who has never used Windows before,
These days that's very hard to find.
> >| and they'll go crazy with how
> >| bad everything seems to operate.
Even people who have been using Windows for YEARS go crazy over the
bugs. Bugs, Viruses, Identity theft, spam, popups faster than you can
knock them down, porn sites popping up in the middle of your
presentations (or shoe ads, or whatever your "thing" is).
Just about the point where Microsoft finally gets a version of the OS
that's stable, reliable, and supports all of the third party software,
they replace it with some new version with lots of new pretty colors,
new amusements, and new non-productive features, and everything
breaks. Microsoft doesn't seem to test with 3rd party software. It
seems like commercial software, shareware, and OSS seems to get
clobbered equally well. I'm sure that Microsoft's "Partners" just
love spending $millions trying to create products that work for
Windows, only to discover that Windows service packs, security fixes,
and new OS release keep breaking their software.
For a few years, a very popular sound effect on PCs was "Windows being
shattered".
A popular illustration of something that looked like a duck taking a
sledgehammer to their PC. A popular toy was soft hammers you could
use to hit your computer when it went nuts. Some people get so
frustrated that they bang on their keyboard (which may be one reason
that there are more keyboards on display at staples than desktop PCs.
The problem is that, until OS/X Tiger hit the retail shelves, they
didn't see themselves as having an alternative. Linux users would
tell them about Linux, but since they had to install it themselves,
and often purchased the cheapest computers they could find (the ones
that had been reduced to clearance prices because they were not "Linux
Ready"), and usually don't want to ask for help. They don't plan
ahead, they don't buy a second hard drive, they don't back up their
personal data, then they blame Linux for an unpleasant install
experience and never actually get a chance to USE Linux for any period
of time.
> >| You'll also get a long list of things that
> >| seem broken or just plain nonsensical.
As IBM used to say "That's not a bug, that's a FEATURE!!".
Microsoft would be more than happy to tell you how much time and
research they put into designing the "perfect" Windows desktop. They
started that line back with Windows 95. If the desktop was so
perfect, why did they change it to be more like Linux in each release?
> > `----
> >http://zerias.blogspot.com/2007/10/boiling-water-windows.html
>
> Yet he is incapable of describing what those things are from that long
> list. He just waves his hands about and mumbles about virus software and
> having to install more software.
Let's just try for a short list.
1. - Viruses
2. - Security problems
3. - Unexplained pauses or freezes (garbage collection).
4. - No matter how big your hard drive is, Microsoft seems to fill it
up.
5. - No matter how much memory you have - Microsoft gobbles it up.
6. - The cost of almost any kind of software.
7. - The drive gets corrupted and you have no way to rescue your data.
8 - Backups of the ENTIRE image are nearly impossible.
9 - Very limited choice of applications - mostly Microsoft
Bundleware.
10. - Microsoft Bundleware in Windows and Office means you can't get
better products from your company.
11 - The less expensive applications also run on Linux.
12 - Previous versions of Windows were insecure - but you could get
3rd party software that improved the situation without being a pain.
13 - Microsoft's attempts at security are painful, and don't actually
protect you.
14 - Identity Theft - who's wiretapping my computer, and what are they
looking at?
15. - Mysterious network transmissions, even when the PC isn't doing
anything.
16 - Even which a corporate firewall, personal external firewall, an-
pc firewall, and permission checking for execution - Viruses seem to
get in without even being noticed.
17 - The Application Programming Interfaces and libraries keep
changing.
18 - The changes mean I have to purchase new software with each
versions of Windows, which means I have to cut the functionality with
each release (since I'm not willing to buy ALL of that software 3-4
times in 5 years).
19 - I call the help desk and they tell me to restart my application
20 - I call the help desk back and they tell me to restart my
workstation
21 - I call the help desk back and they tell me to reinstall the
application.
22 - I call the help desk back and they tell me to reinstall Windows.
23 - I call the help desk back and they tell me to reformat my hard
drive and then reinstall Windows.
24 - I can't find 1/2 of my installation disks and/or license keys -
so I looks functionality for which I have paid a pretty penny.
25 - Microsoft seems to like Murphy's law - it breaks at the worst
possible times, like while I'm on the road, the night before the
presentation, about 2 hours before staples closes.
26 - The upgrade version won't let me install on a new drive (saving
the old one because it has my data on it).
27 - The License key on the bottom of my PC won't work with the
Upgrade version.
28 - The license key on the bottom won't work with most other
available media either.
29 - I have to install every application one at a time.
30 - If I have to uninstall an application - the PC frequently becomes
unpredictible.
31 - If I install too many 3rd party applications - the PC becomes
unpredictable.
32 - If a coworker, client, or consultant is using a newer version, I
have to pay money (often out of my own pocket) for the upgrade.
33 - If the coworker, client, or consultant has an older version, we
get different formatting, which makes it hard to review documents over
the phone.
34 - Finding documents written or received as recently as a month ago,
can take a long time to find.
35 - Searching for documents by name misses critical documents.
36 - Searching for documents by content on Explorer can take hours.
37 - Sorting incoming e-mail is a pain - Outlook's filters are
primitive at best.
38 - Microsoft's standards for scheduling appointments is different
from everybody else's. Change the meeting time and about half the
people (those on notes, or those on outlook, or those using cell
phones...) will miss the meeting.
39 - Documents get very very large, especially if you have a lot of
reviewers making changes. Before long, you have a full mail box and
the admin is on your case to clean out the e-mail.
40 - Tracking revisions is also difficult. You end up with 50
versions of a file, and don't even know who made what revisions in
what order.
41 - Large teams have to have one person who's full time job is to
merge revisions.
42 - Tracking changes in drawings is an even bigger problem.
43 - With IE, you never know WHAT's coming over the wire, a cute flash
program, a word document, or a Macrovirus or killer worm that will
download a spambot.
44 - You never know what the next Windows "Security update" will do.
45 - All of those security updates don't seem to do much good.
46 - Even with firewalls and antivirus, the PCs seem to run amok.
That's a nice start - who wants to add to the list?
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