I want an upgrade to XP
I wanted to run some FPGA simulations, and some of the software (specifically the FPGA simulator environment) runs better on Windows, rather than Linux. So, like a good citizen, I go out and buy the 'Business' version of Vista, since that's all that Microsoft will licence to us Parallels users. That costs me $300 + Tax. I expect to get something I *want* when I pay that much money for something...
So, I get it home, install it under Parallels (which seems to go smoothly). So far, not so much of a rant... Have patience (something I am fast running out of)... What is it about Windows Vista that I dislike ? Pretty much everything in fact...
Top of the list has to be this 'genuine windows advantage' debacle. Advantage to *WHO* exactly ? I had started to download / install the FPGA software. Two thirds of the way through a 1.6GB (yes, Gigabyte) download, I get a popup saying it can't tell whether the machine is a genuine Windows machine, and the download hangs.
Ok, [deep breath, these things happen, I'm new at this I probably didn't read some documentation...] Cancel the download, go to the windows site, and validate. No, that doesn't work - "come back later" it says. Fine. Get another dialogue popping up about 5 minutes later telling me Windows is about to stop working, and I should reboot. WHAT ?? [sigh] Ok, reboot. That usually fixes operating systems from these guys.
Fine, now we're ready. Ok, restart that 1.6GB download...Wait for it... Wait for it... Yep, there's the dialogue, and *boom* goes my download. Cue significant swearing. Ok, so go to the site again, this time it wants to install an Active-X control, I let it, and I now have to reboot my computer. WHAT ??? [big sigh]. Ok reboot... The first thing that happens is I get the dialogue box (hey! look on the bright side, I didn't wait for 20 minutes and get 2/3 the way through my download this time!).
So, I visit the Miscreant^WMicrosoft site again and this time it announces my installation is apparently genuine. Well thank [insert random deities] for that.
That one has to be top of the list, but how about:
- That (on a 20G
partition) it's had the hard-drive churning away
now for over 3 hours! I'm assuming it's indexing it
for search, but [insert more random deities] THREE
HOURS for a mere 20 GIG ? And counting! It's making
a hell of a racket in my otherwise quiet office
- That by default, I
can't click on a zip file to download the thing. It
pushes a dialogue in my face and blanks the page.
So, I get it, the security model on Window is so
appalling, it can't tell the difference between a
virus and a zip file, but that's still annoying.
- Xilinx (in their
infinite wisdom) have https:// urls with http://
elements within them. IE hates that. Every single
page I went to, I had to click 'yes, I really want
to be here'. How annoying is that ? And this is the
*default* behaviour! Eventually I found the
preference to turn it off, hidden amongst a
half-million other options, all sounding pretty
similar. I'm reminded of the adventure line "you're
in a maze of twisty passages, all alike"...
This is just scratching the surface. I've been using XP for an evening, and already I loathe it; and I loathe it not because it's different, I loathe it because it's annoying, fiddly, exasperating, and seems to actively get in my way when I want to do something. I don't care that (for example) the menus are different - I can cope with differences in OS's, I've used well over a dozen of them over the years. I care that (a) I want to do something, (b) I make a reasonable attempt, (c) it recognises the attempt correctly, and then (z) prevents me from doing it, or at least makes it difficult. That gap in the middle is what is missing from the OS.
Computer operating systems are not supposed to be like "Adventure". That maze of twisty passages shows what a poor job the designers of the OS have done - it's simply awful. Both Linux and (to a far lesser extent) OSX have their issues, but nothing at all along the lines of how difficult Microsoft makes it to use your computer. Contrast the above with the OSX credo of "it just works", the lack of any "OSX genuine advantage" program, and perhaps we can see why 1 in 6 laptops currently being sold are Macs, even though they *don't* run all the "office" apps...
So, I want an upgrade to XP. I don't want to use this weeping pus-ridden leprous scab of an OS any longer. XP was merely awful, Vista is so much worse.
[rant over]