*grumble*
Well, apparently, i've got to use Vista. The problem is that while It's possible to load XP on it, i can't find XP drivers for everything. (e.g. the sound card, media junk, etc.) Albeit, nothing really critical, but then, i'm cheap and want to use the crap i've paid for.
i think i have noticed one thing, and i don't think that it'll make it onto one of those "Hi! i'm a Mac" ads. i've heard a number of Mac folks say that Vista gets it nearly right, and i've wondered what they meant. i think i know now. Vista with the Aero/Arrow/Aerola interface is bloated. i don't mean memory or CPU requirements (although i suspect it), i'm talking rounded, corners, living in a world of pillows, cutesy crap. The icons are huge, there's tons of wasted pixels for useless styling junk that makes no difference. i think that's one of the reasons i like the "Classic" style of windows. Yeah, my world is filled with sharp corners, but things "fit" together. No, i don't need to know that the border of the top window slighly obscures another because chances are i can figure that out on my own.
And the "gadgets" or whatever are twice as bad as normal programs. Whoopee, i've got an analog Hello Kitty clock that is the size of a grayhound bus. Granted, i've also got a small digital clock in the bottom corner that tells me the same thing, but isn't the bloated, disembodied cat head CUTE!?
i swear these are the same folks that thought Hammer Pants were cool.
Vista is a fine operating system, if you don't plan on actually using your machine. After spending the day fighting with it, i finally found the drivers i needed to get audio, video, and everything else working. Ok, not everything. The remote control doesn't work. Big friggin' deal.
Here's a quick rundown of the things i discovered that pushed me to the edge:
- The User Account Control agent is amazingly annoying. So much so that it was turned off within the first few minutes. It's a great thought on paper, but a surprisingly large amount of your computer's setup requires exactly what this thing is designed to protect you from.
- Yes, i'm aware of Microsoft's "Protected Path" for proprietary data. That protected path prevented me from being able to watch TV on my TV watching capable PC. i mean, i could, but i'd have to run media center to do it. God forbid i'd want to use something like VLC to be a much lighter weight alternative.
- You're not really the administrator of the box. Oh, sure it may seem like you are, but in reality, you're not. You're forbidden access to any number of directories, including "Application Data". Yes, it's possible to bypass this by setting the directories permission to (and i'm not making this up) give Everyone read access, but when program installers have more access to my machine than i do, there's a problem. Hell, Sony's next rootkit doesn't even have to try to hide on Vista, the system does it for them.
You know, generally whenever a new version of an OS comes out, i grouse about it, but eventually find some reason to upgrade to it. XP was that way for me and didn't really win me over until Y!Music became a personal killer app. Once on that system, i usually settle in fairly quickly and become quite comfortable.
Vista never gave me the chance. It was nearly constant pain to do anything. Hell, i couldn't even bring my old settings over from my crashed PC because Vista doesn't read XP's settings files. (It's a freaking tarball.)
Yes, Vista is (in theory) still loaded on my new box, if/when i ever decide to move over. As it is, however, it's going to have to involve some pretty heavy make-up sex from Redmond to do that.
On a side note, Centos Live loaded up on the old box and read all the drives better than XP did.
don't be cankered…
… in about 3 three years you will love vista:-)
greetings from germany
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who stinking needs cute icons, rounded corners, and widgets when there's the command-line??
rm -rf *.u.fools