In spite of my ranting, I do agree with this----For many people, Windows "get's the job done". Other than the aggravation of installing it, my real issue is the business practices. Hence my personal decision that--where I have the choice-- I will never knowingly do anything that adds to the MS revenue stream.

Amen

EDIT: As I was posting and for the last hour or so I've been installing vi$ta_64 in vbox so my wife can update her Iphone, and then I realized some cool features of Vbox so I've been playing, and I have forgotten what a ROYAL PITA it is. install active x control???????? I've done that 10 times in the last hour just to do just some very basic things. "A program needs your permission to continue" "Are you sure?", "Are you sure?, "ARE YOU REALLY REALLY REALLY SURE?" Come on WTF? It is SOOOO annoying to have a machine I built treat me like a friggin child! Sorry for the rant, but, welll..........never mind.

Hi

I agree with all that's have been said plus :

The viruses,
The system's increased sluggishness as time goes by...

... Linux is far better ( and some ppl say that UNIX is far better than Linux... dunno.. never tried )

BRGDS

Alex

That's right, Win 7 even asked me if I'm sure WHEN I TRIED TO OPEN A PROGRAM FROM THE START MENU!!!

But seriously, does Micro$oft REALLY think that you are so dumb that you will click on something you are suspicious of and then just think about it when you see the warning, instead of just clicking "Allow" without thinking?

In fact, seeing that warning so many times, I just trained myself to subconsionsly click the "Allow" button!

At least 7 allows you to turn them off, but who on earth would think that "User Account Control" means "Annoying Security Warnings"?

I'm so glad I don't use that stuff any more.

Well people in general are dumb. Sorry, but it's true. The problem with idiot-proofing anything is that all you will really do is prove just how dumb some people really are.

Like you I guess I'd trained myself to ignore the multiple prompts. At work I use customers' computers and even then it's the same yes, yes, ok so I don't notice. But after using various linux distros for the last 5 months, and then installing vista in the vm and having to actually DO SOMETHING with it, I just felt bombarded by it.

Slackware suddenly seems 10 times more user friendly than Vista which I used for years. It's odd how quick that happened.

I noticed that for myself I found Arch to be quite freindly to use, because I have a moderate understanding of the inner workings of a Linux system and how to use them and Arch tries to make them and simple as possible and doesn't try to hide them from me.

I guess that "user-friendly" just depends on the user's level of knowledge about the system.

Windows's "user-freindly" definition assumes near-zero knowledge, which isn't "user-friendly" for someone who understands how computers work.

It is actually much, much worse than that. By idiot-proofing stuff you're actually applying evolutionary pressure to idiots. The result is idiots even dumber than the ones we had before.

Exactly. Its about the big brother type BS that M$ tries to pull all the time. Its about how they don't bother testing anything before they release it, they let the paying customer do their testing for them.

But at least XP is finally stable

I feel the same way about M$ as I do about Google. Nothing really wrong with the products, I will just avoid them because I care about my privacy.

Um, I don't know if you care, but you can change settings in Vista so that it doesn't keep nagging you all the time. Just thought I'd throw that out there in case you plan to keep playing with it

This is neat: I post a rant because I was re-living what a PITA it is to install Windows. Now it's a conversation on philosphy, evolution, and....

So here's what I hear you saying: "As technology gets more sophisticated, the ability of Joe and Jill Six-Pack to deal with the technology is diminished."

Or is it just that the gap between the *brains* and tne *brain-nots* keeps growing.

One of my previous supervisors still has on his white board a quote that I wrote there over 5 years ago:
"I am after all, said Pooh, a bear of very little brain."

I don't remember why I wrote this.....


PS: With all the work on sequencing of DNA, have they found the PEBKAC gene?

Thanks, but I've gotten vista where I need it: in a VM with Itunes installed. I have no plans on customizing it any further, I have plenty of experience with windows to do so if I wish, but it's of no real use when I could be updating one of my slack boxes to kde 4.4 and getting some joy out of customizing .

My wife needed a new phone and wanted an Iphone, on which she wants a few movies for the kids, and music for the gym, I therefore needed Itunes, so vista got a stay of execution in exchange for a life sentence imprisoned in a VM!

LOL, Windows 8, I'm sure.
We used to say "they'll build a better idiot". No doubt with Microsoft compatible electrodes already implanted.

As long as you add "However, their ability to cause catastrophic damage with the technology is vastly increased" then yeah, that is pretty much what I'm saying.


The thinking now is that it is actually a multi-gene disease........


Oh, and just to address your original point, when I install Linux on a machine it takes and hour or so. Last time I installed XP, it took almost two friggin days. Endless cycles of update and reboot. I never want to install Windows again.

Just turn off UAC control.

smeeze*;
Is this what you are talking about?:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...91(WS.10).aspx

If so, then I am struggling to see how it has any relevance to this thread.

Please explain what point you were trying to make.