Monday, September 03, 2007

New Vista; same old shit

Despite 30 years' experience I continue to naively hope and expect things to get better as time goes on. Microsoft has just become the latest in a long line of manufacturers to burst that bubble with the execrable Vista.

Yes, I'd heard and read bad things about it, but apart from walking past it a few times in shops I had no real-life, hands-on experience until we finally unpacked and set up Nikki's new PC yesterday afternoon. And then spent the next TEN HOURS trying to get the thing to (a) connect to the Internet; (b) allow her to download her email and (c) talk to the other computers on our home network.

It beggars belief that any system designed (supposedly) to work in a home environment, with novice or apprentice users, should by default be locked down to the point where it doesn't actually work until you've delved into the deepest, darkest configuration settings (which, incidentally, have now been moved into new and unexpected places) and changed a few things around.

The new concepts are not conceptual. The new features are no big feat. And the lock downs need locking up. It looks pretty, but that's really the only good thing I can say about it. I hope I never have to put it on my PC.

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