A worrying vista
Curiously enough for a blog, I don’t often talk about technology. After all, rumour has it that we blog writers are technology freaks: at best geeks, if not nerds. Anyway, in addition to many good things this week (the next generation down for a wet weekend, generally keeping ahead of work and students and even a few hours of sun), I have been also trying to make the most of my new Vista-equipped Dell computer.
In theory, it is a bit of a beast: 3Gb of RAM, fast Core2Duo 2.66 GHz chip, pretty reasonable graphics card and 22 inch monitor. All ought to be sweetness and light after my rather elderly machine running Windows XP. And don’t get me wrong: most of the time it looks wonderful, and acts wonderful. But I worry about what I see.
The main thing is that operating system has become so vast as to become almost incomprehensible. When I first started using PCs 22 years ago, I used to worry that there were files in MS-DOS that I didn’t know what they did. Then with Windows 95 I was concerned about the subdirectories that I didn’t know what they did. Now, with Vista, I worry about entire directories (occupying tens of megabytes) that I have not the slightest idea what they do.
Here Mr Gates might say, ‘Chris, that’s the price you pay for full stability. Ignorance is the price of bliss.’ Well, I might believe that if I felt I knew what Microsoft is doing. But clearly, it doesn’t. So, for instance, I have cancelled the automatic download of security updates because every day Vista downloads a 5.4 Mb Security Update (KB927978 for those who are interested) and then tries to install it when I try and shut down. But it never fully manages to do this, and so repeats the procedure. Every day. At this rate, my hard disk will be filled with useless security updates. The only way round seems to be to switch off the automatic download so that I get a little red cross in the corner to nag me that my security system is deficient.
As someone who has an environmental commitment I am also irritated by the fact that Vista seems to prefer that you put it in sleep mode rather than switch off mode. The naughty thought comes to me that this is to make the machine appear faster than it really is; it is pretty slow to start up (yes, I have removed most of the superfluous programs that it came installed with). The machine is also prone to long periods of doing nothing. I gather I am not alone in experiencing these things.
This is the point at which I expect the great army of Mac lovers to leap in and say ‘Yes! You should have bought a Mac.’ Well, I have a Macbook, and it’s good but it’s not perfect. Leopard shouldn’t have been released in the buggy form that it was and I also think that the Mac operating system seems to be heading very much to the state that Windows has already reached, of ever greater complexity and ever greater incomprehensibility. Anyway there are so many programs that I need Windows for. (Except of course that I have had to reinstall – and in some cases repurchase – programs in order to get them to work on Vista.)
The whole trend towards bloated and inscrutable software troubles me. It is probably not an original thought that operating systems are like religions. They are there to lead you to God and not get in the way. Vista reminds me of the worst sort of high church ritual; glorious to behold, completely incomprehensible, encrusted with all sorts of completely over-the-top additions, and ultimately, largely unnecessary. I have a determined Protestant desire not to be fobbed off with the pompous, the irrelevant and the bloated. I just want the job done quickly and securely. Let’s have a computer Reformation!
Themocracy
Chris
kb927978 is an update to MSXML ver 4 which is not actually part of Vista but is installed and used by other software (Kodak Easyshare, for example). If this software is running at the time the update tries to install, the update will fail. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927978 for further info.
I like your analogy between software bloat and high-church but I suspect many who worship in a cathedral will not!!
–
James_A
Thanks James
I actually looked at that answer but it was so time consuming and complex that I decided to wait until SP1 comes out. I may have another go tomorrow.
I did say the ‘worst sort of High Church ritual’.
I hope that gives me a get out.
Blessings
Chris
Chris,
Let me be the first to fulfill your prophecy, “You should have bought a Mac.”
For the money and time hassles, I can not afford to own a PC. My Mac is way more economical and secure.
That being said, I too am amazed and put off by how huge the operating systems have become. Programs in general are just plain massive.
Good luck,
dugmad
Chris,
I believe that MacOS is now based on some variant of Unix, and it’s on an Intel chip, so the Macs are becoming a lot more like PCs.
The last Mac I owned (bought in 1994, lasted me a good 12 years, though most of that time as a glorified typewriter) was running System 7.5.5 (at the end), and had such nice directories as “Extensions”, “Options”, “Fonts”, and the like. I miss that clarity as well.
Now here’s the deal. I live actually very close to Redmond (HQ of Microsoft), so if you can type up your 95 Theses, I’ll nail them to the appropriate door.
I wonder what the equivalent of “Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders.” will be.
Dugmad,
I like Macs but I use Dragon/ Nuance voice recognition and have a large investment in Libronix Bible software. Neither is on the Mac yet.
I also think the Mac screen pattern of keeping the menu bar at the top left hasn’t adapted to large screens. I resent dragging my eyes and mouse over a foot to make a change.
I have theory that a certain threshold of complexity, chaos theory takes over. Microsoft is there but Macs aren’t far behind.
The end is nigh!
Chris
Boaz
I gather some writers deliberately use archaic machines to remove the temptation to play games or surf the web. An interesting idea but I have come to like screen real estate.
I gather that Redmond is already worried about bloatware. It creates too many vulnerabilities and on current trends no single person will understand a fraction of what the OS does in ten years time.
But my point stands! Get rid of the glitz! Get out of the way! Sola software!
Blessings
Chris
Chris
http://www.ubuntu.com/
Open source software is the way the future.
Sometimes you just have to ask yourself, ‘what would Merral do?’
Hi Chris,
I too shared your annoyance about the “would rather sleep than turn off” thing but it is possible to change it thank goodness.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/change-the-windows-vista-power-buttons-to-shut-down/
Hope you find it helpful
Agree with the rest of your post though, but I can’t help but be happy with Vista after upgrading from a 5-year-old Windows 2000 PC!