For some reason, I decided in the mid-80s that I should expand my technical chops to include Windows because that platform is used by the the vast majority of the installed base. While that may have been a wise choice professionally, it was frustrating to move from HP-UX (which would run for years without rebooting) to Windows (which would crash, freeze, blue-screen, etc. on a regular basis and which would require re-installation from scratch on an annual basis to maintain performance).

Let me give credit where credit is due. First, Microsoft does an amazing job producing software that runs on thousands of weird hardware configurations produced by PC clone manufacturers world-wide. Unlike the Mac with its rigidly controlled specifications, in the PC world, thousands of variations on the theme are produced every year and Windows runs (albeit imperfectly) on most of them. Where the Mac has one program, PCs have dozens. Where the Mac as three peripherals, PCs have hundreds. The Windows ecosystem is a wilder and less civilised place than Mac-land. This drives costs down and options up.

There are, however, a number of things that I can’t stand about Windows including:

1. I click on something – anything – and Windows becomes unresponsive. Click, click, and click again, and eventually I see in Process Explorer that 80%, 90%, or more of the CPU is busy running “System Idle Processes” whatever the hell that is.

2. After a fresh install, Windows XP is (or was) snappy. A year latter, it’s sluggish and slow. It’s not like I install an uninstall software applications for grins and giggles. Mostly, I read mail, write documents, etc. – i.e. I work on content.

   Oh, I do run Microsoft Update on a regular basis. Should just patching software result in a sluggish mess? I think not.

3. Intel Giveth and Microsoft Taketh Away

   The first Windows PC was – if I recall correctly – 12MHz with 512Mb. I pointed, I clicked, I waited. Typed keystrokes often ran ahead of displayed characters. My old laptop is 1.8GHz with 2GB. I point, I click, I wait. Yes, the graphics are better but in terms of me getting my work done as fast as I can do it – I’m still twiddling my thumbs and waiting for my PC.

   As fast as the hardware manufacturers can improve performance, Microsoft adds eye-candy and bloat-ware to return performance to the expected norm. It’s a vicious circle – hardware drives software which drives hardware – everybody wins except the end user who – like me – chooses not to by a new PC every year or two.

   One of the smarter guys I worked with at HP once told me that “… the customer doesn’t pay us the the CPU cycles we burn or the memory we fill. They pay us for the resources that we leave behind for their stuff.”

   Pity that Microsoft never got the word.

4. An operating system should …
   • … be stable.

     On HP-UX machines, we would often not have to reboot them for years at a time – never mind having to rebuild from scratch periodically just to keep the performance up.

   • … be fast.

     Certain processes, such as booting, populating the Choose File dialog box, and moving or deleting files just seem to take forever on Windows machines. On Unix, file operations are zippy – not so on Windows. And don’t even get me started on drive letters and the lack of real symbolic links and mount points.

   • … protect other processes and the system itself from malicious processes.

     Where Unix comes from an (untrusted) multi-user, server tradition. Windows comes from a single-user, desktop tradition and despite advancements from the NT days onward, it still shows. One process uses too many resources or otherwise goes sideways, and the whole system bogs down forcing a reboot.

     It probable doesn’t help that my Desktop looks like my desk top. Yeah, I like to leave stuff open as long as I think I might need to remember it. I’m hard on a system, but I don’t see why PC’s that are a hundred to a thousand times better than the X-Windows workstations that I used a decade or more ago can’t keep up with my untidy ways.

   Microsoft has had my entire adult life to develop an operating system that fulfills these basic responsibilities. XP came closest, but still fell short. After Vista, I have faith that Windows 7 will continue to disappoint.

5. Vista! – Wow! – ‘nuf said.

   Actually, in all fairness, I’ve never used Vista. I just watched the whole slow-motion train-wreck – including the “upgrade Vista to the classic (XP) experience” – unfold from the sidelines.

Through my volunteer work at the Space Elevator Games I have had the opportunity to test-drive a Windows 7 laptop and it doesn’t suck too bad. Never-the-less, after watching Vista unfold, I made myself a promise – that XP was the last Windows I would ever use.

Unfortunately, you can’t really get a new PC with Windows XP anymore. More on this later.