Windows frustrations

[TK492]

I haven't had to deal with a Windows computer for a few months now since my full leap to Linux. However today I did a re-install of Windows Vista on my girlfriends older laptop (the why is besides the point here ). Back in the days I used to think that it was easy to do a fresh install of Windows as it was all I ever knew. But after having had some fun swapping Linux distros over a few weeks until finally sticking with Fedora, my perspective has most certainly changed!

I'll list off a few points that made me shake my head:

-Drivers: Upon the first login, I was amazed to find that internet did not work. No Wi-Fi, no Ethernet. I fiddle a bit with the hardware and software buttons and I eventually land on a Windows "Help" man page telling me that if internet does not work, to get the latest driver updates through Windows Updates . Oh, well thanks for the help. Just one little problem, I have no internetz! Luckily my laptop wasn't far so it was just a question of getting the right driver for Ethernet from the manufacturer's website, and placing it on a USB stick to then install on her computer. After the updates (more on that later) most things worked, except for the trackpad. I had to manually retrieve a driver to get the simple scroll function.

-Updates: This is simply beyond my comprehension. Once Vista is installed, you need to download and install the Windows Update program in order to do precisely that. Who was the genius that thought of that? Then, the search for new updates takes an eternity and the downloads themselves take even more forever. Why? Finally, I simply lost count of the number of times I had to restart the computer and re-check for updates as there were always new ones that appeared.

-Software: You'd think that using a Windows OS, one of the most basic program taken for granted (Windows Media Player) would work out of the box right? I mean, the program has the OS' name in it. Alas, it is not the case. The first time you launch the program you are bombarded with questions to finally have to install the software before being able to use it.

To my great liking, these are all points in which I find Linux excels in. People take Windows for granted as the OEM's do all of the work to get the OS working on the hardware beforehand. However, Linux in much easier to install; drivers are included, updates are fast, and it comes with what you need (even a full fledged office suite!).

I simply needed to let go of some steam here. Luckily, this only took the good chunk of the afternoon and not a full day. It also made me appreciate even more my OS of choice, by allowing me go back and see all the stuff I've been missing! Then again, can I really blame it on the OS? I mean, this is Vista we're talking about here!

Anyone else have Windows frustrations that they'd like to share?

[Wayne]

Fedora Forum really needs a +1 button

[aleph]

I'm amazed at the fact that they still have the "no driver, no Internet, therefore no driver" loop with newer versions of Vista. It shouldn't be much a problem once you have another working computer but it just feels so wrong... and so stupid.

[Bazu135]

I remember back when I last had to reinstall Windows XP on my old PC... My install disc was an original release, pre-dating any of the service packs - at that point, XP had already reached SP3!

After the initial install, the motherboard drivers, the masses of update downloads (over my wonderful "up to 1MB" connection ), the constant restarts, installing my other software, updating the anti-virus, customising the appearance and behaviour etc etc etc, I lost literally an entire day. When I last did that with Fedora (clean install of F16 over an F14 partition), it took maybe 2-3hrs to do EVERYTHING.

That said, I'd still take that XP experience over Vista any day

[John the train]

Originally Posted by aleph

I'm amazed at the fact that they still have the "no driver, no Internet, therefore no driver" loop with newer versions of Vista. It shouldn't be much a problem once you have another working computer but it just feels so wrong... and so stupid.

Shades of ' Open crate with crowbar - which is inside said crate '!

[smr54]

There was a fellow at work, who, after yet another time of trying to find all the drivers for an aging Dell laptop, (running XP, IIRC), wound up asking me to put Linux on it. He was pleasantly surprised at the ease of install--I used Mint, IIRC.

[TK492]

Originally Posted by Bazu135

updating the anti-virus

Haha this made me think of another point!

Vista will complain to you that you don't have an antivirus installed after installation... until the day you actually install one. In this case I was thinking, why not bundle one with Windows if it is so necesarry? Or better yet, modify Windows to make it more secure.

I'll try to make an analogy here:

It's as if you bought a house but the front and back doors didn't have any locks. It becomes your job to "secure the house" yourself.

Obviously this isn't the case, because people expect their houses to be "safe" (from honnest people anyways). Computer users should have the same expectations from their operating systems.

[hadrons123]

Time after time there is always a thread about how windows sucks.
I think the OP should get a blog!

[beaker_]

Originally Posted by TK492

Haha this made me think of another point!

Vista will complain to you that you don't have an antivirus installed after installation... until the day you actually install one. In this case I was thinking, why not bundle one with Windows if it is so necesarry? Or better yet, modify Windows to make it more secure.

I'll try to make an analogy here:

It's as if you bought a house but the front and back doors didn't have any locks. It becomes your job to "secure the house" yourself.

Obviously this isn't the case, because people expect their houses to be "safe" (from honnest people anyways). Computer users should have the same expectations from their operating systems.

Cough cough cough.., I never lock my doors but my home is guarded by gun only one night of the week. You choose the night.

[solo2101]

Its funny because is true...

[dragonbite]

Whenever I have had to install XP, it has been a royal PITA. Even the NIC (not wireless, the wired nic) would require met to download drivers before I can use it (and my 768 Kbps internet connection makes updates a real ordeal).

When I took the XP system and upgraded it to Windows 7 it worked 100% better. Almost, dare I say it, Linux-like! Except for not installing any applications, reboots for updates, having to manually tell it to "update drivers" and let it search online.

Have to admit, after running through all of that I appreciate the work that has gone into making Linux as easy to install and get working quickly.

What I also do to help streamline the process is use Dropbox for some of my files. I say Dropbox because it is the only one I know of that provides "sync-over-lan". This enables my "new" laptop to synchronize files against my "old" desktop that has already been synchronized as I used it, without having to go online or use my internet access (which is dogged-slow). I can synchronize 1.5 GB in less than 1/2 an hour, compared to the 4-6 hours if I had to download it from the internet!

If Dropbox was cheaper and gave you more space then I would be tempted to move all of my files over since it is cross-platform (unlike SkyDrive and Google Drive) and cross-distrubution (unlike Ubuntu One).

[deanej]

Originally Posted by TK492

Haha this made me think of another point!

Vista will complain to you that you don't have an antivirus installed after installation... until the day you actually install one. In this case I was thinking, why not bundle one with Windows if it is so necesarry? Or better yet, modify Windows to make it more secure.

I'll try to make an analogy here:

It's as if you bought a house but the front and back doors didn't have any locks. It becomes your job to "secure the house" yourself.

Obviously this isn't the case, because people expect their houses to be "safe" (from honnest people anyways). Computer users should have the same expectations from their operating systems.

Because the AV industry would scream bloody murder, at least that was the theory. It didn't seem to give them much trouble with Windows 8 though (which includes AV in Windows Defender); maybe enough consumers have wised up about using free AV solutions.

[Wayne]

Two things to remember:

A C: Drive is an excursion to the beach

and there's no place like /home!

[RupertPupkin]

Originally Posted by TK492

Anyone else have Windows frustrations that they'd like to share?

The other day in Windows 7 I was trying to print to an envelope using Word 2010. What an unholy mess that turned out to be! I must have gone through about 20 envelopes with the recipient address printed with the wrong orientation (rotated 90°), despite following the instructions correctly. On a Linux box with LibreOffice I followed the same procedure printing to the same printer and the address was printed with the correct orientation.

I honestly have no idea how people apparently manage to get work done in Windows. At first I thought maybe I screwed something up in Word, but then I asked a co-worker to try it from his Windows machine and he got the same bad result I did. I then did some googling and found that lots of people are having problems printing to envelopes in Word 2010. I remember doing it in Word 2003 with no problem. I think MS is regressing.

[ElderSnake]

Originally Posted by RupertPupkin

I think MS is regressing.

I have no doubt.

From my experiences, a lot of people still just use the older MS Office suites and so they probably find they have very little in the way of problems.

I've not touched the current Office versions but I don't want to anyway. Seriously for years, even in school, Open/LibreOffice has always done exactly what I need it to.