A few days ago I read with amusement that Microsoft were offering anyone the chance of downloading the test release of their latest desktop operating system, Windows 7. Now, they had the wisdom to warn that this latest test version is full of bugs, just in case some people were expecting a working operating system. Windows 7 (formerly codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna) is the next release of Microsoft Windows, an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, Tablet PCs, netbooks and media centre PCs.
But what strikes me as crazy now, is that they still have not managed to sort out their current, and previous, operating systems. I am currently using Vista on a newish Dell pc, with 4Gb RAM and a pretty standard but fast Duo Core CPU. I do not ask too much of this computer though, so really, I would expect few problems. However, those that warned me that in time Vista would slowly grind to a halt were indeed right. When I decided to buy a new PC, I received the following advice:
- Install Windows XP
- Install a Linux distribution (best bet Ubuntu).
At the time I thought that this was just the usual Microsoft bashing, and that people who had problems in the past with Vista were running it on older, slower computers. But this evening I had my 3rd crash. For no apparent reason, both my keyboard and mouse stopped working. This made my system unusable, and left me with the only option of hitting the power switch, losing unsaved work, and rebooting. Now, Microsoft have been building operating systems for sometime now, so really I would not expect such simple crashes. If I were using 3rd party products, then maybe a keyboard / mouse failure would not be unexpected every now and then. But I have Microsoft wired keyboard and a Microsoft wired mouse. One moment they were working, and the next, both dead.
On rebooting the PC, Vista did kindly inform me that new drivers had been installed and that the “new” hardware was now available for use. Great. Like I had not been using them for months already. This is the second time this has happened. And why has there been no fix for these failures? My computer as a common as mud, as are my keyboard and mouse, and yet bugs in Vista mean that they periodically stop working. And now Microsoft is planning to release its next “operating” system. I wonder what won’t work in this version? Monitors, ethernet cables, disk drives?
Maybe one day Microsoft will see the light and move to a UNIX based operating system, to create stable and logical operating systems like Apple and Linux. It probably will not be long before even Google have a better operating system than Microsoft, and no doubt that will be free too. Bring it on. I have had almost enough of Windows. In fact, maybe this is time to move on. The only reason I stuck with Windows was for Photoshop (now a very old version) and playing games. But I now use GIMP for all my photo editing needs (Photoshop is actually still sitting on an old XP machine). Although I do like the odd game. If only games ran well on Ubuntu.
