Seriously Tim Bray’s response to MS’ latest FUDfest regarding OSS infringement of Microsoft patents is straight to the point. However, if like me you may not read all the places this news is newsworthy, Slashdot will shed some much needed light for you.
I really do some days. Don’t get me wrong. Some days I think “Windows ain’t that bad, a lot of people really like it and for some people it just works without any problems.” Then there are days when I have to actually use it, or worse, try to fix it. Where I work we’ve come around to the conclusion that we don’t really want to fix Windows. Back it up and blow it away is often faster and cleaner than limp it along and be back facing the same gremlins next week. I’m on my last rope however not because an important users laptop won’t even run Windows Update… no not really upset or even surprised on that one. Never mind that processes are hanging left and right and it runs like a dog with only about 38 processes going on idle (I’d blame Symantec, but it was doing fine before the vendor re-imaged it while fixing a broken hinge) no I hate Windows and PC laptops in general for missing one simple important feature that makes almost any mac disaster recoverable: Target Disk Mode (apple.com). Go ahead read up, I’ll wait. Back? Good. Waiting for this busted down heap to transfer files to a server, even over a reasonably fast Ethernet connection–the network is GigE, but the card is stuck at 100BaseT– is enough to drive me insane. Any other computer in this office I could hold down T on boot up connect it to another machine and pull important files off. Hell even if the Finder can’t see the disk due to corruption I can usually use Terminal to get in and cp important files out.
Of course I usually have backups for every other computer in the office as well but that’s another story related to the user.
As I was typing this I finally managed to get the last of the users data off of the machine and I can move on to wiping the drive and reinstalling Windows. Apologies to anyone who trips over this little rant and wants to go off on me over it. Feel free to write any and all “Windows is teh Awesome, Apple’s are teh Sux0rs!” rants on your own blog…
Man do I feel better getting that off my chest.