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I've just a fairly frustrating experience with my laptop. It decided it was amusing to hang, forcing me to do a hard shutdown to recover. My laptop, like practically all new laptops sold, came with Windows pre-installed. Moreover, it came with a recovery CD-ROM. On the one hand, this is a good idea: faced with desire to re-install the OS, a recovery CD-ROM puts the OS back on with all the proprietary drivers in place. Easy. On the other hand, faced with an OS that eats itself over time, a recovery CD-ROM is a bit of insurance. Easy.
Maybe a bit too easy. Despite my many years experience with Windows on the desktop, there is still a helluva lot I can't make it do. Like fix whatever bit is broken when it makes my browser hang for no apparant reason, or ditch whatever is making the shutdown screw up. I guess Opera Software are aware of this kind of problem, because next time I start it, Opera knows when it was terminated and saves its state frequently. On the other hand - and not surprisingly - Microsoft writes Windows to assume that it doesn't make mistakes. Restart the PC after one such broken shutdown and it makes you out to have committed a sin by shutting Windows down incorrectly.
Among other things, makes me want to go take a piece out of Microsoft somehow.
Of course, that's not going to be possible. It doesn't change the situation, of course. About all I can do is somehow endure it, the crashes and instability of the industry's most loved and hated OS. Even if I rang customer support for my laptop, I'll get asked to RRR with the recovery CD-ROM - hey presto! All fixed. Well, not quite. But you already know that.
Ever since I bought my laptop, I had been wondering how long I would endure WindowsME before I tried to make it a Linux laptop. Such a conversion would be an interesting experience, not the least of which is because the laptop is a Sony PCG-Z505GAM VAIO. I'll let you know how I go. Or maybe I'll stick with WindowsME - warts and all - for the time being.
Wade Bowmer, aka static.
Comments? Email me at static dash page at yceran dot org.
