[TriLUG] Rant: VISTA OMG PLEASE SHOOT ME

[Matt Pusateri]

Andrew C. Oliver wrote:
> So I've been doing a little side work and this has put me in contact
> with Windows Vista.  My god this is an unpleasant little operating
> system.  Not only does it needlessly move everything around like every
> other Windows NT release, but it seems mainly to be hell bent on
> ANNOYING THE FREAKING HELL OUT OF USERS and making Windows XP look
> really good by comparison!  
>
> Top 5 most annoying things that make me want to carpet bomb Redmond, WA
> (sorry Tanner, but I've just read "Mao: the unknown story" and so "land
> reform" is on the mind):
>
> 1. Cygwin is broken: if you write to files especially with vi (other
> editors are similarly affected but they aren't relevant), Vista will
> exclusively lock them and not release them
> 2. Vista may lock your files anyhow for no obvious reason.  If you use
> eclipse then even after exiting eclipse, you cannot edit eclipse.ini
> directly.  (It could be that you must just reboot first)  copy it to
> another directory, delete the original, edit the copy, copy it
> back...otherwise it will act as if the file is read only or there is a
> permission problem or something (none of the above were true and it
> wasn't open anywhere else).
> 3. Are you sure you want to do elementary task?  YES.  Blur the
> background (which takes a moment where the screen goes black) "Allow XX
> to do elementary task?" (like the mac commercial) YES DAMMIT!
> 4. You have installed some rudimentary periphery that wasn't a flash
> drive, you must reauthorize vista (this doesn't appear to be in the
> corporate version apparently as only home users are pirates haha)
> 5. Winzip something in Vista that has a lot of stuff and some
> multi-level directories...  unzip it on XP "Bla cannot find XYZ file
> that you just unzipped".  XP->Vista works.
>
> The cygwin issue and the "are you sure, are you really sure" prompts are
> the biggest for me.  They make my Linux driver annoyances with my
> temporary laptop that I bought because my MBP is in the shop again look
> rather minor.  (I got intel graphics card, atheros wireless, intel sound
> -- but the version of the atheros isn't supported even by the HEAD of
> the atheros driver [ndiswrapper works] and the graphics card isn't
> working with the projector here but it very well could be the projector
> and I haven't looked into sound yet).   
>
> So I'm glad when my wife broke her laptop that I immediately wiped vista
> and "upgraded" her to XP (her school work is all MS Office and she keeps
> the books).  So XP wasn't my preference, I'm a linux junkie, but I
> didn't find it especially unpleasant to use (just slow) when using
> Cygwin...but Vista...OMG Vista....  MS needs some SERIOUS purging!  
>
> I wish we could do like a Linux ad with side by side Ubuntu and Vista...
>
> -Andy 
>
>   
I have small consulting gig I work every once in a while, and they got a 
new employee that was temporarily trying to use his brand new laptop 
with Vista.  I tried for about an hour to get his wireless to connect to 
the AP and get a dhcp address.    I'm not sure what automagic voodoo 
Vista is doing with Wireless and network profiles and roaming 
locations.  But it wasn't easy or intuitive.  The laptop saw the access 
point, says it was connected, but could not for the life of it grab an 
address. I finally gave up.  Hence the saying life's too short to be a 
windows admin.  Work is supposedly sending me a copy of Vista Business 
for me to install and become more familiar with.  I don't really want 
to, but I guess it will be inevitable.

Here's some ideas on turning off user control: http://tinyurl.com/33jnuw


Matt P.