re: Windows XP. It's Just an O/S!
Tuesday, August 14, 2001 at 9:03 pm
Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by Bryan Flynn
(17 messages posted)
I have to chuckle about 'NO ONE WILL MAKE YOU UPGRADE'. This is true enough, insofar
as no one will hold a gun to my head, demanding that I do so, but MS has never followed
such tactics like someone dumping a big pail of water on your head... MS instead
is like a shifty, agile, little punk who sprays you, ALL_THE_TIME, with a plant mister,
eventually soaking you. Just look at MSN Messenger... I haven't upgraded for months
(since the most recent version was 'made available', but my 'dread of Fridays' is
getting near the point where I will. To explain: has no one noticed, gotten annoyed
at, written an email (as I have), etc. about the fact that Messenger's auto-upgrade
has the three choices of 'Yes, I'll download it now', 'No, ask me again the next
time I log on', and 'No, ask me again in one week'? There is no option for those
of us, for whom our own version does what we NEED and WANT it to do AS IS, to say,
'No, don't ask me again.' But that shifty little punk with his plant mister has
almost entirely soaked me now, and I'm almost ready to give in. And we all know
that MS follows such tactics in larger issues, compared to which messenging is piddling
small potatoes. With all of the comparisons we've seen between the computer industry
and Detroit/the Big Three over the years, it's time for a new one: Sure, Detroit
invented 'planned obsolescence', subtly changing each year's new model to distinguish
it from older versions but, UNLIKE the computer industry, the fact that a new Buick
comes out does NOT mean that the one you've got in the garage won't work anymore.
I LIKE my 'old Buick' Messenger, and I'm sure it would drive MS nuts if everyone
ignored the upgrades, but even if I wasn't nearly soaked anyway, I know that they'll
make some change a year or two down the road, 'for the better', that will render
my nice, 700K dl messenger worthless, and I'll have to get the 8Mb version instead
if I want to keep using it. Yes I know it comes integrated with XP, but on the off
chance I buy a new computer in the next few years, before XPire's replacement comes
out. I'm repartitioning, reformatting, and installing Win98se again (PERHAPS WinMe).
However, I tried WinMe, briefly, and hated it for two incredibly minor reasons:
instead of radio buttons for 'shut down', 'restart', etc., they changed it to a drop-down
(WHY? radio buttons are more convenient! AND they were what was used before...
why change stupid things like that, unless it's a deliberate spray with the mister?),
and two: there is no longer a way to turn off all caps filenames (good lord... why
remove that? was it causing some un-work-aroundable, unfixable, critical fault in
the new kernel or the gui engine? I think not.). Ummm. I guess this was kinda
long. Oh, well... happy computing :)
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All messages in this thread [show all]
 |  |  | re: Windows XP. It's Just an O/S! (Bryan Flynn: Tue, Aug 14, 2001, 9:03 pm) |
| |  | Disagree (esto: Tue, Jun 25, 2002, 12:19 pm) |
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