re: Windows XP. It's Just an O/S!
Monday, August 20, 2001 at 2:44 am
Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by John M. Adams
(2 messages posted)
I currently run Windows XP RC2. I love it, and I hate it.
I had Windows ME on this computer before XP, and the stability improvements is overwhelmingly
noticeable. One program I use is newly released, and was shipped with some incredible
bugs, including bad memory leaks and crashing problems. Under Windows ME, I would
have to reboot my PC every 2-3 hours, or resources would be so tied up that I couldn't
open a text file. Under Windows XP, with the dramatically improved process management
window, I can kill the particular process and keep on chugging. No matter how poorly
my application performs, or how often it crashes, Windows is not effected. While
it may be a feature of Win2K, it's new to me and home computing.
There are a number of other nice features as well. I am trying to put my entire
CD library, or at least a large portion of it, on my hard drive for easy access,
and ripping goes much faster for me in MP8, compared to Easy CD Creator from Roxio(the
Adaptec spin-off company). Ripped CDs are placed in 'My Music', under a directory
named for the Album, in a directory named for the Artist. Album directories have
thumbnails of the Album Art. There is still a lot left to be desired. Classical
music doesn't fit well into the library because music is organized by 'artist', with
no option to organize by 'composer'. I would rather play all music composed by Gustav
Holst, than all music performed by the London Philharmonic... in the end I think
I will still rely on Winamp for playing music, and Media Player for ripping it.
The Windows Media Audio format also takes less space, almost half, for the same quality
MP3.
As for the 'look and feel' of XP. I agree, it is cartooney. It appears that the
UI look and feel is split into two categories, Windows and Buttons styles, and Color
Scheme. RC1 and RC2 shipped with two styles, Windows XP and Windows Classic. The
XP style only has three color schemes, the default (blues), green, and silver...
all of which come with the hideous red close-window button. The Windows Classic
theme will allow you to go back to the look and feel of Win9x almost completely.
While XP Windows and Buttons styles act like "skins" previously provided by applications
such as WindowBlinds by Stardock, RC1&2 do not include any applications for editing
these skins and color schemes. The retail release may have editors, but if not,
Stardock is already working on an application that will be able to create skins for
many different skinnable applications (Including Winamp, Windows Media Player, and
XP itself). Hopefully, the level of customization available will take us away from
the dull, one-size-fits-all of 9x, and at the same time away from the currently available
themes.
My biggest gripe with progressive versions of Windows is Microsoft's insistency on
idiot-proofing the OS. While I suppose most Windows users aren't extremely tech-savy,
they shouldn't ignore those of us that are. While XP has improved in this arena
in some ways, it's gotten worse in others. One specific issue I have is Microsoft's
insistence on trying to hide the fact that we have a hard drive. When you open Windows
Explorer, it defaults to opening "My Documents". What is the use of having a seperate
"Windows Explorer" shortcut, if it does the exact same thing as the "My Documents"
shortcut?
I don't think Microsoft is trecherous... just arrogant. They set defaults and make
the options difficult to find and change. They can't seem to understand why anyone
would want to do something in a way that is different than they think is best. MS
Word is incredible bad in this way... just try making a simple numbered list. My
father is a US Navy chief... it takes twice the time really necessary to write documents
because the Navy's standard is not Microsoft's standard, so he has to fight Word's
autoformatting the whole way. Word should default to leaving what you type the way
you typed it, and give you the option to turn on autoformatting. Personally, I attempt
to use .txt as much as possible, and use Word only when absolutely necessary.
One thing that suprises me... they've attempted to support and take over so much
in XP (Support for CD-R/RW's, Printers/Scanners, Digital Cameras, built in Firewall,
etc...), I'm suprised they didn't build in anti-virus software as well... My Norton
Antivirus 2001 for 9x/ME doesn't work for XP, and Symantec doesn't have any informaton
on whether or not the Win2K verson will protect XP... so I'm a bit vulnerable right
now.
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All messages in this thread [show all]
 |  | | |  | re: Windows XP. It's Just an O/S! (John M. Adams: Mon, Aug 20, 2001, 2:44 am) |
| | | Disagree (esto: Tue, Jun 25, 2002, 12:19 pm) |
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