The Wonders of Windows
Take the Firewall. We all need a Firewall, particularly if we use Broadband, but a Firewall has to be trained to allow your software to access the Internet, and while this isn’t a problem with most software it is a pain when you install a new game. Games usually run full screen so when the Firewall dialogue box (that’s ‘dialogue’, not ‘dialog’ OK?) pops up you can’t click on the OK button as the game has the focus. I find that the only course of action is to use CTRL-ALT-DEL to kill the game, then I authorise the Firewall to grant access and then I start the game again.
It’s not all bad. Plug and Play, for instance, is brilliant. If Windows detects some new hardware then it searches its driver library and then installs drivers that provide at least basic functionality which allows you to get to the stage where you can install ‘proper’ drivers. Plug and Play works well enough with graphics cards, and it makes it an absolute doddle to add an extra hard drive or to plug in a network card, but the system rather falls to pieces with external devices.
The most vexing problem comes with USB devices, as you have to install the drivers before you plug the device in, but how do you know whether Windows includes drivers for the device or not? Many printers and scanners are supplied with a label over the USB port which warns you to read the manual carefully before you proceed. In fairness to Windows XP, if you fail to run the driver CD it is likely that the installation process will fail and you can then run the driver CD to sort things out. If you try the same thing with Windows 98 there is a good chance that the printer will never work properly as the drivers will be scrambled beyond repair.
This is a real pain as Microsoft has shown what is possible with its Camera and Scanner Wizard, where you simply plug in a USB digital camera and Windows XP will access the memory card and transfer the photos to your hard drive without so much as a sniff of a driver CD. This is Plug and Play in the sense that Apple uses it, and so long as the manufacturer of a device works to a universal driver model then it will work first time, every time.
Well, that’s the theory anyway but I watched Apple suffer a kick in the teeth during the launch of OS X when Plug and Play failed to work in front of an audience of IT journos. Oddly the Apple journos weren’t in the slightest bit fussed while the PC mob let out howls of protest and at least one called out ‘Oi, hang on, that didn’t work’.
Apple glossed over the snag and went on to show its wireless Airport technology utterly fail to create a network connection despite a signal strength that was off the top of the scale, which was quite amusing as it was a Monday morning and this is the sort of thing that perks my week up no end.
So what I’m looking for is a combination of Windows XP and Apple OS X that delivers the best of both Operating Systems, and possibly this is what I’ll get in Windows Longhorn at the end of 2006. In the meantime I’ll continue to be frustrated by the ways of Windows, and it won’t improve my mood one little bit if you point out that I should consider a switch to Apple’s new OS X Tiger. You may be right but keep it to yourself please.
