Socially|Mundane

Classified under "Socially Embarrassing (for Microsoft, as usual)"

When Microsoft unleashed Windows Vista, they were doing the typical Microsoft: unleashing a pile of crap onto the population at large. However, after a butt-load of patches and updates and service pack, Microsoft Windows Vista is:

Still a piece of crappola.

I say "a year" because that's how long (almost) I have tortured myself using it. It was last December when I decided to make the plunge in buying a new Intel PC. I knew I wanted a machine that was fully capable... nay, optimized to properly run Windows Vista. I had never used or really seen it before, but I also know how Microsoft bullshits the public about the 'minimum requirements' routine. Yeah, right.

After some shopping around, I finally found the perfect 'screamin-demon' from Velocity Micro. It came with Windows Vista "Home Premium", (as opposed to what? For Christ's sakes, Microsoft, what's with the fukin' thousand and one choices for a damned operating system?)

The first thing I noticed was how Microsoft changed the interface. Again.

Okay, note to Microsoft: stop changing the goddammed interface. Stop trying to appease so-called 'new users'. The fact of the matter is Windows is the prevalent OS, (even though OX-X is a lot more pleasurable to use and considerably faster and more stable - is statistically gaining market share while Windows loses it to OS-X and Linux,) so that means as screwed-up as the interface might be, everyone already knows how to use it. As for the new computer buyers, well, they (gasp) grew-up using and learning that screwed-up interface.

So, Microsoft, when you go around changing it, you screw-up everyone.

But alas, a different interface is shiny and new. So it compels people to overspend their hard-earned buck to upgrade, not knowing what a pile of crap they're jumping into. I understand boxed upgrades to Vista are abysmal. That the main adoption of Windows Vista is through attrition: new computer sales - and even then the wise buyers are still asking for XP.

The next thing I noticed about Windows Vista was that the funky 'new' graphics engine is compatible with about 10% of my software. Even Photoshop was acting screwy in certain aspects. So I spend a good 30-minutes figuring how to turn that crap off (and I am, and have been an I.T. professional since 1992.) When I did that, suddenly things worked as they should. All those shareware applications that say they don't work all the great on Vista and need to be upgraded? - Pffft. Turn off that eye-candy, serves-no-purpose graphics engine and they'll suddenly work.

So along I chug. Learning the interface (which is absolutely horrid in my opinion.) Screaming along on a kick-ass Vista machine. One does not need much power to word-process or do what most people do on computers. Unless you are into the graphic-intensive gaming. This is why I purchased a "gaming" machine.

I still do all my video and photo-editing and real work on my MacBook Pro. It's simply far better suited to any kind of pleasurable experience than any version of Windows ever will be. So the PC is basically a 'gaming' machine. The primary entertainment: Microsoft Flight Simulator X and Second Life. They totally F*cked-up Flight Simulator, too. Century of Flight (the previous version) is definitely way better.

But, I digress.

FSX operated pretty well. Averaging about 20 frames per second in some instances which is fine. Second Life hums along sweetly. The graphics are stunning and I average between 20 to 30 FPS pretty much everywhere. The only issue is the memory leaks I seem to get is I sit in once place too long. But overall, the Velocity Micro machine I have works as advertised.

So here it is almost a year later. For some reason, my sound driver broke. I started to goof with it, downloading the latest drivers and all that nonsense.

Okay, Macintosh users: skip over this part because these events and tasks are totally alien to you because the need to accomplish these tasks is totally unheard-of in your world.

I figure out the manufacturer name of the audio device and which chip-set it uses. I hunt down the appropriate web-site -- (that was a good 30-minutes all by itself) -- and proceed to do all the things Windows PC users are simply required to do to make things work.

Fail.

So I decide 'meh... it's time to rebuild the machine anyway'. It's overdue as I usually rebuild every three-months anyway, (Windows really does need that, you know.) As I'm holding the Windows Vista CD that came with the system, I happen to glance over at the Windows XP disc I have sitting there in my back-up CD stack.

It was an epiphany.

I decide to bail on Vista and throw XP onto the system. A system optimized for Windows Vista. An absolutely kick-ass gaming machine.

XP installed flawlessly. Except, it didn't see the network. Or have any sound. And the video defaulted to that stupid VGS mode. Typical stupid Intel PC.

So I dig-up the network card and sound drivers: install.

Network is hot - at twice the bandwidth!?! Was Vista throttling my bandwidth? I really don't know and choose not to linger on that subject.

I go to the nVidia site to grab the latest video drivers.
Installed sweetly.

Then... oh wait, what happened to my sound?
I reinstall the networking/sound drivers

The network stops working and the sound still isn't there.

Hit system restore point: Network back-up. Hit Windows Update. Spend literally 3-hours downloading and installing Windows XP updates, patches and service packs. All set. Reinstall only the latest sound driver.

We have sound.

Download and install the current Second Life viewer.
Double-click to run the viewer.
Hold breath.

screw-me where the sun-don'tshine, Batman!

Windows XP blazes faster than I have ever seen anything from Microsoft blaze before. And in my year of using Winblows Vista, I've lost perspective on several things about the difference between XP and Vista - other than the screwed-up interface Microsoft put onto it.

They force crap down our throats and unleash genuine pieces of crap on the population of the world at large. Vista is the buggiest piece of garbage to come from Microsoft since Windows Millennium Edition, but don't get me started on that turd. It took another look at XP immediately after using Vista for so long to see it.

Hell, it slapped me in the face and it stung hard.

One of the most annoying bugs in Vista for me is the 'file-selection-shift' bug. At least, that's what I call it.

The average size of files I work with is about 2 to 6 gigabytes. Because of this, I receive a lot of files in 'segmented' or 'split' format. After joining the split files to recreate the one large file (which usually appears in the file list directly above the first split file, shifting them down by one) - I simply shift-click the last of the split files to select them all. Hit the delete key to dump them as I now have the reassembled full file.

Dumbass bug still exists in Vista after all these patches and even service packs: the first file that was selected is no longer selected, the same position of the selection remains - which is now the reassembled final file.

What does this mean?

I shift-click the last segmented file and all the files between the first and last clicks are selected. This incorrectly includes the new reassembled file. Hit delete and go back and...

Where the hell is my new reassembled file? Dumbass stupid-crap dickwad Microsoft idiots.

Oh, and why the hell does it take 3-minutes to delete 5-GB of files in Vista? That ugly progress bar (a.k.a. 'thermometer') just sits there bouncing around like a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica while these files are 'moved' to the trash. Then when you go to empty the trash - the same goddamned thing all over again.

But in Windows XP... that dangerous file-selection bug doesn't exist. (it never did) and when I select 10-gigabytes of files and hit the delete key... instantaneously gone. Faster than the blink of an eye.

I've always known that Windows Vista is a resource pig. But after dropping back to Windows XP... holy smackers! It's like going from a bicycle to the a 1500cc crotch-rocket street bike. XP feels like a lean, mean fighting machine in comparison.

So, I fire up Second Life and...and...

Wow.

I am averaging 45 frames per second. It's like watching a movie. Perfectly smooth camera movement and animation and the best part is: I have graphic preferences maximized: every single slider is full to the right. View distance is 512. Avatar impostors are off. Water effects to full. Screen size set to full HD: 1920 x 1440 - cinematic widescreen splendor.

Stunning.

Second Life screams on my machine like some old retro PC game you dig off the shelf after ten years that was written to run respectably on hardware ten years ago.

Thus, want your Second Life experience to utterly wow you? Dump the piece of filth called Windows Vista off your machine and replace it with Windows XP. How, you say? Check eBay and other places for people selling their old copies. They can be found.

If your machine runs Vista respectably, dropping XP in it's place will have you believing your computer is a cutting-edge, top-of-the-line gaming machine built for blazing speed. You'll have to pick your jaw up off the floor.

No shit.

If you simply can't get Microsoft Windows XP anywhere, no matter how hard you look, you can always step-up to a decent Macintosh (no, not the new sub-$800 notebook or the Mac Mini.) But I figure many of you won't. Which is why I suggest the next best thing: Windows XP in place of Windows Vista.

Go ahead, give your Windows XP a second Life and your Second Life will wow you.

Yes, yes, of course this is all my own opinion.
But I'm not the only one who has seen the light and realized just what a piece of garbage Microsoft Windows Vista really is.