Restarting (Again!)
Computers have, as you probably know, become a big part of our everyday lives. Those reading this who are younger than 30 may not realize that it hasn’t been this way for very long. Microsoft has been a big part of the personal computer industry since the early 1980s and continues to dominate the desktop.
I’m not a fan.
I’d be happy if we didn’t have to have any Microsoft products in the house. Unfortunately, in order to connect to work, we need to be running some relatively recent MS operating system. So, my main computer dual boots and I can bring up Windows 7 when necessary. I use Win7 at work, as well, so I’m fairly comfortable with it and put up with it’s (many) annoyances because I sort of have to (unless I want to look for another job). Cathy’s machine used to dual boot, as well, but with Windows 7 being the default. Recently we ‘upgraded’ that machine to Windows 8.1.
I suspect that there are a lot of really smart people at Microsoft. Like many really smart people, however, they often don’t seem to have a clue. This evening I had to reinstall the OS on this machine (don’t even ask about why!). It took hours. All the while the screen displayed very ‘helpful’ (i.e., condescending) messages. What annoyed me most, well, after the amount of time it took, was the number of times the system had to restart. This continues to be a huge annoyance with Windows. What’s with that, anyway? I mean, needing a reboot after a new kernel is installed is one thing but it seems with Windows you need to reboot after just about everything. Anyway, while I sat and watched the computer do very little for a long, long time, I took a few pictures of the screen. This is at least the third reboot, but I can’t say I counted very carefully.
P.S. I’m not much of an Apple fan, either.