Why do IT people really bash Windows?
By Angsuman Chakraborty, Gaea News NetworkThursday, July 21, 2005
Angus McLaren at TechRepublic writes cluelessly:
Anyone who claims to hate Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS or any other operating system is not a true techie or network guru. You don’t ever bash the OS, in fact if the OS crashes then it’s your fault not the OS; Why didn’t you make sure that it was using the right drivers, or the hardware is compatible or blah this and blah that, and so the list goes. Any OS crashes for a reason, not because it just feels like it. Compatability is there for a very good reason, why support something that is old when you need to keep moving forwards. Example, all leaded petrol car owners here in Australia can no longer purchase leaded petrol, they are forced now to use unleaded and an additive. Why? Because those cars are so old and they are few and far between now because unleaded cars are cheap enough to buy second hand as your first car. Get my point there?
I strongly disagree.
First only does Windows known to crash for installing bad drivers or incompatible software but also due to problems entirely of their own like memory leaking or resource conflict between their own approved software.
Secondly if an operating system is targeted only for the techies then much of the problem can be resolved. However windows is targeted for common man (or woman). It is impossible for him to know every intricate details of what makes OS crash like IRQ conflict or device driver issues. In fact most of the techies also know little about them. It is the responsibility of the Operating System to be robust enough to gracefully recover from such errors.
It is the responsibility of the Operating System to isolate user installed drivers etc. in a separate execution space or sub-system to prevent them from crashing the entire system.
Why does Solaris never crash? It knows how to recover from various error condition gracefully. That is how we define robustness. Get it Mr. McLaren?
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July 27, 2009: 4:20 pm
First, you state: You follow this with: Is that not a contradictory set of phrases, or is it common sense what the problem is when your screen goes pure blue and says there’s an error at address 0×0F0FF039E? |
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July 27, 2009: 3:56 pm
The reason that people “bash” Windows so much, is because of it’s lack of standardization. Aside from it crashing all of the time for silly reasons, it is also a poorly planned system. Even in Windows 7, they suggest that they’ve made it more user-friendly - but different applications that ship WITH THE OS have completely different interfaces? How is that user friendly? For instance, open Windows Explorer in Windows 7 by pressing . You’ll notice that the menu bar is gone. Press alt, and it magically appears. How is completely hiding menus from anyone who doesn’t know about some esoteric keyboard command good graphical user interface design? Oh, that’s right. It’s not. People who bash about Windows are usually people that have realized the benefits of using a good operating system, and have since been forced into using it. Believe me, it’s worth complaining about. With as much development power they’ve got, I don’t see how they’ve got such poor software. It’s that simple. The only thing more confusing that that - is how users can actually get in a position where defending Windows seems logical. Way to go on that one. |
 Mark |
November 12, 2007: 11:11 pm
Well, here\’s another spin. I have just spent hundreds of hours trying to diagnose why my Windows XP Pro based computer keeps crashing. Tonight, I hopefully found the reason. It appears that I never installed the WGA plugin for Firefox. I never knew it existed. Since about July 24 when a Windows update was released, KB938828, my computer has gone through continual meltdowns. I have done repair installs 20 or 30 times. I did a complete reinstall, but every time I allowed all of the critical updates to load, I suddenly had complete lockups. This was especially true with my modem and voice/fax drivers. Well tonight, I decided to read the information related to every update. Bingo! This update was released July 24. I had to perform a complete reinstall on July 25. So, I set up a restore point and downloaded the update directly from Micorsoft. All of a sudden it pops up and tells me I have to install a WGA plugin for Firefox. I did so, installed the update, and the system now appears stable. If I could afford the time, then I would test it more. However, this is looking like a real Microsoft controlling everything issue. I would change to Linux in a heartbeat if I didn\’t require Windows for my accounting and scheduling. This is starting to look like the situations years ago when WordPerfect and other competing programs began crashing ad nauseum until an antitrust suit was filed and Microsoft suddenly came out with a library upgrade that eliminated the problems, and when programs began crashing left and right with Windows 98 SE when XP wasn\’t selling to their expectations. Are my problems due to the fact that Vista has some real problems and many are upgrading to XP to have their computers function? Right now, I wish I could send Bill a bill. I paid for a functional operating system. No matter what their license says, it should be just that. |
 Marti |
August 4, 2005: 7:11 am
“Any operating system can crash from a buggy driver.” |
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July 22, 2005: 6:10 pm
I fail to see your point. Any operating system can crash from a buggy driver. This is not a quality unique to Windows. Troubleshooting a kernel panic under Linux is no less confusing thatn troubleshooting a BSOD under Windows. |
Brandon