Why Windows is so Expensive: Vista

As a continuation of the post Why windows is so expensive, let me tell you about two problems I had with Windows Vista this week. Let me first say that I personally do not use Vista, even though I have a free copy of Vista because I am a developer. I mostly run suse, but I do know my way around a windows box.

In the last week, I have had two friends come to me with problems which they could not solve.

The first problem was with networking: Vista and XP weren't playing nice with eachother. File and Internet Sharing doesn't seem to do anything when you enable it. The solution to the problem was nasty, to say the least. It involved updating and changing software on both computers, hacking registry values, and opening a few crucial ports between the machines. The part about this that confuses me is that both XP and Vista were written by the same company! I could understand if there were problems between two different operating systems, written by two different companies; Microsoft has access to Windows XP, right? If I were trying to sell software that was supposed to be able to share files with XP, and you bought it, and it didn't work, would you keep it? I would return the software and demand a refund. It's like buying an edible rock from a street-salesman who mysteriously vanishes and leaves you wishing you could regain your $200.

The inability to install firefox. Do you think....do you think that Microsoft did this on purpose? Well, the solution involved deleting files, ending processes, and clicking that stupid continue confirmation box like 50 times. It was fun in the same way that slamming your face into a cement wall is fun. I've done them both, but I only did one of them on purpose. Can you guess which?

As a sidenote, I do have a dual boot system for those few things that you can only do on Windows - sigh - like a few select video games. For some reason, when I boot windows, it comes up with an error message entitled "error": "The selected action could not be performed." There is no error number, no clue as to which dll or executable blew it this time, just the vague error message. And then, the dubious OK button. I don't think it's OK, and so I don't want to click it, but the X in the corner is grayed out, so windows forces me to conform to its aberrancy every time I run it.

I used to try to remember how to fix all my windows wtfs, and then I learned that masterful solution, the end-all to all Windows problems: insert the Suse disk and seek nirvana.