On Windows 7

So my beautiful and charming bride took advantage of a Best Buy promo: HP Netbook, Laptop, PC, Netgear G-Band router, and Geek Squad install, for $1199. She now has a new laptop AND the new netbook (her dad got the new PC part of it, as well as the new router). All this sounded like a good idea at the time.

My opinion of the netbook is simple: it’s a cute little doorstop. I have textbooks bigger than this. For what it’ll be used for, it’s just fine. And if I’m playing softball and need something to be the first base, we can always use the netbook.

The other units themselves are okay enough, but after having spent the better part of my free time this last two weeks trying to fix the goofs with Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 I am, shall we say, less than impressed. I can see that Windows 7 is better than Vista.

That’s not saying much!

And IE8 is worse than worthless. Of course, since IE8 is built into Windows 7, I don’t really want to try and remove it. Which means I finally had to install Safari on her dad’s computer, as his IE8 crashed more than it ran. Installed Safari, made it the default browser, loaded Adobe Reader, Java, Shockwave, Quicktime, and Flash on it, then took away the IE8 icons from his desktop.

The other major issue is that Deena’s laptop is refusing to print. I have had to delete, then reinstall Bonjour for Windows far too many times (I have an AirPort Express connected to the Printer) so she can print. And even at that, so far I’ve only been successful enough to get two thirds of a page to print before the printer gets fouled up.

This is easy? This is the great Windows upgrade, with “none of the problems that Vista had.” Yeah, right.

Give me a break!

There’s an ad with a four and a half year old child playing with Windows 7. Maybe that’s what I need: a four and a half year old child, because if this is all great and wonderful, I’m just not getting it. The cute child had some “pretty words” for Windows 7. I’m not as cute, and have a few choice words of my own right now--none of which are reprintable, much less fit to say in front of that small child.

Now I admit I like my Mac--that’s a blog that’ll be out soon. Stuff just works with it, and I like that. However, I went into this Windows 7 thing with an open mind. I wanted to believe that this was going to be a better experience. But as I said before, I’m less than impressed. If this was the Windows that was supposed to make me want to come “back to the fold”, it has failed wildly.

So if you’re reading this, and you decide to “upgrade”, save yourself before it’s too late.

Enough for now.