Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 27th Sep 2005 17:24 UTC, submitted by Linuxfanboy
"I do not consider Windows ready for the desktop. I found it difficult to use, buggy and lacking in security. I also found technical support lacking. While Windows captured a significant portion of the desktop market, the product is clearly not a good fit for consumers who do not understand the risks associated with logging on to the Internet. The costs of providing aftermarket products can run higher than the price paid for the hardware."
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A recent experience gave me a revelation about the "Windows desktop experience" for the common user: it can really suck with a store-bought system. This isn't so much an indictment of XP per se, but more of Compaq and various software vendors. It did show what average users can and do put up with, though.
Personally, I run XP Pro on my own computer which I built myself; I do a clean install and tweak it a lot, and I've also built systems for friends/family. I've pretty much got it down to a science, including security. It runs smooth and stable, setting a fairly high bar for the Linux distros I also use (Ubuntu is my preferred choice).
So anyway, my friend's mother just bought a new Compaq with pretty respectable specs: Sempron 3100+ (socket 754, so K8), 512MB RAM, DVD burner, 100gb drive, Sis mobo with onboard video, but with an open AGP slot. So it's pretty fast and also nearly silent. For the ~$350 or so she paid, it's quite nice.
The problem? Windows starts with 46(!) processes going (my own computer starts with 22, including firewall and AV)! Including some crappy Compaq control center and time limited trials of Norton AV and some commercial anti-spyware program. It takes several *minutes* for the computer to be usable after you first reach the desktop. The desktop is littered with shortcuts to various other trialware pre-installed.
Norton constantly pops up with "Outbreak Alert" dialogs from the systray, with the options "OK" or "Protect Me" given. Live Update isn't activated till you launch Norton's control center (which she hadn't known to do). The AV definitions were from March. Updating Norton completely requires over 40MBs(!) of downloading and two(!) reboots. Plus it expires in 60 days. Can it be uninstalled cleanly should she choose not to buy it? I don't know, but previous experience with Norton makes me skeptical.
Window's automatic updates was on but its download stalled at 70% for some reason, so I went to the Windows Update site manually. It updated the automatic update system and Windows installer, then required a reboot. I then had to revisit the update site to get about 30 updates with another 40 or 50MB worth of downloading. Then another reboot.
I honestly don't know how Compaq's (and presumably HP's, since they merged?) setup compares to say, eMachines/Gateway's or Dell's current one (last time I used a clean factory installed image of a Dell was several years ago--I don't remember it being so bad), but it succeeds at making a very modern machine run like molasses.
It's not fair to say Windows as a whole sucks because of it, but if you look at it as Compaq's "distribution" of Windows, it would be fair to compare its "desktop experience" to that of a default install of a random Linux distro like Ubuntu or Fedora or whatever--and Compaq's does not win by any reasonable measure.