Image from; http://www.designswan.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/windows/window3.jpg
Yes CJ, its story time with Gerry again.
I have had a long, and sometimes frustrating, relationship over the years with Mr. Gates and his main products. I have used, in order, Windows 3.0, 3.1, 95, 98, ME, NT, XP, VISTA, and finally Windows 7. I currently have a work laptop, using Windows XP and Office 2003. Our desktop and home laptop are Windows 7 and Office 2007.
I grew up as a tinkerer. I would look at things trying to figure out how they worked. I always thought my nascent skill to be numbers; apparently I resemble Dustin Hoffman, my wife Nita calls me Rain Man. I am a human calculator. This is probably why my first real foray into the working world was as a teller with the Bank of Montréal.
While I was with the bank, a friend of mine suggested I apply for a job as a copier technician. I thought he was a few spoons short of a full drawer, but applied anyhow. The process was to consist of a mechanical test, an electronic test, and an interview. I had 30 minutes to do the mechanical test, and needed to get 28 out of 36 questions right to be considered for the job. I was done in 20 minutes, and only minutes into the electronic test, I was interrupted by a job offer. You see, I answered 35 of the questions correctly.
In the intervening years, I have used Lotus 123, but moved on to Excel. I am considered the Excel expert at my workplace. I used WordPerfect, liked it, but Word dominates the marketplace. I like Office and its components, and have used quite a few of the satellite programs as well. Once again, dating myself, I have been known to brag that the only computer course I have ever taken was DOS, and I still remember some of the commands.
Over the years, we have had quite a few computers, but our current unit is a Dell we purchased in February 2007, and it arrived with a big surprise, Vista. As I said above, I am a tinkerer, not a geek or nerd. Microsoft over the years has concentrated on putting in code more to control, monitor, and restrict what you do, and less to make it better for you. You see, I was able to install my Windows 95 into 2 computers, and they took this possibility away over the years.
In January 2008, we were moving to Vancouver, and I found I would need a laptop, so I did some research (poorly), and bought a refurbished no-name laptop for personal use. I had, a few months earlier, bought Office Home & Student, and was saying to the dude at the used laptop place that I would have to get another copy of Office. Fortunately, he explained that you usually get 3 licenses with Office, and he was right.
For $150 sometime in 2007, I was able to legally install Office on our desktop, our laptop, and Nita’s Dad’s desktop. This was very cool, and legal, because they all registered on line.
I had been listening to all the hype about Windows 7 and was ambivalent; the same people who were cheering on 7 had done the same for Vista, until after it launched. So I waited for a few months after they launched Windows 7, and went out and bought one. $150; seeing a pricing pattern?
I was hoping it would speed up my own laptop, so I could watch streaming video without the chop/stop effect. No luck. This had annoyed me so much that I had even attempted to downgrade to XP, but since Everex, the remanufacturer, had gone under, I was unable to locate XP drivers for the wireless card and the sound card.
I successfully installed WIN 7 in both my laptop and desktop. After almost a month, I did not see any difference in performance, and I still had my choppy video streaming on the laptop.
But then I received a Christmas gift from Microsoft; my desktop (installed 2nd) has an illegal copy of Windows 7, and I either have to enter a valid product key or purchase an on-line copy Windows 7.
I was actually ready to pay for a 2nd copy of Office, but didn’t have to. I was trapped in Vista for almost 2 years; I should have been recompensed for this, but instead I need to pay for each copy of the OS, which has no visible improvements. Geeks make up less then 5% of the consuming public. If a tinkerer like me can’t discern a difference, then this is a very narrow target market for Windows 7; geeks only? And I’m not even sure they can see a difference.
Sorry folks, but keeping rants internalized can be dangerous to one’s health.
Happy New Year & Cheers!
