nwcmptr.exe

Whoa. I just noticed that there's a tab in the Blogger interface called "Monetize". Interesting. It's spring again. That means most of my brain melts and pours out my nose. Actually, that would be nice. Instead it makes itself comfortable in my sinuses, eking out a living as super-thick nose jello. I can't wait till spring is over.

So I've been playing around with netbooks. I like them because they are small and they are relatively cheap. The Boss gave me permission to get one because

1. I told her that I'd use it for work.
2. It would give us two computers to work on but still allow us to keep one main computer.
3. It wasn't that expensive.

So it's been a while since I've been on a Windows computer. The last time I was on a Windows computer for a significant amount of time, I was rooming with another guy, Notorious BIG was killed, email was still fun, and I wore a pumpkin to one of my math classes. It is amazing, then, how much on Windows hasn't changed. The graphics are a little snazzier than Windows 95, but all of the confusion, obfuscation, and frustration are still there. But let's start with what I like!

1. I like that even though it's pretty confusing, Windows XP is pretty customizable. I was able to remove all of things from the Start menu that I didn't need or want, and I was able to customize (for the most part) a lot of the UI. But this was pretty hard to do.

2. I like that I can use Google Chrome. It's a pretty awesome browser; fast, clean, and fun to use.

And that's about it. On the hardware side, I like that my ASUS 1000HE is small and light; it's really easy to carry. It's got a pretty good keyboard for it's size. It's got really good battery life (about 7 hours of normal use). And it's cheap!

And I really think that's the big selling point for Windows. It's cheap. Most people I know that use Windows have pointed to the cost as a significant characteristic for them in decision making. And a lot of the issues that I have with Windows aren't an issue for them. Things like how the system tray is cluttered with things that I don't need. I mean, do I really need an icon telling me everytime I use a trackpad? Or how, when I try to figure out what startup items I can delete, I get names like ImScInst.exe. 

To be fair, things on the Mac or Linux side can get like that too. But, at least for the Mac side, most applications are self contained. They don't have a hundred different files in different parts of the system. When you want to delete a program, you just delete it. And the name of the program is something reasonable. Like Microsoft Entourage. As opposed to msimn.exe.

There are very few apps on the Windows side that make me think: Wow, they took a lot of time to get it right...and it does a bunch of cool things. The apps that I have seen that I think are relatively well done fall into two categories: Microsoft apps and games. Most Windows apps look ugly and aren't fun (this is admittedly subjective). And I think this says a lot about the development culture related to the two platforms.

So I guess the big question is "Well if you hate it that much, why did you spend $400 on it?" Well, because it was cheap!