Stuff that doesn’t make it to my Windows machines
March 6, 2009Stuff that doesn’t make it to my Windows machines (or that shouldn’t be there):
Anything Apple-related, like Quicktime, iTunes, Safari. Apple installs unwanted software along with them (iPod services, iPhone services, updaters) that I did not give them permission for installing. In addition, Apple’s Windows software is horrible.
OpenOffice.org. The only reason I use OOo is because there’s no decent alternative on Linux. Preferably, I’d personally light the fire in which we burn OOo. What a horrible office suite.
Internet Explorer. Apart form the standards issue, this browser has the world’s worst interface. Seriously, I don’t understand how any programmer or designer can look at IE’s interface and say “Yeah, this looks pretty good”. Please, take it ’round back and take it out of its misery.
Any IM application other than Miranda IM. Miranda is how IM should be: barely uses any system resources, extremely fast, very configurable, and most importantly: completely unobtrusive. It’s probably a little too feature-packed for most ordinary users, though.
Any third-party driver/hardware configuration tool, such as those that come with wireless dongles, printers, or scanners. They have horrid interfaces, interfere with Windows Vista/7’s capable and well-designed default tools, and suck up system resources for no apparent reason.
Virus scanners. UAC+WinPatrol+anti-spyware application, all you need.
Opera. I can’t say it’s a “browser” with a straight face. Classic case of biting off more than you can chew. Opera, ditch all the useless crap, and just release a browser for once. Oh, and stop your pathetic whining to the EU about IE. Even without IE being bundled Firefox, Chrome, and Safari would still be better than you.
Just a selection.
I hate Miranda. One of the worst consumer app designs ever.
Comment by Eugenia — March 7, 2009 @ 12:41 am
Office 2007 has a horrible UI too. As a matter of fact OOo 3.0 is superior to O2007 in its interface - at least I don’t have to switch the toolbar modes in OOo on practically every other insert of an equation (insert the equation, then center it when everything else is flush left (and right justified) , then insert a caption and write some text that uses a cross reference to the caption. The number of keyboard clicks for that is awful and breaks my train of thought practically everytime.
Comment by rinkevichjm — March 7, 2009 @ 7:14 am
I’ve this week purchased a 3G enabled netbook, the first additional XP licence I’ve had since 2001.
Very much like you, there are things that are simply not allowed on this computer, so that it will operate at it’s best.
Here’s how I have it setup:
- Boots to wireless connected and disk idle in exactly 30 seconds
- 124 MB used on boot, 18 processes. No pagefile.
- No Adobe software of *any* kind. No Flash player - I’m putting my money where my mouth is
- Again, no Apple software
- No Antivirus. With no Flash, and Firefox using NoScript / AdBlock, and customised XP security settings nothing should walk in, the rest is just being careful and I already do that
Comment by Kroc Camen — March 7, 2009 @ 12:13 pm
“UAC+WinPatrol+anti-spyware application”
Which anti-spyware app do you use?
Comment by Laura — March 8, 2009 @ 12:17 am