I Hate Windows

Why do I hate Windows? Let me count the reasons...

First, you gotta consider my background. My tech education is in Computer Science (CS). Information Technology (IT) wasn't yet recognized as a higher education track. Both CS and IT are current higher ed tracks, each with their own focus. I'll dive into each at one point in greater detail.

For now, from 30,000 feet: CS focuses on understanding algorithms and data structures, software engineering including designing, testing and developing software systems, and computer architecture - understanding how hardware functions and developing code to utilize those hardware functions. IT is the use of those computer systems to create, process, store and exchange electronic data.

CS creates. IT uses what has already been created. An argument can be made that today's green 'programmers' are just IT guys that may or may not be able to add 2 + 2 and have never heard of the "multiplication tables", many of whom think COBOL and FORTRAN are dwarf planets. Shit, they probably can't even write in cursive. Sorry, not sorry.

Folks on the CS track study mathematics, logic, engineering and sprinkle in more than a little bit of creativity. There was a day, not long ago, that I HATED being referred to as 'the IT guy'. I never really got used to it, but had to accept it. After all, the job titles I've held since leaving the military have included IT Tech, IT Manager, and IT Engineer. But, at heart, I'm a "CS Guy". And Don't You Forget It!

One final disclaimer: remember that I am old coder that cut his teeth in the early 80's (yes boys 1980's). Programming language, methods and process then were very different. Hardware was very different. I was in the USAF, a pretty-well funded think tank in the day. So my perspective is a bit different than other coders of the era. We 'made things do shit it wasn't meant to do' before we figured out how to provide new instructions. We walked up-hill. Both ways. What, you ask, could the USAF be using some of the smartest young minds in the US to explore, develop and deploy during the late Cold War period? And what was this handsome, young GI doing based in Berlin, Germany five years before the wall came down and one year after? Well, my friend, that is a whole other story...some of which, I still can't tell.

But, let's get back on track. Why do I hate Windows?

• Windows has just always gotten in my way.
• Windows doesn't play well with others.
• Windows is, and always has been, a resource hog.
• While I truly hate myself for using a phrase coined by Barack Obama, all windows ever was is 'lipstick on a pig'. (To be clear, the President wasn't slamming Microsoft. I think he was talking about a republican budget proposal, or something. But the description is an apt one for Windows.) Note that a pig is not a bad thing, actually, it's totally necessary. I mean shit; ham, bacon sausage. How would poultry haters like me survive? The poor cow can only give so much! It's just that lipstick and pigs don't belong together; certainly not the way Microsoft does it.
  • The pig here is the Operating System (OS); further, the Disk Operating System (DOS), specifically MS DOS (MS for Microsoft, in case you didn't catch it)
  • The lipstick is Windows.
• Windows thinks it's the operating system. It is not! Windows IS NOT an OS, it is a front end! And should, by God, behave itself as such! However, it does not.
• People (Users) 'interface' with the Personal Computer (PC) via a User Interface (UI). Some folk that have been around the block a time or two call the UI the "Front End".
• Windows is not an operating system. Did I say that already? Well, it's important; maybe you should write it down. In it's position as the 'front end', it shouldn't and needn't take and retain control over all the systems resources. Be a good UI and use what you need, and then GIVE IT BACK to the OS so other operations can use what they need, which they will then (unless owned by Microsoft), happily release the resources back to the OS. "Why can't we all just get along?" Feel like I've been asking that my whole life.