This is a random rant, not anything important. If your time is precious, you should probably move on to something more important.
As of today I have officially sold more Windows XP machines than Windows 10 machines so far this week. That is sad. I am having more and more customers come in wanting an old Windows XP machine to run old software on, swearing they're not going to connect it to the Internet, usually just to run old games. Each and every one of them expresses a deep loathing for Windows 10, which I wholeheartedly share. It seems each update takes more control away from the person who actually paid for the computer and gives more control to Microsoft.
I certainly hope some company pounces on this and makes a real alternative to Windows, because Linux will never be that. Don't get me wrong, Linux is an awesome operating system. But it is not, nor will it every be "ready for prime-time", like the Linux nuts have been claiming for over a decade, maybe two. Why? Because command line. Everything in Linux, and I mean EVERY DAMNED THING, is command line. Even if you use your happy little GUI interface to extract a file all it does is run a hundred mile long command line utility for you so you don't see it. Yes, it's powerful...IF you're a geek. Otherwise it's useless-complicated, counter-intuitive and just plain unusable. Telling the end user they should be using Linux is like telling a driver he should be driving a tank so that he's safer in an accident. Yes, it is a sound argument. It's just not a realistic argument. Nor is it realistic to think that Linux will EVER be a real contender as an OS for the common man so long as it's designed by geeks, for geeks, who, let's face it, are often smug about their skills and apathetic to the plight of those who don't share them.
The industry should have seen this coming. Microsoft has ALWAYS wrested control away from the user. I remember in the Windows 98 days some registry setting to shut off the Recycle Bin or Recent Files or something. Then there was an update where Microsoft checked for that registry setting and changed it back if you had made it because that is not how Microsoft wanted your computer to run. And I remember Vista. When a user said, "I don't like Windows Vista" the Microsoft response was, "Yes you do! It's better!" Until it hit them in the pocketbook, that is. And now we have to pay an excessive amount for an OS AND put up with ads within that OS AND allow Microsoft do decide what happens and when, what information they will take (not that you will give, but that they will take) and, what the hell, Microsoft isn't paying the bill, so if you're on a metered Internet service it's just your problem if you get huge bills because whether you want that ridiculously-sized update or not, Microsoft is shoving it up your a$$. I know that no computer tech has ever said this before, but I hate Microsoft. End rant.
