Vista's a stinka

I own two (legit!) copies of Windows Vista. One I bought shortly after the launch, because I needed to ensure that people could use my partitioning program, Partition Logic, without destroying their computers [a-ok]. I installed that one 'within' my Linux machine using the VmWare emulator. Being generally unimpressed, I eventually deleted it.

Then another copy of Vista arrived through the post, as promised, a free 'upgrade' for my new laptop. I stashed that in a drawer somewhere, and haven't given the sparkly new Windows product much thought since then.

Until last night, that is, when I had to try and use the Vista that's installed on Kim's work laptop. She has complained bitterly about it, and asked the IT guy at work to install XP. In the meantime, someone had turned off DHCP in her Vista network settings, and I wanted to re-enable it so she could connect to our home network.

I'm a computer geek, and I seriously got lost trying to find that one magical dialog box with a 'use DHCP' checkbox. I went through layer upon layer, cycling back around to where I started at least a couple of times. Some dialogs showed the setting I was interested in, but wouldn't let me change anything. I had to click through at least a dozen security warnings. Eventually, I stumbled my way through the maze and made the change, but I couldn't tell you how I found it. If I had to do it again tonight, I'd probably end up chasing my tail once again.

That's just shoddy. Listen, XP is fine, right? I mean, if you have to use Windows... Microsoft has promised another new operating system in a few years, so why not wait and see whether it's an actual improvement? In the meantime, if you wanted to try something new, you could always try Linux, or get a Mac.