Shall we try again?
A couple of days ago, someone asked me why I had stopped blogging. the truth is that posting difficulties got too much on my nerves. I'm going to try again because there are things that I would like to comment on from time to time. In fact, just now I found something else that grinds my gears: Windows Vista.
Microsoft has always said that they don't care who has the code for their OS because they know that software works better with their products if it is built by Microsoft. But the truth was that many things produced by others worked better. So, rather than take the bullet and admit that healthy competition forces companies to produce things that work better, they release Windows Vista. In this new OS most non-Microsoft software doesn't work at all and that which does work has flaws. My research means that I have to read a lot of PDF files. I've always used Adobe Acrobat Reader (like most people who have had to read PDF's) and have always been completely happy with it. I recently got a wonderful, shiny new laptop from my darling wife as a birthday gift because my old Toshiba died. While I like this computer quite a lot - beautiful graphics, quick processor, light weight and all, it's got Vista. Acrobat works, but the text is in a font that is hard to read except at high (125%) magnification. Vista comes with the new Microsoft PDF reading program PDF Complete. This program demonstrates that developers do not always use the programs they are designing. It is obvious as soon as one starts trying to scroll around or use any of the functions that one has grown used to in Acrobat (a free software) that none of Microsoft's developers have ever used Acrobat. So, do I take advantage of the fun things one can do with Acrobat and sacrifice my vision and get headaches trying to read the distorted text? Or, do I sacrifice all of the convenience of Acrobat to have better vision and not as much of a headache?
Although there are some good features in Vista, I think that it was a major step backward for Microsoft.
Microsoft has always said that they don't care who has the code for their OS because they know that software works better with their products if it is built by Microsoft. But the truth was that many things produced by others worked better. So, rather than take the bullet and admit that healthy competition forces companies to produce things that work better, they release Windows Vista. In this new OS most non-Microsoft software doesn't work at all and that which does work has flaws. My research means that I have to read a lot of PDF files. I've always used Adobe Acrobat Reader (like most people who have had to read PDF's) and have always been completely happy with it. I recently got a wonderful, shiny new laptop from my darling wife as a birthday gift because my old Toshiba died. While I like this computer quite a lot - beautiful graphics, quick processor, light weight and all, it's got Vista. Acrobat works, but the text is in a font that is hard to read except at high (125%) magnification. Vista comes with the new Microsoft PDF reading program PDF Complete. This program demonstrates that developers do not always use the programs they are designing. It is obvious as soon as one starts trying to scroll around or use any of the functions that one has grown used to in Acrobat (a free software) that none of Microsoft's developers have ever used Acrobat. So, do I take advantage of the fun things one can do with Acrobat and sacrifice my vision and get headaches trying to read the distorted text? Or, do I sacrifice all of the convenience of Acrobat to have better vision and not as much of a headache?
Although there are some good features in Vista, I think that it was a major step backward for Microsoft.
posted by Our Hero, at 11:27 AM
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