Do you remember those old Star Trek TV shows? Communicators, Teleportation (Beam me up Scottie) and Talking computers, instantly answering your commands. Well here we are in the 21st century and we have is the communicators, or mobile phones as we prefer to call them; Teleportation is now referred to Aviation Fuel Surcharge, and well as for the instant response talking computers, it is more like click on the program you want to run and wait… and wait… and wait… and hope!
OK, Windows 7 is a lot better than most expected, but why do we have to have a heavy OS loading up every possible service available when all you want to do is check your emails? Time will only tell if Windows 7 will be the saviour of Microsoft, or if like Vista, just another Windows ME or Windows 2000 blunder. However, given the fact we all have a need for speed, and the PCs are getting faster and faster, with better resources, it still looks like lazy programming is causing the brakes to be put on at the core OS level.
Windows Vista took around 12Gb to install, Widows 7 is around 5Gb but I am sure that most of what it loads is not really needed 70% of the time.
We all dream of having a computer that does exactly what we want, when we want it to, fast and without fuss but, we still have to wait for the computer to respond. I remember Captain Jean-Luke Picard saying “Computer, run program” and the computer answering him straight back, “Program complete, enter when ready”. But sat in front of your computer today, it’s still click on the program you want, go and make a cup of coffee, come back and click on ‘No I don’t want to send a report to Microsoft, and try the whole process again. Even if you are brave enough to check out the error code, mostly you will find out that even Microsoft doesn’t know what has happened. If that program fails to run most of the time, the normal result is to reload your PC again, corrupted Windows OS being the fault!
In my early days of programming, I used object orientated programming, only loading what I needed to run a task or complete a job. Each and every phase was quick, and even when run over a vast, slow and aging network, on a thin-client, did what it said on the tin! That was 20yrs ago, so how come we have taken a step backwards with our OS, and still only have snail pace PCs? Am I expecting too much? I don’t think so, time is money, and if I can type faster than the PC, well it’s the PCs fault not mine! When I first started with computers I could barely type, now I do 80 words a minute, and often I see even the fastest computer putting up the letters seconds after I have typed them. Fussy graphics don’t help either, bits f screwed up paper flying digitally across screen as I bin something I no longer need.
In fairness it is not all Microsoft’s fault, as it seems also that everyone out there want to have there own file type, why? I can understand it IF, this new type is better than what we had before, but mostly it isn’t. You need codec for this, codec for that, DivX, Real Player, Flash, yada, yada yada… To name but a few, and just load one add-on/plug-ins too many to your PC and, low and behold, something else will stop working, and you have guessed it, yep, another reload because the uninstall program won’t clear out everything it put in on the install or System Restore failed to go back to an earlier time, and I won’t even mention all the links, malware and other crap some software vendors include in there distro.
So with Computers getting faster, why slow it down with all these add-ons/ins and Plug-ins? Are we all so vain to thing our way is the best way? Yeah, I could invent a new file format, but why? If there is an industry standard file type, compatible backward, forwards and cross platform, why invent another? Well probably because there isn’t such a file type, hence all these file types floating around!
So come on guys, its time to pool resources, centralise, and create an industry standard for ALL file types, like with PDF, one file type for video, music, text processing and so on. If we have to integrate interculturally within our lives, accepting people from other cultures and parts of the world as our neighbours, software providers must make this same adaptation! Yes one corporation owns the .doc file type however, it should be used freely as the standard file type for all other text editors. Intellectual copyright withstanding, the .doc file type has been out in the public and work domains so long now, it is now really owned by us all, the computer users not just Microsoft.
Yes over priced software has forced this deluge of file types, but that is slowly being resolved, and in time will correct itself. I have found at home, using Linux is the best solution, open-source software all the way, and I haven’t paid a penny to Bill Gates, from a personal standpoint, in years. Plus I don’t need loads of add-ons, as most are already included in Linux and work very well and a very small OS compared to Windows. So if Microsoft wants to remain the leaders, they are going to have to learn from Linux, and start addressing the cost side of Microsoft software ownership and share freely the file type protocols, if not Linux will take over in the work place and at home.
I hope by the time I give up IT and fussing around with computers, we have an OS that does what it says on the box, it runs smoothly, and plays anything we get given, download or watch on line, no need for codec, add-on or add-ins and no need for multiple programs, all doing roughly the same things, only differently.
Beam me up Scottie!
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Posted on December 21, 2009 by Pj
Genuinely interesting article. Like Captain Allen here, I was one of those old pioneers who worked on a huge behmoth the size of a house with just 16k of memory on it that could multi-program and produce umpteen things at once. I started working on PC’s when the first IBM’s were rolled out back in the ’80’s although, unlike the Blogger, could never muster up sufficent interest to figure out what the OS was doing and why beyond fire-fighting and trying to get it to work (Might be why I’ve not worked for over 9 months too!). In a way I’m probably one of those lemmings (and what a game that was!) who has allowed MS to get where it is now. I’ve never used Linux and the reason is simple; the clients who I’ve contracted for have never used it either. I don’t doubt it’s better but I am old enough to remember Betamax was supposed to be better than VHS. I don’t hold out much hope of things improving but I do find I can almost sniff out what a new version of Windows is going to be like almost within days of its release. Personally, I’m of the opinion that when we do develop Teleportation, it’s likely that when you get beamed up, you are likely to find yourself in several parts of the room with a message ‘An error has occured: do you want ship your body parts to Microsoft?’