I’m a nerd. Everyone who visits here should know that. As such, I tinker with everything I have and usually find its limits sooner or later. This is how I have come to appreciate the .Net framework from Microsoft. Honestly, such unity is awesome. It seems rather large and truly limited for the time being, but Vista should make that non-existant.
But… some older boys have been talking to me (my coworkers) and explaining different problems. It goes along with computer problems… and they all get blamed on Microsoft Windows. Granted, a lot of the problems that plague Windows is the users. This is very true. The problem is that Windows has become too open for users, in my opinion. Honestly, why have we allowed people to get so far from standards? For more creativity!
But, no. That isn’t right. It’s like the web standards project. I am a huge advocate of standards (i’m sorry i’m an ass, everyone, but it’s worth it in the end). As such, I have come to see that the only advantages of allowing for non-compliant creations merely makes people able to make things faster and without as much knowldege. But is that better?
No. Why is it that one web page looks different every time you update or change your browser? If standards are not followed, it is the client’s job to try to understand what the creator meant. In poetry, this is more or less intended. Computers do not execute poems and do not make decisions as such. Standards could fix this. But they don’t. Why?
Again, Microsoft has tried to play the “nice guy” for too long to new developers. People have been allowed to do things as they see fit and Microsoft deal. This is rather mean to force them to do. They have to work harder because you won’t learn the rules. This causes the end result fallout as it is. Now standards are not implemented in the clients because they were never forced. But this is not an arguement against IE. (The problem there is that Microsoft didn’t have reason to expend money on their browser rather than their operating system and media. Now that the standards project exists and other browsers are starting to steal the light, this is a priority).
This is about effectiveness. This is as much about hardware as software. Too much hardware is allowed to run on Windows computers without having to be at least to some spec. Developers can think of the spec as the “interface” that the operating system must use. Not following a spec (so no interface) means that the class doesn’t load or the hardware doesn’t work. Period. There should not be a reason to make something that can’t implement basic instructions work. But it does. How? We don’t use the operating system. I believe it was a D-Link wireless networking card that I had for my laptop that didn’t just provide a driver; it also provided a control panel. Well, I just want a driver so I have the class description for my card interface and let Windows do the rest. This is the best and allows all of Windows technologies to be used. But that doesn’t work. It seems that the driver ignored the interface and the control panel was required for the card to even work. It never worked in SuSE linux using ndiswrapper.
It’s not the technologies that annoy me. It’s not their commitment to integrate. It’s that they became too nice to developers instead of making rules. Their technology goes unused many times and costs become high to use them (just go check on the price of the full version of Visual Studio. I dare you). With so much bolted on to the operating system to get all that you want, how much is the original operating system doing? What is my solution?
I hate it. I have hated it and probably will until one day when I break down and cry in defeat. Apple has promised me all that I wanted. The company that always was at the end of my jokes and my reason for all that is wrong with the world has shown me more than what I could ever ask for. And it’s all reasonably priced for what they promise. They seem to be now what Microsoft was: friendly and efficient. They have extensive developer tools that come packed with the operating system. They have innovative technologies. They have good classes to build on. They have more security than even is publicised (how many people knew about the auto AES-128 encryption that can be enabled on home folders?).
And it’s all reasonably priced. Commercial and open source living as one. Standards holding true. Accessibility for all. And all looking beautiful. Too good? No, it’s OS X and it is true.
Just read it. You too will be a believer.