Today I turned on the Windows Media Center for the first time in a month. That’s o knock on the media center. We’ve been too busy to watch much TV, and what time we have had has been consumed by Lost, the new Apple TV software and the occasional Netflix movie.
So whatever. I wanted a little music on a rainy Sunday morning, and the Media Center has ever tune in our CD library. I fired it up and immediately got the Vista update notice. Right. I missed the last patch Tuesday.
I postponed that, but when I launched iTunes to listen to music, IT decided it needed to update mys usic library. I’d forgotten I’d updated iTunes the last time I used it and never restarted. Then of course there’s a NEW version of iTunes. Why not?! Go ahead iTunes, do your business. I’ll jump on over to Firefox and stream some music off Last.FM. Jus give me a second to postpone the Vista update. Again!
Launch Firefox and guess what? I’m immediately notified there’s an update of Firefox. I mark that for later and start streaming some music. During breakfast I have to get up a couple times because I forgot to turn off the Vista reminder. But no matter.
Once I’m done with my Canadian bacon (or just bacon, if you’re Canadian) and waffles, I give up and tell Firefox to go ahead and update, then reboot the machine.
This after only a month! It’s one thing to be annoyed occasionally in your daily life by software updates. They’re actually quite handy, fixing bugs, and adding features. But the system is all built around daily use. It seems it’s not possible to have smoothly running machine that you don’t use every day. At least if it’s a computer you leave powered off.
I suppose that’s the future. Better find some clean-bruning fuel soon Earth. I’m going to have to leave all my comuters on from now on.
February 24th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Funny.
February 24th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Now, while I really don’t want to be the anti-Windows person, you might like to compare this with my experience recently.
I turned on a laptop I’ve had which hasn’t been on for two months. It boots fine, dumps me into the operating system, and lets me get on with my stuff.
Two minutes in, a little bubble appears at the top of the screen, letting me know that there were new software updates: for Firefox, for the main operating system, for lots of other programs that I use. I type my password in, and continue using it as it downloads then applies all the patches, all in one place. It doesn’t force me to reboot (though it needs one); doesn’t force me to stop using Firefox and just queues that update automatically; and just works.
The operating system? Ubuntu.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Wow I so hear you on this topic. I use my computer daily and I still get annoyed. I mean it’s great that everything is up to date and less buggy (hopefully) but it’s as annoying as that old car voice saying, “Your door is ajar.” I KNOW it’s ajar, leave me alone, I’m trying to vacuum the rugs!
As for the clean fuel. I’m going to add solar panels to my roof soon. Even if it ends up costing me $15+K.
March 7th, 2008 at 12:48 am
Your willing to install a brand new version of iTunes, but your too busy to install a Windows Update? With behavior like that no wonder you seem to hate Microsoft so much lately.