Category: Tech

A not so bad Operating System

It is now or newer for this post: rumor has it that the preview release of the next Windows version be announced in a couple of days, after which anything but retrospective thoughts about Windows 8 will be pretty meh.

Well, Windows 8 has received a lot of criticism, especially because of the new start menu, but in my opinion, that OS was never as bad as its was made out to be. I have been using it as my primary OS ever since it was released and been a satisfied customer all the way.

Leaving the start menu aside, here are some things worth remembering Windows 8 for:

  • reduced hardware requirements, so that it could run well on older hardware
  • as stable as any version of Windows I have tried (and that would be most of them- I missed ME and Vista, none of which are said to be champions of stability)
  • cloud integration (in particular OneDrive in 8.1)
  • challenging a 17+ year old UI paradigm: Windows 95 and Windows 7 are very similar on the surface (and what is wrong with that? well, what’s wrong with writing cuneiform on clay tablets??)

I have actually been fond of the start menu. I have never used Windows 8 with a touch screen like it was intended to, but for someone like me who prefers keyboard over mouse for all tasks, the start menu has been a powerful gate into the PC. All it took was removing the default Modern UI apps and replace them with the apps I prefer to use. When that was done,

  • my favorite browser is two key strokes away: Window, Enter
  • email: three strokes: Window, right arrow, Enter
  • word processor: three strokes Window, arrow down, Enter
  • spreadsheet: four strokes: Window, arrow right, arrow down, Enter
  • Etc…

and everything happening with easy-to-see icons and selection bracket.

The start menu also hides the often messy desktop that many people end up having: a colorful wallpaper and 50+ icons for documents, application install packages, pictures and what not. I can’t blame Microsoft for thinking that replacing that mess with an easy to organize start menu would be a good idea, but apparently they were wrong (“don’t mess with my mess…!”). Furthermore, by hiding programs and settings that should rarely be used by anyone, the change of the entire system getting messed up is also reduced (that, in my opinion, makes Windows 8 by far the best Windows yet).

And while the Windows 8 start menu has been heavily criticized, it it interesting to see how a similar menu appear in other desktop OSs, like Linux Mint 17 (and were commonplace in mobile OS long time before).

The Modern UI apps have not been relevant to me. Maybe the apps could have been better; but that’s also how it used to be with the selection of Android apps compared to iOS, especially for tablets. That’s rarely said today (but I dare say it is the case for children’s games, but that’s a topic for another post); so the apps will probably come with time as Windows Phone matures and laptops with touch screen become more common.

Windows 8 is not perfect, but it is an good  and important step away from the old way of doing things. Not perfect, but it has served me well. I look forward to see the next iteration of Microsoft’s OS soon, and hope they have kept what worked well, improved what should be better, cropped what didn’t work and added some new ideas into the mix.

On the Value of (PC) Customer Care etc.

During the Easter holidays, I visited relatives and like many other IT professionals, I had the opportunity to solve a handful of IT challenges, one of which reminded me why the PC manufacturers are at least partially responsible for their own problems with declining cells.

The story beings with a new PC of a well-known brand, with the usual bloatware installed. That includes a trial version of a well-known antivirus software. When the trial expired, a proper license for the antivirus software was purchased, and it was renewed every year thereafter. And so, everything should be good.

Except it wasn’t. My relative was surprised (at first, then annoyed) by the frequent warnings about missing protection popping up when the computer was turned on, given that the license was paid for. However, as I found out, paying the license using the link provided by the trial version is not enough; you also need to replace the trial version of the software with the full version yourself. My relative had not been aware of this, and so had paid for protection for years, without ever being protected. He took it well, better than me.

It may be argued that as a consumer you must pay attention any warning messages that pop up and that it should have been verified that the purchased product was in fact delivered and working as it was supposed to do. On the other hand, this was an opportunity for the manufacturer to care for the customer, by ensuring that the customer got value added by the extra services provided by the manufacturer; as opposed to a false, expensive sense of safety. Both arguments have merits, but one makes it more likely that the customer returns than the other. In good times, returning customers may not have been a priority, but now?

Among the lessons to be learned here is that good times should never be taken for granted. And the manufacturers are themselves not without responsibility for their misery.

A wholly unrelated challenge I got during the visit was retrieval of photos from a Nokia feature phone, from the time before phones could be connected with USB. I was reminded how a blue tooth data connection works and reminded to appreciate current day cloud backup services and standardization of connections.

The Declining PC Sales, Follow-up

Last year I posted a couple of comments to the ongoing discussion of declining PC sales (in May and September). Since then, sales have remained unchanged low, but then again, the drivers for demand are unchanged too.

I am not surprised that the recent end of support for Windows XP hasn’t changed much. Any private users who didn’t worry before, probably doesn’t worry now either. Time will tell if there will be one big security exploit that will cause a rush.

Vacation on the EDGE

I just returned home from a week’s vacation with wife and child in a cottage in Thy on the Danish west coast. Lovely place, excellent cottage and great to be together with the family.
One thing that set this trip apart from other recent trips is that out on the moor near the sea, the connection to the wide webbed world is through EDGE network. A shake one. So no catching up on all the interesting Web stuff that I keep in Pocket for vacation reading (will Read It much Later now). No deep diving into new apps and no steamed media. Only enough bandwidth for news headlines and a couple of critical mails – everything else being a pain.

And that has been great really. So much less distraction and little things that need checking all the time. Instead full attention on being where I was and with whom; the whole experience so much more intense (in the way that eating a pre-season ice cream in a fishing town is intense).

So maybe next time I travel I should go to faraway places and hotels with no Wi-Fi, celebrating the high roaming costs. Then again, maybe not. But it has been a great vacation on shaky EDGE.

Paying my Lunch

I generally try to do “the right thing” most of the time. That includes enabling the lock screen of my phone and tablet, which is the right thing to do when you sometime leave it on the desk at work while getting coffee or happen to lose it in the train or airport (ahem…).

Using lock screen pattern is cool, but not really secure, so doing the right thing means PIN (my wife also uses the phone once in a while,so face recognition or finger print is not an option). Still, having to enter PIN every single time I use the phone at home is tough. And enabling the screen lock whenever I leave home doesn’t even look probable on paper. The app “Unlock with WiFi” was a perfect solution. It enables the screen lock, unless the phone is connected to my home WiFi (or any other WiFi/Bluetooth network I choose). $5 is cheap convenience.

A few days ago I got the message that Unlock with WiFi would no longer be supported, instead it had been rewritten and the new incarnation available as SkipLock, which could be bought again from the app store. Suddenly the happy customer was a grumpy customer.

Then again, it is a great app – one that adds great value to my devices and a crucial part of keeping them safe, with all the email and other personal information I got stored on various accounts. I want that to be taken good care of. I want someone to take it seriously to provide me with that service.  I want to be able to trust that such an app doesn’t snoop my address book or harvest other personal info without my knowledge. Then I’ll rather pay a modest amount to have a professional developer provide a professional solution.

You don’t get a lot for free, and the better the lunch, the more suspicious one should be. Or, as a friend once told me: If a product is free, then YOU are the real product…