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Useful Apps for First-Time Windows Users?
pauljoyce asks: "I'm a Mac fan who is intrigued by the possibilities of Apple's Boot Camp software. Now that I have a chance to painlessly dip into the Windows world, what I'd like to ask you is, what Windows software amazes you? I want to build a list of unique, elegant, can't-do-without apps, so all us new Boot-Camp babies can finally experience some of the great innovation happening over on the Windows platform.
I roughed in a quick blogpage to collect the info, and to house any useful discussions. It'll probably deteriorate into a flame war at some point, but hopefully I can get a few contributions to each category before then. Would those interested please chime in with their list of favorites?"
I'd love to help, but I can't stop laughing from seeing the words "elegant" and "windows" together. And, is it just me, or is the summary itself dripping with sarcasm?
What? You like running a bloated advertising app for the iTunes store just to listen to your music collection. My biggest regret of buying an iPod is having to install that crap on my PC.
Which is something Windows users get quite familiar with too I hear.
It basically goes like this
Oh no the system is destroyed and displaying random DLL error messages when I try to load task manager, regedt32, control panel, windows defender or my virus scanning software because the latest virus/worm/etc managed to get through the most recent patches and up-to-date virus checker and circumvent the system at the knees because there is insufficient permission protection of system files.
Since I wasn't willing to have sacrificed half my HDD space and first born for the windows system backup to chew up my resources in the background as it methodically dissolves my free space one Gbyte at a time. I am left to reinstall windows or dodge various install options (press f8 to agree to the terms, press L to select this volume... what an awesome textual installer!) to reach the examine-repair mode.
If you can't do a repair install of Windows because it's too confusing... I cry for you.
I also remember a time, not long ago, when you had to manually configure the partitions for any distro you picked. There was no default. The first step in this process was determining what Linux was going to call your hard disk: hda? hdb? You had no idea, because the order it picks (primary master, secondary master, primary slave, secondary slave) is so non-intuitive. Not to mention Windows doesn't care where your HD is as long as a big enough drive exists. I remember specifically disconnecting hard drives from my system because it was so unclear which device was which. Yeah, that's easy to use.
Now you have to pick how your partitions go. Swap is easy enough to understand, but when you go online and see five partitioning guides all recommend different things and none of them explain why they do what they do it is incredibly frustrating just getting to the point of picking which packages to install.
Complaining that Windows is arcane and difficult to use when Linux was restricted to use by it's own developers and Unix admins because nobody else could understand how to even install it makes you look rather stupid. Linux has a learning curve like the cliffs of dover. Seriously. Download a copy of Red Hat 6 or Slackware 3 and install it. Now ask yourself: if I knew nothing about computers besides Windows, how could I do this?
The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
You need a Aplle-fanboy lobotomy to live itunes.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Hey guys, don't forget NOTEPAD.EXE, It's the default editor on Windows just like vi is on Unix. And it gets better every version of Windows. I believe the 32k byte limit is now definitively abandoned. (For me that's just frivolous as I strong believe no C program should exceed 8 screens.)
Why are we hiding from the police, daddy?
They use either vi or Emacs, son, and we use NOTEPAD.EXE.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
It's astroturf, dude.
Slashdot user pauljoyce has uid 966868, which means he signed up in the last week or so.
His profile is basically a plug for his services as a marketroid:
He has never commented or submitted a question before this one. Unlike many 'askslashdotters', he hasn't bothered to reply or discuss anything with the people who have given him advice here. Paul, if you're reading this, perhaps you have a plausible explanation as to why a few days ago, you suddenly decided to join slashdot, and ask such a strange, loaded question about Windows software?
my password really is 'stinkypants'
Dude, you're coming FROM the elegant platform TO the popular platform. You're plugging a VHS tape into your betamax. You have found that the tuxedo vest is reversable and on the other side is potato sack. That doesn't mean that it's not useful at times to run Windows. There are some nice games that run only on Windows, but that's not because Windows is elegant -- it's because it's popular. The Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser experience is well supported but, again, only because it's popular.
The Windows world will surely be a disappointment to the Mac users who venture to that side out of curiosity alone. There will be those who are familiar with the platform and need it to run natively from time to time, and for those people it will be useful -- but in some cases, not as useful as Virtual PC. The dual-booting Mac is most useful for those Windows users who have been wanting to try OS X (there's a lot more draw coming that way than going the other) but who need the security blanket of knowing it can also run Windows if they don't like OS X. This is what makes this story so interesting... it's Apple using Microsoft's own OS against them.
RP