Okay, I understand that this is a "moving over to Windows having never used it before" artice, but seriously. A move from one operating system to another never used is going to be like that no matter what.
The majority of these complaints are unfounded or just flat out wrong.
"Anyone who complains about a Linux partitioner obviously hasn't tried installing Windows." So having just one partition is more difficult than having 3 or more? FAT32 and NTFS are the only hard-drive filesystems XP supports if we leave out FAT16, which I hope you wouldn't want to use. If you do make more than one partition, all you have to do is try to browse to it and the option to format it apears like magic!
The first release of Windows XP in 2001 doesn't support drives larger than 137GB. I'm sure that the Ubuntu release you were installing wasn't from 2001 was it? It seems Ubuntu 5.10 was at a final release on October 13, 2005. Windows XP with SP1 does support larger drives however. Slipstreaming SP1 into a Windows install is easy as cake given the information how to.
"I was not given a choice in the matter. It adjusted my desktop..." Well obviously if it didn't install your video-card drivers it's not going to be able to do that. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that your video card is probably newer than the Windows XP release. They were support to include drivers that didn't exist yet? So they left the window in there that asks? You only have to deal with this ONE time; before you've installed your video drivers.
"After a long download, a lengthly install, and a reboot, we were in business." I'm not sure what kind of computer you are using but drivers usually don't involve a lengthy install of any kind. The only ones I've seen that involve long downloads are sound and video drivers (keep in mind this is only on occasion).
The entire network setup problem wasn't the fault of Windows XP but the network administrator for not configuring the DHCP server and Domain Controller correctly. Roaming profiles was obviously enabled on the Domain Controller for his account, why? Who knows. Why did he go into such detail explaining how difficult it place his computer in a domain when it wasn't even the fault of Windows XP? No, it didn't load his roaming profile the second time, it loaded the local copy which it had created upon failure to load the non-existant roaming profile.
I have yet to get the second page to load so I'll end it here.
Imagine what it's going to be like trying to download SP2 RTM when it's finally released. The first few who come accross it will have no problem getting. What happens when everyone who has automatic updates on automatically downloads a 266M file at 3:00 AM? I'm glad I don't have to pay for that bandwidth.
Of course it seems like loads of space, but it's not right now, it's in the future. Not only that, but 50GB is the maximum capacity, that's a dual-layer disc. 25GB is the standard single-layer capacity.
Five years ago who would have thought we would ever need to use DVDs to store video games? People would have told you that you were crazy, but we use it.
I'm sure lot's of thought went into that decision. I wouldn't just jump in and say, "Hey! Let's use super-large discs!" At least they aren't going the way of Nintendo with their Gamecube discs.
Off topic: Why isn't the DVD2 just bluray discs with MPEG4 encoding?
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Okay, I understand that this is a "moving over to Windows having never used it before" artice, but seriously. A move from one operating system to another never used is going to be like that no matter what. The majority of these complaints are unfounded or just flat out wrong. "Anyone who complains about a Linux partitioner obviously hasn't tried installing Windows." So having just one partition is more difficult than having 3 or more? FAT32 and NTFS are the only hard-drive filesystems XP supports if we leave out FAT16, which I hope you wouldn't want to use. If you do make more than one partition, all you have to do is try to browse to it and the option to format it apears like magic! The first release of Windows XP in 2001 doesn't support drives larger than 137GB. I'm sure that the Ubuntu release you were installing wasn't from 2001 was it? It seems Ubuntu 5.10 was at a final release on October 13, 2005. Windows XP with SP1 does support larger drives however. Slipstreaming SP1 into a Windows install is easy as cake given the information how to. "I was not given a choice in the matter. It adjusted my desktop..." Well obviously if it didn't install your video-card drivers it's not going to be able to do that. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that your video card is probably newer than the Windows XP release. They were support to include drivers that didn't exist yet? So they left the window in there that asks? You only have to deal with this ONE time; before you've installed your video drivers. "After a long download, a lengthly install, and a reboot, we were in business." I'm not sure what kind of computer you are using but drivers usually don't involve a lengthy install of any kind. The only ones I've seen that involve long downloads are sound and video drivers (keep in mind this is only on occasion). The entire network setup problem wasn't the fault of Windows XP but the network administrator for not configuring the DHCP server and Domain Controller correctly. Roaming profiles was obviously enabled on the Domain Controller for his account, why? Who knows. Why did he go into such detail explaining how difficult it place his computer in a domain when it wasn't even the fault of Windows XP? No, it didn't load his roaming profile the second time, it loaded the local copy which it had created upon failure to load the non-existant roaming profile. I have yet to get the second page to load so I'll end it here.
This doesn't involve eating babies does it?
We won't have 2GHz processors that wait 99.999% of the time for your every keystroke, like they do now. They will be 20 GHz and will wait 99.9999%.
Not that processors wait for your keystroke right now anyway. That would suck, your keystroke just triggers an interupt.
Imagine what it's going to be like trying to download SP2 RTM when it's finally released. The first few who come accross it will have no problem getting. What happens when everyone who has automatic updates on automatically downloads a 266M file at 3:00 AM? I'm glad I don't have to pay for that bandwidth.
Of course it seems like loads of space, but it's not right now, it's in the future. Not only that, but 50GB is the maximum capacity, that's a dual-layer disc. 25GB is the standard single-layer capacity. Five years ago who would have thought we would ever need to use DVDs to store video games? People would have told you that you were crazy, but we use it. I'm sure lot's of thought went into that decision. I wouldn't just jump in and say, "Hey! Let's use super-large discs!" At least they aren't going the way of Nintendo with their Gamecube discs. Off topic: Why isn't the DVD2 just bluray discs with MPEG4 encoding?