I had a rough day; I worked on a Windows machine.
First, let me assure you that Windows 7 is often faster and smoother on the same hardware than just about any version of Linux. The drivers work better and everything seems much nicer — until you deal with the least little trouble in the Windows Registry. I’ve never seen anything in computer technology so damned fragile, and so nearly impossible to repair. No wonder the Geek Squad and other common computer tech support services are so quick to reinstall from scratch. The diagnostics take forever and tell you almost nothing useful.
All afternoon I ran the official tools from Microsoft, trying to fix a borked update. That has become the single biggest factor in all my Windows tech support work. Windows Update can destroy a system faster than any malware or virus I’ve ever seen. Sure, there are lots of systems running just fine, but if all you deal with are just a handful, you may have no idea how bad it can be. Among six regular clients scattered around the county, four of them have faced a borked update. That is, the Registry got corrupted and dropping it back to the last known good state simply pulls in that same damned update that broke it in the first place, and most of the time it breaks things again.
There are just too many ways for it go wrong from the silliest, most insignificant thing someone does with their computer that just may not be perfectly alright. Again, it has nothing to do with malware or viruses, but some ordinary end-user activity that shouldn’t be a problem, but it is with Windows. I’ll try a lot of fixes the Geek Squad won’t bother with, but I do understand their reasoning for refusing to waste so much time with it.
So Linux can be more difficult to use in a jillion small ways, but at least it isn’t fragile. Diagnosis is so very quick and easy by comparison, not to mention awfully rare. You can keep your broken Windows; I’m tired of bleeding from all the shattered glass.
