Hating Microsoft Windows

Have I talked about how badly designed Microsoft Windows is lately?

It stinks. It has all the earmarks of an OS wherein the designers decided to introduce all sorts of kewl features with insufficient regard for how these would impact performance. After all, why bother? What really matters is that the software should be kewl, right?

Consider this. It is common for Windows Explorer to freeze up for several seconds -- or even a minute or two -- when you open it up. Why? Apparently because it feels that it must navigate through its directory structure and see what's there. Why? Just open up whichever folder the user wants to see and ignore the rest, darnit! Don't look them up unless it's necessary!

Ah, but maybe some user would like to see a preview of whatever photos exist somewhere in the directory tree. Fine. That's a legitimate concern... but darnit, don't bother digesting and thumbnailing the photos unless it's necessary! In other words, wait until he actually chooses to look at the folder. That's just common sense.