When Windows Jumped the Shark (Or: Why I'm not upgrading to Vista, Part 2)

I've used Microsoft products, beginning with MSDOS 2.1 and 3.11 in 1986, then various iterations of Windows, for over 20 years

Initially I saw no need to make a switch. The Commodore Amiga and NeXT computers flamed out. Apple Computer was having its own problems. Alternate OSes like BeOS came and went.

All this was in the days before widely-available networked computing (which Windows didn't start doing reliably until Windows for Workgroups) and the Internet (which Windows 95 didn't do at all until Service Pack 1).

But I started getting disenchanted with Windows as increasing numbers of bolt-on software programs became necessary for its safe operation on the internet. These ranged from antiviral protection suites to trojan horse detectors to spyware removers to software firewalls to Windows Registry cleaners (a list of minimum recommended PC security software follows below).

The problem, among many others, is that the Windows browser is too tightly integrated into the operating system. Malware that penetrates one of the myriad security holes of Internet Explorer then easily wreaks havoc with your Windows files.

The stone that broke the Windows pane (pain?) for me, though, flew during the comparatively beneficent reign of Windows XP.

Steve Ballmer's (and elite engineering team's!) inability to remove various forms of malware from a friend's Windows computer resulted in the Windows Defender anti-spyware program.

At about this time Windows also began selling its own subscription-based antiviral program, the inelegantly-named Windows Live OneCare.

Now, it's one thing for third parties to develop and sell separately an antiviral program to patch your operating system's security holes. It's quite something else for you to do it.

In effect Microsoft said, "We make the world's finest, most widely-used operating system -- and for a slight additional, ongoing fee, we'll help you secure it." The cynical nature of this last move just galled me.

Hey Microsoft: How about engineering the antiviral protection into your OS?

You based Windows on the flawed premise of MS-DOS and have been releasing klugey upgrades (e.g., Windows ME) ever since.

You've had twenty years to start from scratch and get it right. But instead of providing a more secure and stable operating system, you release one that provides the illusion of security while constantly tripping over itself.

Since the advent of Live OneCare there have been other Microsoft PR howlers, most recently this story.

So yeah, I'm gradually transitioning away from Windows and toward Linux and the Mac. The shark has been jumped.

MINIMUM RECOMMENDED PC ACCESSORY/SECURITY SOFTWARE (free):

• ZoneAlarm Software Firewall
  
• CCleaner
  
• Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
  
• AVG Antiviral
  
• Spybot SD
  
• Firefox browser or Opera browser