Why Do Large Computer Manufacturers Make us Use Operating Systems We Don't Want

Well I have made it clear I hate Windows 8, to me the worst operating system ever produced by Microsoft. I gave my wife a nice Asus K55VD to replace her ageing Dell, she took one quick go of Windows 8 and demanded that I replace it with Windows 7. I can't blame her, I just paid £1,300 on a nice new Asus G750JX with very high specifications, which I immediately customised by adding another 8GB of ram and bigger and faster hard drives, (for a laptop its amazing it has room for 2!).

Unfortunately Asus insist that Windows 8 is the way forward so do not give me a choice of operating system its a take it or leave it attitude, which has spoilt my computing experience with their wonderful machine. They are not alone, it seems all the major computer makers have been instructed by Microsoft to use Windows 8, whether you have touch screen or not.

Windows 8 might have some good points, but for me the bad points far outweigh the good points. I hate all those screens that suddenly jump out at you, I hate all those tiles, and most of all I hate the lack of start button and the menu that came with it. As a result I had to purchase a small program called RetroUI to stop all those flying menus and to give me back my much loved start button with menu's I could customise.

If Microsoft had been run by sensible people, they might have made different flavours of Windows 8, one for tablets, one for touch screen computers and one for ordinary computer users, but they are brash and lazy and believe in the one size fits all approach.

My favourite operating system is Ubuntu, simple fast, effective, but I have to use Windows to be compatible with work computers and to be able to play Skyrim, but getting my new super duper laptop to accept dual boot with Ubuntu and Windows 8 was a nightmare, because Windows put in security checks to make this sort of thing difficult so that unless you are a bit of a computer nerd and willing to keep restoring from a backup, each time your attempt went pear shaped, it would defeat most would be Ubuntu or Linux people who want to learn and try this amazing free operating system.

It took me several attempts over two weeks to finally get both working perfectly. As usual for most of the things I do, I use Ubuntu, for work back to Windows 8, to play Skyrim, back to Windows 8. Don't get me wrong, Microsoft have produced some great operating systems, Windows XP was superb and still loved by many. Windows 7 was a worthy replacement and I came to love this just as much as XP, but in between what rubbish have we had to endure!

Almost everyday I have to download new updates for Windows 8, it is slow, laborious and getting a tad tedious, then you often have to reboot, then wait again whilst Windows configures the updates, then finally you might be able to use the computer. Ubuntu boots in under 10seconds from choosing from the menu to being able to use the program. If there are updates it is swift and runs in the background, rarely do you have to reboot and wait for it to configure itself. When I finally got the dual boot working I chose Ubuntu 12.04 because this has Long Term Support - 5 years, and they produce a Long Term Support version every two years like clockwork with other releases to try every 6 months. I had initially 335 updates to do for Ubuntu, it took no longer than 6 minutes from start to finish, with only one reboot!

When I buy a computer I buy a computer, I want to have choice over what operating system I want ON MY COMPUTER,  my computer doesn't belong to Microsoft, it belongs to me, I paid my hard earned cash for it, so let me choose what operating system I want to use.

These computer companies have to stop Microsoft from telling them what to do and they should grow a pair of balls. Microsoft want to dominate the world of computers, but until they produce good, stable, reliable software, they can kiss my ass.

12/09/13

After writing this, I got home after work and decided to have a little play on Skyrim, yet another prolonged update, which meant yet another restart, then about half an hour into the game Windows reported a fault, closed down Skyrim loosing all gameplay and all the items I had acquired. Yet another restart and more time wasted waiting for Windows to configure itself, and they sell this rubbish?

People wonder why hackers target Microsoft products, maybe its due to frustration at the inept coding of their products and to show the numerous flaws in this so called 'ready to use out of the box' product that stinks.