Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Han Do Bi?

This being patch Tuesday, I decided to give my computer a full tune-up. The linux system was the easiest. 'yum update', and a minute later everything was up to date. Everything.

Windows is way more complicated. First of all, I have to log off and re-log on as administrator. What a nuisance. No wonder most choose to work as administrators permanently, opening door wide to all sorts of malefaction. This alone disqualifies Windows from consideration as usable computer software.

Once superuser, things go smoothly for the most part. 'Microsoft update' ensures the operating system and Office are running happily, 'McAfee AutoUpdate' keeps viruses at bay, and the 'Lenovo Software Installer' takes care of system utilities and makes sure the Chinese secrete service knows what's going on on my computer. Firefox and Thunderbird are kind enough to trigger their own updates.

What's left? A few gigabites of premium software, outrageously expensive in their full version and equally indispensable. For all its ingenuity, even the Creative Suite needs to be updated periodically. So I go and click on 'Update', and that's not even close to being done.

I'm taken to a webpage where I can pick the updates I need, download them, and install them. For every component in the Suite independently. Five big programs. There is no script or helper application that automates the process. Imagine you'd paid $1800 for the real deal, and then had click your way through a web page like a Yahoo freemail user. What's up with Adobe? Did they get stuck in the 20th century?

This brings to mind the days when my Thinkpad was new, back in 2004. There was no IBM upgrade tool either, you had to wield your mouse and click till your finger was numb. Now that the Chinese took over, it's all slick. Maybe I'll wait with the Adobe update till they are bought out as well.

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