Spontaneous Monotony

Well, with an all-nighter after getting it from my local Waterstones I’ve finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I’m not going to spoil what for many people has been a ten-year literary journey from childhood, but what I can tell you is that is a fitting finale to such an epic series. The previous two, Half-Blood Prince and Order of the Phoenix, were distinctly underwhelming. Confused plots, blatantly obvious endings, and generally not living up to the early books. DH is much, much better. It is the first time since Goblet of Fire, perhaps even since Prisoner of Azkaban, that I have been unable to find flaws or disappointments in a Harry Potter book. Congratulations to JK Rowling for a job well done!

• Wikipedia page about the book WARNING: THIS PAGE CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE ENTIRE PLOT. DO NOT READ UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THE BOOK YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
• Bloomsbury Harry Potter site (spoiler safe)
• Buy it from Waterstones’ website (not an affiliate link btw, I just linked them because they seem to be the cheapest online) WARNING: The product page is spoiler safe but the reviews ARE NOT. IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK THEN DO NOT CLICK THE CUSTOMER REVIEWS BUTTON

My Sony Vaio laptop (no, not one of the exploding ones) has recently been nigh-on unusable due to unexplainably high CPU load (and temperature). Out of desperation, I thought of downloading the Ubuntu livecd (on another computer). So far, so notoverheating. I have to say that a lot of the problems I experienced with previous versions of Ubuntu (5.10 and 6.06 iirc) are simply not here. My built in wireless card (which from memory of previous Ubuntu excursions is Atheros-based) worked right out of the box, connecting to my WPA’d Netgear router without any problem. A brainwave later and here I am at Wordpress.com.

I’m gonna give it a couple of hours to see if the heat problem reappears over time (I don’t expect it will). If not, then (on this machine at least) the Ubuntu world has a new member. Makes certain parts of my ‘Top 10 advantages of Windows post’ (specifically points 1, 5 and 7) look a bit silly now.

It seems that over the past week or so the European Guild Wars servers have been randomly lagspiking, and even disonnecting entire towns of players. In spectacular Anet style, their attempts at fixing the problem have resulted in it becoming twice as worse, and affecting more people than ever before (I can personally attest to the latter).

I’ve suggested on Guru forums that Anet should pull the entire GW:EN project team on to fixing this. Let’s look at it simply: if European players can’t actually play Guild Wars at all (this is n’t just normal lag as with the Dragon Festival, it’s unplayably poor) then they won’t buy GW:EN however brilliant it looks like being. Delaying GW:EN by a week/month/however long it takes to fix this, is less harmful to Anet’s profits than not fixing the problem, and having nobody in Europe buy GW:EN. Let me put it this way: it’s making a since-release Guild Wars player check how much the dark side is on Play.

GoldenAxe has been released on Xbox Live Arcade. It was one of my favourite games when I was a kid, which is why it’s upsetting to write this. The XBLA version is a dull, uninspiring shadow. What Sega seem to have done is taken a very basic version of the game, which I have never seen (I played the Atari version - about 12 years ago), and stuck it on Xbox 360.

You read that right; they have managed to use a three-core, 7th-generation console to produce a game with poorer graphics and sound than I got on an Atari 520ST in the early 90s. Some of the enemies seem to be made of one colour (which they were NOT in the original I played). Whether this is a bug or deliberate, it certainly isn’t good. Worse still, the truly excellent music has become bleepy and hard to hear. I don’t know who at Sega is responsible for this travesty, I can only hope that they are sent to the same salt mine as the Dreamcast division. GoldenAxe didn’t deserve this

There are plenty ‘Top 10 advantages of the Linux distro X’ type posts lying around, so I thought it was about time for a Windows user to point out that it ain’t all bad. Sure, Microsoft’s business practices leave a lot to be desired. Sure, WGA is an obnoxious pain in the ass. That doesn’t make Windows a bad operating system. Here are the top 10 advantages of using Windows:

1. Hardware support. How many times do you see a forum post entitled ‘there aren’t any Windows drivers for my new wifi adapter’? Yes, zero is an answer. Of course, Linux supporters point out (accurately) that their OS doesn’t have drivers because the manufacturer didn’t provide any. But users don’t care. When comparing Windows with (say) Ubuntu, they don’t think “half my devices won’t work, but it’s the hardware manufacturer’s fault so I’ll just do without those devices”. They just continue using Windows
2. Games. Partially related to the above (most Linux distros still won’t use 3d graphics cards properly, 12 years after their invention), partially due to the fact that most game developers are of the opinion that there is no market for paid-for Linux games. Given the sort of politically-motivated abuse that surrounds decisions to include proprietary hardware drivers, they’d probably get more grief than profit by releasing their (proprietary) games for Linux. This may become less significant over time - the similarity (and ease of cross-porting) of the PC and Xbox 360 may make PC gaming extinct as a separate platform.
3. Security. You might think that this one is a bit strange. Yes, Windows has more security flaws than any of the popular Linux distros. But Windows users are actually more likely to protect their computers. Take Ubuntu as an example (given its recent endorsement by Dell, and general brilliance). How many new Ubuntu users are aware that it doesn’t come with a firewall? Sure, getting one is a simple matter of running Synaptic and downloading the firewall of your choice (Lokkit, Guarddog, and Firestarter are all mentioned in that article), all for free in both senses of the word, but if you don’t do that? The average clueless newbie in Ubuntu would be likely to leave their machine open to malicious hackers.Sure, the Windows XP Firewall might not be the most illustrious in networking history, but at least it’s installed by default. A Windows system used by an advanced user will be no less secure than a Linux system used by someone similarly skilled (due to the former having antivirus, firewall, etc. set up) whereas a Windows system used by a novice user may actually be more secure than an Ubuntu system used by a novice (due to the built-in firewall and the general awareness of virus issues among Windows users - even if they do use garbage like Nortons).
4. Office 2007. I’m prepared for a bunch of Openoffice.org fans to jump on me at this point, but please folks, hear me out. For more or less the whole of the last academic year, I used Openoffice.org as my primary office suite. In just about every area, it was perfectly adequate for my needs - especially now that my university has Openoffice.org on its student computers (in addition to Office 200…3 I think). There were, though, quite a few things that annoyed me. The first was the inability to open DOC files properly - simple things like having an image (my university’s logo, in fact, it was a course document) inside a table cell just did not work.Yes, proprietary formats this and reverse-engineering that, but I don’t particularly care for the reason why something does or does not work - I care for the outcome. If your car breaks down, do you honestly care whether it was because of substandard steel used in its manufacture or an inadequately fitted fan belt? I’d suggest the answer is no. There isn’t any reason why the same should not apply to software, save for the FSF zealots who see their computers as pawns in their political crusade against paying money for things, as opposed to tools to do whatever job (web browsing, gaming, word processing, etc.) the user wants it to do.The price wasn’t actually too bad either - through Student Options (a Microsoft students-only site that validates student status by using your institution email address) I got the Enteprise edition of Office 2007 (yes, the volume-license only bells-and-whistles one) for less than the basic Student and Teacher version of Wordperfect. Before you ask, no it is not a dodgy copy - it’s already passed the OGA check and is from a Microsoft-run online store.

   Sure, even at this extremely reduced price it is more expensive than Openoffice.org (free), but that’s like saying that eating a burger is more expensive than eating grass. It’s true, but it misses the point entirely. Office 2007 is actually a brilliant piece of software - the new interface is much less convoluted, and I spend my time actually getting on with whatever I’m doing rather than googling for a workaround for Openoffice.org’s latest flaw (As unimportant as the feature may seem to the OOo devs, I do actually want to make landscape documents once in a while). Office 2007 is that rare ‘killer app’ - it is worth using Windows just to get using Office 2007.

5. Wireless networking. The advent of broadband and wireless internet connections was supposed to make the internet seamless - no longer would you have to fiddle with access codes, and wait for a screeching noise to finish, every time you wanted to use the internet. That development seems to have passed Linux by. First of all you have to buy a wireless card that is supported by your Linux distro - which is difficult to the point of not being worth bothering in the case of USB adapters. Second, your router has to be set up to use a discredited, completely useless encryption system which was obsolete in 2003.Now, I’m all for non-bloated software which allows the user to set it up for their own needs (writing this in Firefox, after all). But in an operating system where every additional piece of software is installed via an internet connection, not having the encryption system necessary to connect to those updates presents something of a Catch 22 situation. Windows Vista has been roundly criticised (fairly, to be honest) for its sometimes-inadequate driver support. At least it installs basic networking software!
6. Software availability. More widely than Microsoft-produced applications like Office, there is a distinct lack of commercial application software on Linux. That isn’t the fault of the various Linux distro communities, but nor is apportioning blame something the end-user is bothered about (as I pointed out in the Office section above). There are of course Linux substitutes for most of these available, but few are up to the task. Despite what any FSF zealot might tell you, Gimp is NOT as good as Photoshop, Openoffice.org is NOT as good as Office 2007.
7. Availability of community help. ‘The Community’ (capitalisation intended) is often cited as one of the main strengths of Linux. I’ve found the opposite. There are plenty of threads on the Ubuntu Forums in which the gracious responses of the community are ‘RTFM’ or ‘Use the search function asshole’. Ignoring of course, the proposition that the user is asking for help because he/she cannot find the solution in the profanely-referenced sources. The sheer number of Windows users out there also increases the chances of your help request being seen by someone who has had the same problem, and is willing to help. Addressing a question to 92% of computer users is, for obvious reasons, more likely to get you an answer than addressing it to 0.7% of computer users.
8. Actually being able to buy a computer. Price is often quoted as one of the primary advantages of using Linux. I suppose in the USA, where Dell and many others will sell you a computer with Linux (or no operating system - just a DVD’s worth of difference after all) preinstalled. I have yet to find anyone doing the same in the UK. So if, in the process of your cost-saving switch to Linux, you have to buy a computer and a copy of Windows anyway, you have sort of defeated the point of the exercise.Unless you’re going to live in the USA (the likes of Dell won’t ship their US machines overseas), buy a Linux-equipped computer, then come back to the UK (which would cost more than that OEM copy of Windows you’re so against - even before the import duty), you’ll be buying a copy of Windows anyway. Yes, that’s because Microsoft has questionable bundling deals with computer manufacturers, but unless you’re the EU competition commissioner (I’ll work on the assumption that you aren’t) there isn’t anything you can do about that. EDIT: Dell’s announcement of Ubuntu-equipped PCs for the UK weakens this advantage slightly. For ‘Actually being able to buy a computer’, now read ‘Having a choice of computer manufacturer’
9. Plug and play. Fiddling with a computer is fun, but it is something that the geeks among us to for choice. I would hate to be forced to do that on a regular basis. Vista teething problems (which have occured with every operating system release, Microsoft and otherwise) aside, when you go out and buy a piece of software, or a piece of hardware, you don’t have to worry about whether it will work. You don’t have to spend hours googling, and weighing up often-conflicting compatibility reports before deciding to gamble with your money. You just hand over the cash (or, more likely these days, type in your card number) and use whatever it is you’ve purchased.
10. Guaranteed availability. Whatever our opinion of them, I think we can all agree that Microsoft won’t be going out of business any time soon. If you buy a copy of Windows today, there will still be a company around to support it in five years time. Can you say the same about the myriad, usually very small, companies which produce the various Linux distributions? Competing for 0.7% of the market doesn’t leave you with much room to cope with difficulties.

UPDATE 24th March 08: I feel it’s only fair to disclose at this point that I eventually lost my temper with Word’s auto-formatting ways (the ones that can’t be turned off) and the goddamned Ribbon interface. I’m now happily using OpenOffice.org, although I’m still using Windows.