I recently (a few month ago) bought a rather cool toy. A Samsung Ativ Smart PC Pro running Windows 8. Even a date for Windows 8.1 hadn't been released yet.
OK. OK. OK. I know a lot of you will instantly recommend that I stick Windows 7 on it. (or XP or some flavour of GNU/Linux... Vista is not an option).
Don't get me wrong. I like Linux. I run both my work and home desktops and several servers and other sundry machines on Debian, Ubuntu and Fedora. My phone is Android and I have an Android tablet. Lots of Linux. In fact I only run Windows on laptops and similar devices because I have had trouble in the past trying to get the esoteric hardware to function properly, and well, Windows "Just Works". Really! (At least after you remove all the crud the manufacturers invariably add).
I'd even go so far as to say, if you have a touch screen Windows 8 isn't half bad.
I have a gripe with Samsung though.
"SW Update"
It's a wonderful program that lets you install (or reinstall) any of the drivers and programs that come with your machine. And update them to the latest version. And once a day it even tells you if there's an update!
Very useful.
It includes all the crud too, like 2 cloud filesharing programs, a DVD player (it doesn't come with a DVD drive), a crappy program launcher and some other shite.
Uninstall... Uninstall... Uninstall....
"An update is available which may make your machine run better, stop polluting, cure world hunger and generate unlimited electricity from sneezes. Just run SW Update."
OK. I ran it.
No updates.
There's an update button. I clicked it.
Still no updates.
Every day it does this!
I got fed up and used the SW Update managed program to IM with Samsung support. Easy, they'll be able to tell me how to shut it up.
"So you want to uninstall SW Update?"
"No. Just stop it notifying me about stuff I don't want."
"You can't stop it. It's just written that way."
"What about the 'Software' tray app? I set that so 'shut up about everything'?"
Silence.
I gave up. (I summarised the conversation somewhat...)
Anyway, I can live with notifications once a day.
Along comes Windows 8.1!
Cue fireworks, street parties, drunken orgies etc.
OK. Store -> Windows 8.1.
"Installing".... wait... no progress... wait... no progress...
Reboot. Try again.
Installing... Please wait while I reboot. Please wait for windows update. Please wait while I reboot. SW Update some new drivers....
Hang on! Why is that a very short list of software now????
Wifi... no internet... internet... no internet...
Auto-rotate screen... flash black... then rotate...
Touch screen... ge..tt..i...n.....g...... stopped working.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!
WHAT HAVE I DONE!!!?!??!?!?!?!
OK. OK. Calm down.
You can restore Windows 8, just ask Windows to reinstall itself. It should return it to factory defaults.
Click..... I need to reboot to do this... OK
Reboot. Blue screen!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Reboot. Windows 8.1. Still broken!
WWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reading online.... lots of reading online... "Recover"... Aha!
Run Recover. I need a backup first :(
Damn!
Reading online... reading online...
No I don't! It defaults to factory defaults!!!!
YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reboot... Windows update... Reboot... Store updates... Reboot.... repeat.
Windows 8 again!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment