I can’t stand Windows Vista.
An example from today. I’m using Vista in Parallels to test a web site I’m working on. Okay, I go in, I make notes about rendering issues with IE 7 with the site (IE is the least standards compliant browser out there, including IE7). I want to shut down Vista and get on with my life.
I go to the Windows menu (yeah, the Start menu) and the default option for shutting down is “Shutdown and Install Updates). I skip that option and select “Shutdown” from the little side menu... and what does Vista do but it decides to install updates before shutting down without even asking me for permission.
Stupid Vista! Stupid Vista! Stupid Vista!
I’m tempted to just force quit parallels. Heck, I’m tempted to just nuke the hard disk file for the Vista soft-partition. Heck, point me toward a red button and I’ll nuke Redmond (not really, but darn me if an OS that does what it wants regardless of what I want is going to get the better of me).
To be fair, IE is 100% standards-compliant. Just not any standards that didn’t come from Microsoft.
Or, to put it another way, in Microsoft’s eyes IE7 IS the standard and it’s the W3C that’s non-compliant.