Discussion on:

10 Windows annoyances (that Linux doesn't have)

While I accept what you say regarding Linux being suitable for you, you really shouldn't assume that it is the case for others.

This is my biggest gripe with these sorts of posts. Fine, you like it, don't be so arrogant as to think you know what other people might like or prefer. It's insulting in the extreme to act or believe that you can possibly know what someone else might like.

It's like going to the lunch shop and ordering a sandwich. Often when they don't have the condiment/filling that you requested the person making the roll chooses what they would prefer instead. Then they are surprised when I'm annoyed and won't buy the result. Where do they get off believing that their taste is somehow universal? Utter arrogance of the worst kind.

We are individuals, please treat us as such and respect our differences.

Where was the assumption that everyone does or would like using Linux? Arrogance, indeed.

Isn't my post showing as a response to it?

You are doing exactly what I said. How do you know that we don't know what we're missing? Has it occurred to you that we may have tried it and found it wanting?
Or that your preferences are not the same as others?

http://www.dexpot.de/index.php?lang=en
Windows supports third party programs that add functionality, WHAT A SHOCK.

Oh, 3D desktops, a quick google search proved you wrong again.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/01/13/enable-3d-desktop-in-windows-xp-95-98-me-and-2000-with-madotate/

I use both OS's, I find the Apps on Windows crazy more stable then on Linux.

Quick example, VNC, why won't it work in anything but full colour mode? Why does it randomly disappear, why do I randomly lose the ability to open the F8 menu?

Transmission, why does the program randomly disappear?

pigin, why does the program randomly turn grey and lose everything in it, requiring a force kill.
emsn, why does it randomly disconnect and refuse to connect till you restart the program?
FireFox, why does it randomly have trouble reloading old web pages, the ("well this is embarrassing") error is getting irritating.
Why does full screen Wine frequently cripple the system, often to the point where NIx ignores all keyboard input and you have to hard boot. I tried once running mount and blade, it starts up a massive resource leak that within about 20 seconds, the system grinds to a halt and mouse and keyboard inputs start to get delayed, first by seconds, then minutes. And Linux lacks any proper interrupt key to kill out of control processes.

About the only reason I use Linux is it browses the web a bit more smoothly, but, run into flash videos and immediately it has trouble again. My Laptop has no trouble playing 720 videos on Youtube in Windows, but in Linux, its about 5fps or less.

Open up that process viewing program in Nix, and it shows about 3-7% CPU usage at idle, Windows shows 0-1% CPU usage, Which is hogging resources???

If your back to Ubuntu remember that it's based on bleeding edge beta quality code from Debian's Testing and Unstable branches. Mint, being "Ubuntu but with more polish" inherets the Beta roots through Canonical's use of Debian Testing/Unstable branches.

Not saying it's all roses and sunshine for me right now with Deiban 6 being such a new release either though. Something in the Dolphin file manager crashes it out pretty constantly; at least it's not like Explorer crashes which take out the desktop control objects until the process restarts. Still, canceling hung file copies and restarting Dolphin is getting pretty old so hopefully that comes up in the priority order sooner rather than later. Deb6 is barely two months old though so it will stabalize as time goes on.

Firefox does seem to hang when switching to more dormant tabs but this is not Linux specific; getting the same behavior from Windows FF3.6.13 and FF4 Beta 11.

Pidgin, Emsn, Wine and Transmissions I've not been using so I can't suggest if it's due to Canonical/Mint including less stable versions rather than more stable but less bleeding edge ones. Transmissions is a bittorrent client isn't it? Maybe look at ktorrent if you've gone the KDE way; been rock solid.

(Just offering the information; each to there own in the end)

In terms of resources, the measurments can be missleading. Linux based systems will apear to be using all or a lot more of there ram because it's used for caching that can instantly be dumped if a program requires the memory.

With the CPU, you'd have to look at what is running and have equivalent jobs on both Win/Lin test boxes for any real comparison (I wonder if I have the winDeb scripts I used for the Donovan experiment still). My Debian is sitting on top of an encrypted file system so right there I'm unable to compare to my WinXP desktop without encryption overhead (may reboot the notebook for win7 encrypted for couriosity). The Conky process alone is adding processor time to monitor and display my choice of system stats. (Conky is awsome goodness) You'd actualy have to remove things from Mint to prune it down to a base WinXP (I've not compared Win7 directly function by function).

Simply reading out percentages with no context is about as accurate as the nobb above claiming Linux based OS are ideal for everyone and every situation.

while running use it without any command line. Explain how to get 5.1 surround to work with realtek hd audio(alc662). These are the only issues preventing me from switching to permanently. I watch too many movies on my computer and I paid too much for my sound system to not use it. I have searched for days trying to figure the last one out. And for the first one most people will never use command line. Until command line is a secondary option and not the only way to configure then linux will never be the primary operating system in peoples homes.

That was a specific issue to hardware, but to exacerbate this issue even further for you, let's talk about Netflix on Linux. Google it, it's hilarious. The answer is to run a virtual machine with Windows on it running at partial speed and just deal with the glitchiness. The answer for everything you can't do in Linux? Run Windows in a virtual machine. Every time I see that, it never stops being funny (or ironic).

Windows isn't responsible for Realtek's drivers either; the issue is Realtek not bothering to provide drivers for non-Windows OS though they claim to sell general purpose computer components.

In my case, I'd like to have seen Creative put a little more effort in also but I'll give them respect for doing it half right by passing on the driver code to the Alsa sound project when Creative stopped developing them (shame they didn't pass on more documentation for full 5.1 sound or keep developers on the project working with the Alsa developers). For me, the bugs are greatly outweighed by the benefits but that does depend on how one uses the machine and I'm still sent rebooting to WinXP the odd occasion thanks to game and hardware manufacturers imposing the OS choice on me; you have to use the OS the required software runs on after all.

They don't include non MS drivers on the cds, but all it took to get the SOURCE CODE from Realtek for a wireless network card [ usb key type ] was 1 email asking where the driver was on their site.

They do provide the drivers for other operating systems.
somewhere oddly placed on their site, not in the downloads section.

...And I know positively, beyond a doubt that my pick-up truck is the perfect personal transportation vehicle. My neighbor, on the other hand, is equally convinced that his station wagon is the perfect personal transportation vehicle. If, in fact, either one of us had the perfect vehicle for everyone, the other model would not exist.

Some Linux version may be perfect (or the better choice) for some, and some Windows version may be perfect (or the better choice) for others. When all forms of the word "configure" are removed from some Linux version, Linux will see MANY converts. Until then, Linux remains "by geeks, for geeks".

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it

Let me know when that issue is fixed in Windows or osX also.. cause I've yet to see any OS or application lacking forms of the word "configure".

"some Linux version" would also include all server, appliance and otherwise embedded uses so actually, there are Linux distributions without the word "configure" in any meaningful relationship to the consumer device; your welcome.

(it's not your preference for any particular truck or software platform that I tripped over but your slogging the "by geeks for geeks" only thing. Your demonstrating the other side of Jack's bias coin; same zeal, different branding.)

I found the article enjoyable and can understand all of the valid points. I found Linux_since_1991's comment to be the more typical elitist crap I typically hear from Linux users. Whether Linux is 1 million times more superior just seems irrelevant today. The majority of the internet user base seems to be quite happy browsing with their smart phones.

While more skilled users can certainly find use for multidesktops, does the average "user" really have a need. Aren't most of these people just surfing the internet, checking facebook, on youtube, or download/listening/watching media? I know the majority of the end users I supported did.

LS1991's comments could be copied and pasted from a forum post from the mid 90's. Meaning the arguments, arrogance, and slang (windoze...c'mon, really?) is still the same decades later. It's just old and tiresome honestly though I do appreciate your energy.

And I quote: """While more skilled users can certainly find use for multidesktops, does the average "user" really have a need. """

After my wife (a neophyte) & Win95 went rounds (and rounds, and rounds), I got a great deal on a DEC 3000 Model 300 Unix box running Tru64 Unix. I set it up for her and showed her how to use it (although "Doubleclick on Netscape" isn't difficult to translate no matter what GUI you're using) and she loved it as an average user (and I loved it as it was bulletproof). Since that time (around '97, I think) she's used a version of Unix or Linux ever since. She doesn't know how to install programs, set up networking or printers, or anything even semi-knowledgeable users can do, yet she *loves* the multiple desktop feature. She has her schoolwork on Panel 1, her personal browsing on Panel 2, Panel 3 is "just in case" and Panel 4 is if my kids need to do something on the computer. The kids know not to diddle with any panel but #4. (Also, none of my kids are "exceptional" with computers like their dad.)

You don't have to be a geek to appreciate the multiple desktops.

Laterz,
"Merch"

P.S. Is the "windoze" really any different/worse than the "Linsux" I see so often from the Winders fanboys?

"P.S. Is the "windoze" really any different/worse than the "Linsux" I see so often from the Winders fanboys? "

Probably not. I'm really neither. I've been in the industry or tinkering 20+ years and I get tired of it all honestly. The "I'm superior because" posturing just get's old. I enjoy level minded discussions about the pros and cons of OS's, Browsers, Servers, etc. This article is not one of those...

I do like your the case for multidesktops. Your explanation was considerate and belittled anyone's knowledge or tastes. My wife would never like it because she hates more than one window open. More than one browser tab open stresses her.

Now me on the other hand...I'm routinely logged into 10 different server with 10 different windows, processes all running. I can see a benefit to this multidesktop thing you speak of.

Jack, this article makes it seem like you really are not too familiar with Windows. I recognize that you don't use it too much, but every article I read by you gives the impression that not only do you not use Windows very often, but your experiences using it are primarily on machines that are not well administered. In fact, I've been getting the distinct impression that the client machines you deal with are in these small offices that try to run a Windows network on a Linux budget, so to speak, because you are constantly complaining about things that aren't working well in scenarios that you don't see in properly run Windows networks for business, like issues with Windows workgroups or sharing resources attached to desktops. I think that if you spent a little more time with Windows networks that a) are set up with Active Directory and b) centralize resources at the server or network level you be a lot less unimpressed. Just like Linux has its way of doing certain things, so does Windows, and one of those ways of doing things is Active Directory. Ignore AD at your own risk in a Windows network!

Let's look, piece by piece, at your items and see how they look when judged in the light of a properly groomed Windows environment.

1. I'll grant you this. Right on the money. If Linux ever gets a decent level of desktop adoption, it may change, but for now, this is definitely accurate.

2. Huh? The *only* time I've had a flaky network connection... with *any* computer (regardless of OS)... was when there was something physically wrong or a bad driver.

3. I don't see this too much on Windows. The one time it hit me in recent memory, it turned out that my CPU fan was improperly mounted and the CPU was being throttled to try to contain the overheat scenario. Hardly a Windows issue. Defrags are out-of-the-box set to a weird hour of the day (like 3 AM or something). Most other weird slowdowns are caused by out of control apps, and there's nothing about Linux that says memory leaks can't happen.

4. Apps log stuff to event log ALL THE TIME. What garbageware are you using that doesn't? That's not a Windows problem, that's an app problem.

5. See #4. You are clearly used to using poorly written apps that wouldn't do what they need to do regardless of OS.

6. What does this have to do with Windows? Oh, I get it... if someone used Linux, they wouldn't have Outlook or proper Exchange integration at all, that's an "improvement"?

7. I have no clue what you are talking about. Printing is easy. More to the point... why in the world are you sharing printers directly connected to PCs? In most business environments, printers sit on the network all by themselves. Sounds to me like you're dealing with Mickey Mouse people who are trying to be cheap and paying the price for it. A decent network laser printer is $100.

8. Sounds like your networks are workgroups, not Active Directory domains. A problem for extremely small businesses and homes. There's little excuse for a company who has a server to not be using a server OS. Would you set up a Linux network and just share desktop drives out? Of course not, you'd designate one machine to be a server, and ensure it was on a UPS, getting backed up, etc. (I hope you would, at least). Do the same thing with Windows. Yes, you'll need to spend some extra money for a server version of Windows. That's the price of playing the Windows game, and I'd argue that this is a MUCH bigger complaint that what you've listed.

9. This is a personal preference item. I *personally* never could get used to the multiple desktops, and I used X for years at a time. I prefer multiple monitors, because I like to see a lot at once (whereas multiple desktops is all about hiding things, when you think about it), but that's all personal preference.

10. Windows 7 runs fine on 2 GB of RAM. It looks like the resources are disappearing, because Windows pre-allocates RAM and does stuff like pre-loads DLLs. In reality, that actually makes things faster. It's like how any machine with SQL Server installed always shows SQL Server gobbling up every free scrap of RAM, it does that on purpose and releases it as apps need it.

J.Ja

I've been managing and supporting PCs since the first DOS machines, probably earlier. I've definitely become disenchanted with Microsoft's direction over the past 10 years, but I disagree with and find no value in this article. I know like the rest of us here that Windows has it's flaws, JUST LIKE ANY OTHER OS! But at the same time when properly installed, configured, and maintained, and on proper hardware, Windows will run reliably well. What I find is that when IT people fail to grasp an understanding of something in their field, (e.g. Windows, a 3rd-party app, etc.) they are quick to knock the flaws, even to the point of making them up. One of my techs was complaining heavily about Ubuntu with one of the primary reasons being that "they" took away the ability to logon as root. Ok so it is locked by default but you can easily Google for how to unlock it - does that make Ubuntu flawed?

I don't mind Windows (but I'm "excited" by it anymore). But I personally and nearly all businesses can do whatever they need to with it, and without a lot of effort. Unfortunately the same is not true for Linux (or UNIX or Mac for that matter) - I wish this would change because I actually like Linux and after nearly 30 years of DOS & Windows, I'd really like to dabble in something different. But the reality is that in order for me to do that, Linux has to be able to run the operations of small and medium businesses top to bottom w/o any quirky configurations involving WINE, virtual machines, terminal servers for Windows business apps, etc. because while these solutions may be fine for us geeks, they're not acceptable to most all SMBs. And even if I were to attempt to piece some sort of Linux-solution together to match a Windows environment, any savings in open source applications is going to disappear in the cost of my time to make it all work and to keep it all working, not to mention the regular maintenance that should be performed with any OS. Meanwhile what is the compelling reason here for an SMB to make a dramatic shift in their computing platform?

I hate to say it, but Linux lost its opportunity to become dominant in the SMB market by virtue of its very being - not owned or controlled by any one company which has prevented a comprehensive solution for SMBs being developed as sort of a pseudo-standard. The only true threat right now to Windows is the Cloud, but I expect that Linux will finally find its place there as the OS that runs most of it.

It's a bad administrator habbit to log into anything as root/admin in the first place; log in as user, sudo the root command or "su" yourself over to root if you need that kind of access. I love the fact that win7 finally allows one to work as admin without a dedicated admin login session; finally. Your techs really need to fix that bad habbit if they are complaining about not being able to risk security compromise by logging in as Root.

"
I hate to say it, but Linux lost its opportunity to become dominant in the SMB market by virtue of its very being - not owned or controlled by any one company...
"

"Linux" isn't competing for the SMB market; it's simply a kernel commonly used in several different but interoperable software platforms. The distribution which may or may not use the Linux kernel is the product; the consumer competitive step in the retail chain. In the same way, a shirt is the competive product not the type of thread used in it's seams. Distributions are assemblies of commodity parts and one of those commodity parts happens to be an OS kernel. Cars are assemblies of mostly commodity parts which happen go include an engine; not really different yet we don't claim the auto-industry is a failure because not all cars are designed and manufactuered by one brand name owner.

It is SMB and enterprise targetted distributions which should be providing the virticle stacks. Red Hat and Suse distributions need to provide the LDAP and other server side stuff along with the workstation side stuff. Heck, on the workstation side, you could also choose among other distributions provided they include the client side components of that server; chances are they due since distributions respect cross platform standards far better than Windows does; protocols and data file formats are not used against the user/consumer as competitive advantages to drive lock-in. If a distribution isn't working, chances are you just backup the user home directories and drop them on top of a different distribution.

As for the distributions which don't target SMB and enterprise environments; who are we to demand they forget there own product design goals merge into one of business targetting distributions? It's like demanding GM merge with Hiyandai because they both happen to use combustion engines; ignoring the fact that they are in competition with each other and produce vehicles with different design goals though those competitive products can both use unbranded roads and unbranded fuel.

As for "opertunity to become dominant".. I didn't realize the software market was a static race with sent finish line. It seems more like a rolling market place constantly open to new and better products (for lack of some software vendors trying to stamp out such free market competition).

Very true, for a Windows network, you really do need the LDAP from the Active Directory service for best management. I'd like to see more of the policies properly flow to the client nodes as I've seen policy rules ignored bo workstations in painfully simple AD setups (not talking multiple policy sheets stacked and conflicting here). It makes authentication rock solid though; my only grief with Win mounting CIFS shares under an AD was due to dying hardware inbetween the two machines.

(Still a shame that Jack is not more active in the forums. I think it'd be an interesting conversation between the two of you if points where allowed to evolve beyond the initial article.)

... but I doubt it will ever happen. I know he's not dodging me, he responds only rarely to *any* responders, regardless of the quality of their posts. I know he's really busy, if you look around, he writes for a zillion publications, and he's writing 3 - 5 TR articles a week. Personally, I write 1 - 2 TR articles a week, and keeping up with the conversation on those articles plus a couple of other author's articles takes up a significant portion of my time. If I were writing 3 - 5 articles a week, plus other publications, there's no way I'd be able to respond to anything.

J.Ja

I've at least two other sites I regularly see Jack pop up on and his howto type articles tend to be great reads. It's just this type of article falling much closer to troll-bating where interaction could be of a lot more value.

I do understand the workload also though. I think someone actually did a "how to work with journalists" article a few months ago which pointed out that one shouldn't expect immediate responses to email and such as the writer may be busy with deadlines or another topic and will get back to the email related one when applicable.

It's just the pidgining of some of these articles; toss out a bunch of inflammatory points then stand back and watch without supporting or clarifying them. It detracts from the FOSS topic and reads as yet another "FOSS is perfect always" claim rather than helping inform others about possible alternative solutions.

Cheers to you for taking the time to call him out and question with these articles though.

The entire reason you don't have to worry about antivirus problems on a Linux desktop is that the people writing virus programs don't care enough about Linux to write a virus for them. I have issues when people say Mac's or Linux is better about anitivirus. It's not that they are necessarily better; it's that if you are going to write a program to do the most damage logically you'll target the OS with the most market share.

they really may be better.
If they have a better architecture, better design principles, more consistent modularization, fewer ancient things with new things bolted on top, etc. etc. - then they will be better, even if there was equal effort from criminals.

security blogs, you'll see that particular argument debunked several times.

AV, no argument
Flaky network on windows, not for years...

Mysterious and even unmysterious slowdowns, can't argue, but it's as much lack of knowledge about the OS than the inherrent design flaws as far as user experience goes.

Mysterious crashes, got to say windows is way better than it used to be, can't remeber a system crash for years. Applications flunking out, usually older ones...

Troubleshooting, can't agree, that's knowledge experinece ability and then tools. I'm not a big fan of somke asopects of the windows event log, but using it is application developer's choice.

Outlook isn't OS, it's a distro...

Printing, nothing but familiarity.

Networking, agreed, various commercial reasons means they are and have been, and will be all over the place with this. interms of sharing proven standard mechanisms like NFS would have been a much better choice.

Multiuple desktops, well I like them, others don't. Don't forget they are the tip of the iceberg though, the number of things you'd have to do to make them work effectively in windows would amount to a full rewrite.

Resources, windows itself leaks a lot less than it used to, the applications that are written for it, not too good, but's that's more about the good enough cookie cutting type approach of commercial development.

You've drowned some decent points in straw men and drivel, I'm afraid.

There is a Compiz-like cube, there are multiple desktop apps, available for Windows. In fact, you can pretty much make your Mac, Windows or Linux desktop look *virtually* like any of the other two, if you really want to. I've never quite understood that. If you dig the Expose and Spaces paradigm of computing, get a Mac. Now, to be fair, I do set up my Compiz environment in Ubuntu to mimic Expose and Spaces, right down to the function-key presses they're mapped to. But putting a OS X dock with "coverflow" eye-candy on my Win7 machine? Meh. Same with putting a Compiz Cube on my Win or Mac PC. In any case ultimately, these are kludges, so multiple-desktops in a Win environment doesn't work with the same elegence that it does in a *nix environment. But, I can adjust between the different environments. I use multiple desktops and find them convenient when I'm on a *nix box. On Windows, I have multiple physical monitors I use the same way, plus I minimize and get better and using aero and quick-switching to manage multiple windows. As I've said, on OS X, Expose and Spaces. Each platform has a solution that delivers the same end user experience. Jack has a *preference* for Multiple desktops, because that is what he uses. If he used all 3 as often as I do, he would have a less biased perspective and learn to leverage the method appropriate to that OS platform/kernel to achieve the same goal.

I like them for technical reasons, essentially separation of concerns.
Sort of carries over into work as well. So I'll have a console up for mysql, a GUI, IDE for coding, and more than possibly as different users all at the same time.

Works for me because I came from a mainframe environment, At some points I was working on three dumb terminals at the same time, later I had three instance of an emulator going, or three sessions on a DEC workstation.
Not the sort of thing an appliance user needs, I'll be the first to admit, but the facility to do it has all sorts of other quality benefits.
And windows basically can't, at best it fudges it, and quite often poorly because it's trying to make multiple windows = multiple desktops, which it most definitley isn't.
I use windows much much more than I do other Oses now, so I've got used to the lack, I don't like it though, not even a little bit.

I can see your point. Neccessity dictates features to a certain extent. I'm sure if I dig back in my mind all the way back to my original Vic-20, Coleco Adam, C-64... my first CP/M machine... each had some feature that I became very dependent on and found that the NEXT interface did not duplicate this function as well. Sometimes those ideas DO come back - for example, I was a big fan of a thing calle X-Tree for DOS multi-file functions. There were similar apps for Amiga-OS and any number of other platforms - but nothing quite like it ever showed up for Windows - to this day. My Modded XBox has several utilities that are clearly descendents of Xtree. I'm sure there are even better examples if I *really* thought about it.

That's about the only one I have to question. Outlook is an application; a mail and PIM application to be more specific. Windows is the distirbution where WinXP and Win7 are versions of that specific distribution and unlike FOSS distributions, only one vendor happens to have legitimate license to be a NTkernel based distribution maintainer. Outlook sure isn't an OS but it's no more an OS based distribution either. It doesn't compete with Windows, osX, Red Hat, Suse, Debian, Ubuntu, OpenBSD or any of the rest; it simply an application running on top of a few of them.

Nice post, but I think you'll find that not everyone has the same gripes, for example, I have 5 windows machines in my home, and I never have trouble with them. I guess people always complain and are generally afraid of what they don't understand? Never the less, malware does target windows machines more than Linux, I mean there is a rather large percentage of windows machines out there, and, obviously more knowledge and generally a better following, so if I were writing malware, I could easier find something to exploit in windows than linux. Anyhow, to each their own.

nt

I disagree. Subject the site contributors to the tyranny of the majority. People are 10 times more likely to give a thumbs down than a thumbs up in general. People only leave rants in the forums when they disagree. You can't enable readers to bury the root articles because they don't like the message. Such a system would *kill* my blogs (which might get some readers thinking this is actually a GREAT idea) - but you would find that while I'd be getting buried by the Linux crowd while not getting any LOVE from the Windows crowd, Jack might be experiencing the opposite, to the same degree. Seems like a real bad idea, to me.

After all, I had immediately set the limit to -10

Hidden posts are too easy to overlook, and comments beneath a hidden post are too easy to read out of context. I'll be setting my threshold to the max.

If you run thru the list by clicking on the 'next' link, it will display hidden posts. My limit is set at -10 and I was able to read one at -13 doing this. It seems to just hide it in the list and disallow clicking on the post but allows access via the 'next' link.

fight every winders install into submission,
through Group Policy, Security Policy, and .reg hacks
to make it behave as close as possible to win3.1x / 9x
including using the NT4 File manager when necessary)?

not interfering with what I'm doing;
ie.
consider just a few of the Group Policy settings I change:

Administrative Templates\System\Turn Off AutoPlay
(in both Computer Configuration and User Configuration)

User Configuration\Start Menu and Taskbar\
- Do not keep history of recently opened documents
- Clear document history on exit
- Turn off personalized menus
- Turn off user tracking
- Turn off notification area cleanup

win 3.1x doesn't do anything when I insert a CD, why would I ever want that problem?
win 3.1x doesn't spy on everything I do and keep a record of it in the registry why would I ever want that?
win 3.1x doesn't fill up yer hard disk with stupid .lnk files pointing to docs you've opened

my apps have their own recent list why would I need winders to do that

win 9x - 2K doesn't collapse the system tray so you can't see that yer being attacked because you haven't clicked the network Icon in a few days

win7 doesn't even have a network status activity icon anymore
and a third party tool is required to get it back
etc.

using NT4 File manager is like using a razor versus a butter knife

when I need fast efficient file management File Manager is the tool
with File Manager I can outstrip even the fastest explorer user
try to rename a thousand files in one shot with explorer
doesn't happen you have to do them one at a time or get stiffed with
filename.ext
filename(1).ext
filename(2).ext
...
filename(999).ext

whereas in file manager you get a "Rename Dialog" where you change what you want
including using * and ? as wild cards to replace only those characters in the file names

etc.

Recent Documents - Using this list saves time. As you say, you apps have recent file lists. But, you still have to open the app, then open the file.

Tray - Why are you under attack? Haven't you configured your system to be safe? Or do you do unsafe things like installing software you know nothing about? Or opening attachments you don't recognize?

Renaming - This works in Explorer and has for years.

Notifications - If you want the network status icon to stay visible, why don't you configure it to do so?

Autorun - Again, don't you know what you're sticking in the drive? Having a CD play on insert is very convenient. What's the issue?

Recent Documents - Using this list saves time. As you say, you apps have recent file lists. But, you still have to open the app, then open the file.

Recent docs list doesn't help me, it only serves as winders spyware
and start menu cluttering
if I'm wanting to open a particular file chances are 99% I've already got the app. open
and if I don't it still takes the same amount of time to open the app regardless of whether winders calls it or I specifically open it from the icon
_ _

Tray - Why are you under attack? Haven't you configured your system to be safe? Or do you do unsafe things like installing software you know nothing about? Or opening attachments you don't recognize?

Shat can still happen ! !
Regardless of whether or not I've configured my system and network for safe use
- which I have,
- and no I don't download and install anything from anywhere
- - I'm more picky about my sources than the average 4 year old at dinner time
- and no I don't open attachments
- and no I don't surf weirdo sites
- and no I don't click short url redirects, (never have, never will)
etc.

I use NoScript, Flashblock, AdBlock Plus, Better Privacy, Flagfox and Formfox
add-ons for Firefox
_ _

Renaming - This works in Explorer and has for years.

Rename does not work in explorer,
if you select more than one file they all get the same name followed by a (1), (2), etc.

see the following images:

Results of Bulk rename in explorer:
http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz249/WhatNameShoudIUse/ExplorerRename.png?t=1296761239

the results, all files are given the same name followed by (#)

File Manager Rename Dialog: with 28 files selected for rename
http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz249/WhatNameShoudIUse/FMRename.png?t=1296761314

the results: all files are renamed to start with 1000 and the rest of the file name is retained
_ _

Notifications - If you want the network status icon to stay visible, why don't you configure it to do so?

I did,
I use the Group Policy "Turn off notification area cleanup"
from the Start Menu properties configuration UI it's called "Hide inactive Icons"

the group policy gets pushed out to all users so all are configured in one shot
_ _

Autorun - Again, don't you know what you're sticking in the drive? Having a CD play on insert is very convenient. What's the issue?

convenience is the maker of all infections / hosed machines,
if people would use their systems with the same safety considerations
that the bomb squad uses when checking out a suspicious package
there would be very little incentive for those monsters to code malware

I disable autoplay / autorun
for that very reason,
having a CD start immediately upon insert is not a convenience,
it's no less than a friggin irritation especially when the disc contains a setup file for a previous version of winders
or the setup file installs shat I don't want

ie. the Nero CD shipped with my Yamaha burner installs more junk than is useful
however with autocrap disabled
I can insert the CD and install the necessar