I’ve been forced to go back to using Windows occasionally with the start of a new quarter. That’s because my class requires that all assignments to be done in Word or InDesign. Before anybody points out that OpenOffice can save documents in Word format, I should point out that technical writing assignments are judged on design and formatting, so I can’t risk any loss of formatting in the translation. This means that I’ve been using Windows on my home computer for the first time in months.
The first thing that greeted me on startup (besides the much faster startup time compared to Ubuntu) was an interminable backlog of program updates from all those months. I found myself missing the one-click updates for everything that I get with Ubuntu.
The first time I tried to watch a video online, I also missed a little thing that I had taken for granted all those months. I forgot that Windows doesn’t display a volume graphic when you hit the volume button on the keyboard. I kept thinking, “What’s the volume? What’s the volume? I should be able to tell!” One positive, though, was the fact that adjusting the volume while watching a Flash video doesn’t take the video out of fullscreen mode.
Another thing I have to give Microsoft some credit for is Office 2007. Sure it’s a huge, bloated program, but I actually like the look and the interface. The “ribbon” setup is a pretty good compromise between a million toolbar buttons and Adobe’s clunky tools interface. If only I could get it to work in Wine so I could do my homework in Linux.
Dances With Ubuntu 