Sorry, I'm not trying to bash Linux users too much but I was just trying to get a perspective on things.
I don't know why you have issues with running programs in XP. Fair enough if you're trying to get some really old things working, I can imagine that takes a bit of finessing. So far (touch wood) I've not had to do anything with the Program Compatability Wizard. Everything I've tried to run, runs.
There have been some old Blitz exe's I downloaded which MAV'd on loading. You can't go saying it's Windows fault, it's not, it's Blitz's or the original coder's fault (depending on your point of view). The fact that you see the MAV error means that XP is actually doing its job of protecting itself (and therefore you) against defective programs.
You also mention admin privileges. Again, I can't see that we can blame Windows for this. It's things like this that result from applications not following quite reasonable guidelines about how they allocate and use system resources. It is the same now as it was when DOS 5 was king. When updating DOS, Microsoft had to allow for broken apps. There was a classic one where a number of apps accessed files after freeing the file handle. Due to a quirk, this actually did work under previous DOS versions, so Microsoft had to continue to allow such bugged code to run perfectly. It was either that, or popular apps would fail to run and all the users would blame Microsoft for breaking things.
I don't understand your reference to Microsoft and API's. Microsoft changed a lot of API's in order to fix inherant design problems etc. You cannot expect old stuff to just continue to work. Just like you can't run the same program on two different flavours of Linux (or worse, the application works except for one aspect which you don't find out about until 5 minutes before deadline (as a rough example - pure conjecture based on no facts whatsoever ;) ).
Like I said, I don't like things about Windows, but I've tried and tested a number of OS's and unfortunately, it's the best of the bunch for what I want to use my PC for.
Playing the odd game (without mouse acceleration), Word/Excel/OneNote (mostly Excel and OneNote), Blitz, downloading 10GiB+ files from usenet, playing HDTV films at 1920x1080 with a virtual-speaker audio setting that makes things sound nice with my headphones, playing APE files, Printing custom DVD covers and discs (Canon i865 direct to disc printing) and lastly, dabbling with Reason with my Evolution MK-225C keyboard/controller connected via USB.
**EDIT**
I know of Linux alternatives for pretty much all of the above tasks. I'm sure some are even superior in functionality, features or speed. The thing is though, it's a real PITA to get everything up and running. I'd rather not have all the million and one options installed when I put Linux on my PC, but then you have problems with dependancies. Then there's the niggling things like not being able to completely disable mouse acceleration (I don't tolerate it on my PC, it really is my nemesis).
Honestly, if someone can come round to my house and sort my PC out with Linux so that I can do all the abovementioned tasks, I will be a happy man. It's just not a simple or rewarding enough process for me to want to spend the day or two doing it myself.
I recently switched back to MS Office from OpenOffice. OpenOffice was nice. I liked the interface, the ethos, the whole package. It just wasn't MS Office though. RAM usage was mad, loading times poor. I know this is unavoidable, being Java based, but you can't just say "it's OK, it's because of Java" and ignore the fact that the slow loading and high RAM usage is happening. I use MS Office at work as well, switching between the two did cause me a few problems (press Del in Calc and you'll see what I mean).
If I went to Linux, OpenOffice is really the only viable Office-type environment which means the RAM usage and loading times problem comes back. On reflection though, I think I would probably suffer that, if everything else was up to par.
I don't know why you have issues with running programs in XP. Fair enough if you're trying to get some really old things working, I can imagine that takes a bit of finessing. So far (touch wood) I've not had to do anything with the Program Compatability Wizard. Everything I've tried to run, runs.
There have been some old Blitz exe's I downloaded which MAV'd on loading. You can't go saying it's Windows fault, it's not, it's Blitz's or the original coder's fault (depending on your point of view). The fact that you see the MAV error means that XP is actually doing its job of protecting itself (and therefore you) against defective programs.
You also mention admin privileges. Again, I can't see that we can blame Windows for this. It's things like this that result from applications not following quite reasonable guidelines about how they allocate and use system resources. It is the same now as it was when DOS 5 was king. When updating DOS, Microsoft had to allow for broken apps. There was a classic one where a number of apps accessed files after freeing the file handle. Due to a quirk, this actually did work under previous DOS versions, so Microsoft had to continue to allow such bugged code to run perfectly. It was either that, or popular apps would fail to run and all the users would blame Microsoft for breaking things.
I don't understand your reference to Microsoft and API's. Microsoft changed a lot of API's in order to fix inherant design problems etc. You cannot expect old stuff to just continue to work. Just like you can't run the same program on two different flavours of Linux (or worse, the application works except for one aspect which you don't find out about until 5 minutes before deadline (as a rough example - pure conjecture based on no facts whatsoever ;) ).
Like I said, I don't like things about Windows, but I've tried and tested a number of OS's and unfortunately, it's the best of the bunch for what I want to use my PC for.
Playing the odd game (without mouse acceleration), Word/Excel/OneNote (mostly Excel and OneNote), Blitz, downloading 10GiB+ files from usenet, playing HDTV films at 1920x1080 with a virtual-speaker audio setting that makes things sound nice with my headphones, playing APE files, Printing custom DVD covers and discs (Canon i865 direct to disc printing) and lastly, dabbling with Reason with my Evolution MK-225C keyboard/controller connected via USB.
**EDIT**
I know of Linux alternatives for pretty much all of the above tasks. I'm sure some are even superior in functionality, features or speed. The thing is though, it's a real PITA to get everything up and running. I'd rather not have all the million and one options installed when I put Linux on my PC, but then you have problems with dependancies. Then there's the niggling things like not being able to completely disable mouse acceleration (I don't tolerate it on my PC, it really is my nemesis).
Honestly, if someone can come round to my house and sort my PC out with Linux so that I can do all the abovementioned tasks, I will be a happy man. It's just not a simple or rewarding enough process for me to want to spend the day or two doing it myself.
I recently switched back to MS Office from OpenOffice. OpenOffice was nice. I liked the interface, the ethos, the whole package. It just wasn't MS Office though. RAM usage was mad, loading times poor. I know this is unavoidable, being Java based, but you can't just say "it's OK, it's because of Java" and ignore the fact that the slow loading and high RAM usage is happening. I use MS Office at work as well, switching between the two did cause me a few problems (press Del in Calc and you'll see what I mean).
If I went to Linux, OpenOffice is really the only viable Office-type environment which means the RAM usage and loading times problem comes back. On reflection though, I think I would probably suffer that, if everything else was up to par.