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We have no common sense at all when dealing with computers.
   technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

The truth about Windows: It's not really an "operating" system because it's not in charge


April 16, 2000

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000, Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000, The Syracuse Newspapers

   Of all the criticisms you and I could aim at Windows, one stands out above all the rest.
   We all know that Windows crashes and runs out of memory and does weird things now and then, but the central problem of Windows is something else:
   Windows is not in charge.
   The operating system of any computer has one basic function. It is supposed to operate the computer. It's supposed to be in charge.
   That's pretty simple, right? It's so simple that it's easy to overlook.
   Strip away the mumbo-jumbo and try to view this in a non-computer fashion. Think about the school bus driver who stops at the end of your block every weekday morning. He's the "operator" of the bus. He's got one basic function. He's supposed to be in charge of the bus, driving it here and there and maintaining order on the bus.
   You know this as well as I do. You don't need an owner's manual to know that a bus driver who lets kids thow things out the window is not doing his job. A bus driver who lets kids punch each other in the back of the bus isn't doing his job.
   A bus driver like that is not an operator.
   How strange, then, that we don't understand the same principle when it comes to Windows.
   Microsoft calls Windows an operating system. But we know differently. Windows is a non-operating system.
    Windows is not in charge. It allows any program to mess up any other program at any time. This is bad enough, but Windows does something much worse. It allows any program to mess up the operating system's own files at any time.
   Get away from the nerd stuff for a minute. Think of it this way:
    If Windows were the police force, bad guys would run the jail. Crooks would own the gun shops. Morons would administer the IQ tests.
   A real operating system does not allow its own essential files to be tampered with. If you install a badly behaving program when a real operating system is in charge, the only thing the badly behaving program can do is make you wish you'd never installed it. It can't turn your copy of Microsoft Word into mush. It can't destroy your Internet connection. It can't keep your games from running.
   The fact that Windows is so badly behaved while being so widely used tells us more about ourselves than about Microsoft, the company that makes Windows. It tells us we have no common sense.
   Don't tell me I'm wrong. Oh, I know what you're going to say. Sure, we have a lot of common sense when dealing with raincoats and TVs and microwave ovens and bumpy roads.
   But you know it and I know it: We have no common sense at all when dealing with computers.
   We accept whatever the stores sell us, whatever the programmers dribble out, whatever our kids tell us to do.
   Computers are in a category all their own. We think we can't possibly understand them, so we don't even try. We abandon our common sense. We leave our minds at the door.
   And do you know what? Nothing will change unless we do. We won't have a real operating system on our computers unless we insist on one. And we're not going insist on one until we wake up and realize what "operating" means. It means being in charge.
   Computers with real operating systems aren't hard to find. You can buy an Apple Macintosh instead of a Windows PC. You can buy a PC that has Linux already installed from stores and manufacturers. Linux isn't like Windows, just as the Mac isn't like Windows. Both of them are operating systems. You can also buy the Be operating system, a new competitor for Windows and the Mac, and install it yourself.
   We have a choice. We can exercise that choice.
   Microsoft's biggest worry is just that. Microsoft is afraid we will stop accepting the status quo.
   Knowing Microsoft as well as I do, I have no doubt that the company will do everything it can think of to keep us from doing that. It will advertise the daylights out of Windows 98 or Windows 2000 or the next version, Windows Millennium. It will try again to spread rumors about how bad Linux is. It will try hard to make us all feel like Windows and PCs are made for each other.
   But it won't try hard to fix Windows. I know this because I haven't lost my common sense. My common sense tells me that if Microsoft cared, it would have fixed Windows a long time ago.