I’ve half assedly (yes, it’s a word, I made it up) followed the IE 7 development. I’m a web developer, it’s my job to be aware of such things. So, when it was still in beta (about 2 or 3 months ago) I installed it at work to see what it was all about. First impression: bloated piece of crap that does the exact same shit that Firefox has been doing for years; tabs, RSS, popup blocking, add on’s (extensions for the < 2.0 users), et al. The interface was horrible (still is) and it just wasn’t that interesting to me. It had a distinct Vista feel for XP and we already know how I feel about Vista.
So when the release of IE 7 was final earlier this week, I thought, “well, maybe the polished version is better.” Well, it wasn’t. Still the same bloated piece of crap I installed a few months ago. Not only that, but one of the first things that left a really bad taste in my mouth was the “Windows Genuine Advantage” bullshit during the install. This has to be the worst move Microsoft could have made. Not only is it annoying (not that it took a long time to verify that the version of Windows I was using was authentic), but it’s extremely insulting.
“We don’t trust you as far as we can throw you, so, we’re going to need to check your license to make sure it’s legit. Hope you don’t mind.”
Horse shit. If they want to check the license against a database of known compromised keys, so be it. Do so unbeknownst to the user. Don’t tell them about it. If it’s an unauthentic key, notify them and let them know how to purchase a valid license. It’s extremely rude.
The second thing I did was to open IE 7 and create a new tab. “Woohoo,” I thought, “IE has tabs.” One second later, the application completely vanished. Yes, vanished. No crash reporter deal; no popup telling me everything is cool (which it’s not), the application just crashed. Nothing. I could reproduce this every time. Open IE, create a new tab, POOF!
So, I set out to figure this out. Why the hell is this damn thing crashing every time? Honestly, I normally would have just uninstalled the damn thing and went about my merry business. However, I learned from our Help Desk at work that they are forcing the update on everyone’s workstation. Why, couldn’t tell you. The application was out for a day and the ever so helpful Help Desk was walking around installing IE 7 for everyone.
I spent half the day searching for answers and re-installing the software with no luck. The shit just wouldn’t work. Typical. At some point, I told one of my colleges about the problem I was having. I had already started with the add-on’s turned off and disabled a bunch on them that I didn’t need. He asked me if I was using a USB mouse.
“Yes, why?”
“Try using the USB to PS/2 adapter. Joey [the ever so helpful Help Desk guy] said to use it when I was having issues one time.”
Are you shitting me? “OK”, I thought, “nothing else seems to be working and I guess one more reboot wouldn’t hurt.” So, I shut down the machine, unplugged my USB mouse and plugged it into the PS/2 port. Mind you, this is a Microsoft mouse running Microsoft drivers. Well, when I rebooted, fired up IE and created a new tab, guess what; no crash.
So here’s my question, Microsoft: Why the hell does your mouse cause your software to disintegrate into thin air?
In the end, I’m trying IE 7 out for a day or two to see how it behaves. So far, I’m unimpressed. Like I said before; it does the same thing Firefox has been doing for years. It seems that the best Microsoft could muster up in the past, what, 3 years, is to play catchup with the rest of the internet world.
Way to go Microshit! You just earned a C- in the school of web development.
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