[vexorian]

Windows is certainly not ready for the desktop.

After installing windows XP SP2 on my computer:
- intel pentium 4 2.4 Ghz.
- Integrated soundcard "SoundMax"
- 768 MB RAM
- 128 MB nvidia graphics card (geforce *something* "something")
- HP deskjet 3420 printer
- HP scanjet 2400 scanner
- LG CD and DVD burners

I made a review:

Installation:
- The CD initially boots into some text mode installation, very hard to deal with, then in the middle of the process it is required to format partitions from text mode and then it copies itself to continue the process. This install process is average in regards of simplicity.

Dual Boot:
- The installer totally ignored my other partitions, I had to implement Grub manually in order to recover my other operating systems.

Hardware compatibility:
- Windows said that it was installed, so I booted into it, the first thing you notice is some kind of welcome to windows animation, it was silent, I could eventually figure out that sound wasn't working.
- When the animation ended and I got outside the tutorial, I could notice that the resolution was very small! this monitor+graphic card combo allows a max of 1280x1024, but windows wouldn't allow me to choose more than 400x300!

- tried checking if it detected my printer, I went to control panel, etc. But it simply couldn't detect my printer.
- The same happen happened to my scanner.

I don't know what should I do, is MS requesting me to get an OEM system instead of the computer I built? I don't really have that money, I am not sure why windows XP has failed to detect most of my hardware, when people advertise that it has great hardware support. I guess they lied to me! Sorry but I don't think windows XP is usable for me in this stage.

Software:
This is one of the points in which windows is terribly lacking, let's see:
- Notepad: VERY limited, you can't even enable auto indentation, and it only supports MSDOS text file format...
- WordPad: Not too much options, I couldn't find basic things like spell check, openoffice writer or even abiword are like 45 times more complete than this.
- MSPaint : Has anyone tried doing serious art work on this? No point of comparisson to the Gimp.
- Calc : It is kind of good although I miss expression evaluation, it is a little faster than an actual simulation of a real calculator.
- Games : VERY few games, although minesweeper is good.
- Internet explorer 6: I don't think it actually had theme support? And no tabs? wtf?

I couldn't find any spreadsheet software or presentation software.

Multimedia:
- I tried windows media player but it can't play my DVDs, it keeps poping out something like "incompatible format" I decided to give up. When it plays it is kind of good, although it takes almost all of my screen and is slow.
- Burning CDs/DVDs is either very unfriendly or missing, I couldn't find any way to burn stuff...

Customizability:
- Windows XP hardly comes with 3 themes, blue, silver and green, I think I was able to change the font size. I can also change up to 4 icons: My Computer, My documents , Recycle bin and Recycle bin (full). I am not sure if there is more customization options, I certainly couldn't find much from the menu maze, ooh I think I can also change the wallpaper..

Conclusion
Windows is probably ready for people willing to pay a lot of software licenses or to commit the crime of piracy. As for the rest, it is 'ready' in the sense that it would probably allow you to "sorta" browse the web, and do a couple of text documents but nothing advanced. For more thing, you will need a lot of tweaking and help from other people to learn its wereabouts like the gate to 'secret' software which is not accessible through the panel control. People wanting customization would either have to break the EULA or refer to a different OS. Games are out of the question without good hardware support. Windows is not ready for the desktop, sorry guys...