Joel on Software-Vista Shutdown Woes

Link: Joel on Software. Friends, Windows Users, Countrymen. I come to bury Microsoft, not to praise it. One day after I actually got to write a post praising Microsoft's efforts to sue phishers into oblivion, I find this highly entertaining article from Joel Spolsky, a New York software developer, about Vista shut down choices. I have written volumes recently about Microsoft's new operating system (none of them complimentary). Spolsky points out that the team of Microsoft designers, software engineers, and other people that fill out the bloated Microsoft payroll, in an effort to justify their existence, have given the Vista user 14 options to choose from when they want to turn the darn thing off. It is bad enough spending 5 minutes choosing between log off, restart, and shut down in XP ( I never have figured out why they included log off or restart - just shut the thing off and reboot). Now, the user gets to choose between those options and, are you ready, Switch User, Lock, Sleep, Hibernate, and others. Puhleeze! Spolsky has a great quote about too many choices - they tend to cause inaction, and reduce productivity.  Windows Vista - Just don't.