It just doesn't work

Microsoft's latest Mantra, "It just works", is, as usual, stolen. As usual, it's all marketing hype with no substance. Windows just crashes. No it doesn't: Bill Gates declares it to be free of significant bugs. That a networking error will cause explorer to seize up is insignificant. That an error in a zip file will cause explorer to seize up is insignificant. That windows computers regularly need rebooting (unless you're very lucky) is insignificant. These have been extremely annoying, inadequately addressed problems since the features first appeared.

For an experiment in the delights of the windows experience, take a low-mid range PC, well used, and attempt to perform a disc cleanup on the hard drive. Windows will refuse to do this until it has spent an eternity calculating how much space can be saved by compressing old files. The golden rule of interface design: do not allow a user to complete an important task until lengthily calculations whose results the user may not care for have been completed. This wouldn't have survived more than a few days in an OS OS (open source operating system).

For a final exercise in how Microsoft technologies "just work", install ASP.NET and an application thereunder on your workstation, test platform, and production server. You will then understand why configuring IIS is governed by the Geneva Convention as a cruel and unusual punishment.

Thank God we don't use it for anything important.