I have to say, that without a doubt, the Windows XP, auto reboot after auto update feature is by far the worse OS feature I've ever seen. It's almost comical how bad it is.
Here I am, happily programming along, and then all of a sudden Windows tells me that it's going to reboot unless I tell it not to. As if rebooting is no big deal. As if rebooting doesn't cause me to lose 93 emacs buffers, and 10 Firefox tabs.
Sure, I can get around all of this. I'm sure I can turn this feature off, and I do use screen to help with the emacs problem. Shira has even shown me how her firefox setup auto restarts her with the last set of tabs already open.
But there's a bigger problem. This reboot process causes a total breakdown in flow. You know flow - it's that wonderful state you get in when you can hack for hours and it feels like just a few minutes have gone by.
Developing an operating system that assumes that your users will never enter flow is downright absurd. Come on Microsoft, have a bit more respect for us.
There simply has to be a better way.
Heh, I thought that had popped up on my screen, so I clicked on it... why is it showing a jpeg??? Then I hit back and read your entry ;) d'oh
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