Never Changes

Hello! A micro-entry on the frustration of trying to download Microsoft's free Windows 7 Release Candidate.

1 - Requiring an MSN address, Live account, etc. Basically you're probably going to have to sign up. I shouldn't have to give a mass of details just to download this. It's annoying. Getting an error when verifying my email is also fun.

2 - The registration and shit won't work in Safari. If you want it, you'll have to launch Firefox and sign in. Again.

3 - The download requires ActiveX or Java? Are you fucking kidding me? In this day and age? A fucking java application used to manage the download? It's 2009. Two-thousand and bloody nine. Classic Microsoft having to reinvent the wheel instead of use perfectly good alternatives such as BitTorrent or another service.

4 - Hitting download loads the java application in that tab. A lot of people, myself included, start to grab the download for something as soon as possible and then read through things. Such as copy-pasting the key. Forcing me to open a new tab and find the page in my history isn't a great idea. Maybe fucking ask if the user wants to browse away from the page and ask them if they have written down the key they need?

It's amazing how convoluted people can make things. Imagine an indie Mac developer requiring all the above to download a beta? He'd be fucking butchered. At most it would be the following: Field for email (to send the key), version and language selection and a button for either direct downloading or a torrent. One click. No mess.

Shame committees don't do simple.