Why I like Windows: Things just work

Earlier this week, I was preparing an English class and needed to print out the next day's lesson. They just installed a new network printer which is, of all places, on my desk. So, I figured it would be more convenient to print to the printer on my desk than the one 5 meters away on the other side of the office, especially since I like to print documents on both sides in order to minimize paper use.

So, in XP the first thing I tried doing was using the network driver to hook up to this printer. The network driver couldn't find the printer (it probably uses some other networking protocol or some such). So, I just disconnected the printer from its networking box, and connected it to my Windows XP virtual machine (which has USB support).

The printer just worked. All I had to do was plug it in to the USB port. It appeared in the list of printers. I decided to make it the default printer and change its name to "on my desk"; this was done with a simple right-click.

This is why I like Windows. Things just work. Because, quite frankly, I am not living in my mother's basement, have a job, and have better things to do with my time than try and get something to work in Linux that works right away in Windows.

The bad news is that they have since moved this printer and it's now uptairs. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.