The War of the Apps: A Version of Windows I Would Like to JUMP OUT

First Draft Furious: Getting  ready to hit the rails, I was drawn to a Dell dazzler (if the reviews are to be believed) called XPS 13.  Very light weight, and that’s mostly what I wanted.  Also, connection to the net -- I avoid going near the net with my beloved 10-year-old Dell 14" Vostro laptop with Windows XP -- no longer supported by Microsoft.

Came the XPS and with it, Windows 10.  And with it, all sorts of overactive little devils.  First to annoy me, a new visitor called Cortana, who pops up anywhere, anytime, asking me if I need her assistance. Trouble is, I could not get rid of this annoyance.  So  I called Dell. A very nice tech lady, I’d say somewhere on the planet (have they outsourced yet to Mars?) struggled with such devotion to banish Cortana from my life.  It appeared to work.  For a few microseconds.  No, this crap app would now and then still find corners or groves through which to sneak in, such as, horror of horrors, while I was trying a current version of Microsoft Word.  Yes, while trying to write, there she was: "Hey there! What's up?"  

More problems.  Cutting to  my rant: Windows 10 must be the worst of all operating systems every foisted upon the fickle public.  I refuse to be fickle.  I called up Dell. There were other problems, such as trying to press the X on the upper right corner of those annoying window ads, only to watch them refuse to leave. After a million punches, they left. Which makes me wonder:  Are those concessions paying Dell to freeze them for so many minutes, thus holding me captive, until then leaving?

I called Dell to return.  They could not have been nicer. The very idea of  my sacred privacy while writing (or trying to) being invaded at will by Ms. Cortana still leaves me outraged.

What I most looked forward to, over hot rails, was blogging from XPS 13 dot dot dot.  I will be instead traveling with my trusty Vostro Windows XP, only for my typewriter.  And I will NEVER take my Vostro near the internet (you know its dangerous with the Microsoft updates no longer there), let alone within shooting range of Cortana — assuming she has not all ready been digitally gunned down.

War of the Apps.  Might it be that you heard that phrase here for the first time?  May I then take a provisional bow -- wow wow?

Big idea: surely, out there in Silicon valley where the average salary is well over one hundred grand a year, there lurks a genius who can invent the app that will fill in for what Microsoft does when it sends out updates and patches -- until it ceases to, so that we who love XP and even Widows 7 can keep our gadgets protected forever. 

Yeah, I know, instant death for an industry that survives on tomorrow's new iWhatever.

So, copy this to a USB, take it to my desktop and blogger it out.

What a time I would have had blogging like this over hot rails.   No, we're talking Amtrak.  Make them there rails rocky light.