🚀 go-pugleaf

	SetFlameTarget(Microsoft);
	theFlame = BeginFlame();

Why do Microsoft believe that because I've bought one of their software
items, they can do whatever they like to the system file on my hard disk? 
[No, buying up a third-rate jumble of assorted I/O routines and passing
them off to the world as an operating system is not adequate reason.]

So what have Microsoft done to annoy me?

Just before Christmas, my trusty Mac SE turned up a corrupt disk, and
despite getting it back on its feet, I decided to take the opportunity
to do a complete reformat and reinstall, getting rid of the three years'
worth of accumulated cruft just lying around and leaving me short of
space.  After four hours work, the last item to go on was MS Word 5.0.  
[Now here is a bloated monster if ever I saw one!]

After taking the better part of an hour's worth of disk shuffling and
decompaction, I get a message from Gatekeeper to say that MS Word
Installer is trying to screw around with the System file, and when I
restart, I find that all my network resources are irretrievably 
damaged!  Two hours' worth of repair attempts failed, and I had to
come back to a complete reinstall job this morning (which is why I've
got the time on my hands now, to be posting messages on Usenet).

I concede that MS put a notice at the start of the installation, saying
to remove Gatekeeper from the System Folder, but just what the ^&*( are
these guys and gals (note the political rectitude, even within a flame!)
doing, screwing around inside the System's network resources to install
a word processor [I was doing a customised installation of the basic
wordprocessing components -- none of their half-baked mail stuff] ??
I keep Gatekeeper on my system constantly, for the very good reason
that it has warded off virus attacks on several occasions.  I don't
have confidence that MS quality control is good enough to ensure that
they aren't planting a virus on me.  These folks can't even label the
disks in a sensible order -- I have to insert them in the order
2 - 1 - 5 - 6 - 3 - 4 !!  And why do I have to spend half an hour waiting
for these overgrown shibboleths to unpack themselves -- for the hundreds
of pounds this thing cost, they could surely afford the pennies to put
unpacked copies on a few more disks?  The offence is all the worse that
I've had to suffer it twice!

I used to consider myself fairly neutral towards the 'rubbish Microsoft'
campaigners, but after this round, I'm definitely joining them.

	ExtinguishFlame(theFlame);

Seriously, boys and girls, those giants of computing at Microsoft *mean*
it when they warn you to deinstall GateKeeper whilst installing their
products.  You can lose a lot more than an aborted installation.  I was
lucky, I was 100% backed up when it happened.

But don't forget to put Gatekeeper back when MS has done, and if you're
like me, you'll run Disinfectant across the disk immediately MS has had
its merry way with it!

Russ