Operating Systems are Rude

Berin Loritsch — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:55:00 +0000

Have you ever started typing in a password for one of the many resources that require one and right in the middle, the focus is snatched away by another program? It’s particularly troublesome while the operating system is starting up. Talk about a security risk. What if the thing that stole focus from my email password prompt was going to broadcast my keystrokes somewhere else? It should be illegal to steal focus while the user is typing into any text box. It’s just sheer rudeness, and I’m tired of it. Here I am trying to get something productive done and the operating system that is supposed to be helping me do my job is interrupting me with stuff I don’t care about.

I can answer the prompt telling me that my monitor is past due for a recalibration after I type in my email password. Why steal my focus from what I’m typing in right now while a new window is popping up in the background? Shouldn’t that stay in the background? I’ll start a few things at once knowing they’ll take some time to finish up, but that doesn’t mean I want them to jump in front of me when they are ready. I’m a grown a** man, I can decide for myself what and when I want to do things on my own computer. Tell my why it’s so important to grab my attention while I’m typing in a URL?

Listen Microsoft, Apple, Linux, and any other wannabe contenders out there: I want a polite operating system. Get out of my way and let me do my job the way I want to do it. If an application doesn’t need my attention at the moment, don’t grab it. If an application does need me to do something, let me finish what I’m doing in the application right now. Make it illegal to steal focus if I’m typing in a text box—especially if it is a password box. How hard can it be? Heck, I don’t mind you flashing the application button on the task bar until I address the need, but don’t allow any application to usurp control whenever it wants to. Only allow applications to request control.

Lastly, make sure that your scheduling system will make sure there are enough resources for me to continue typing in what I’m typing in without background processes interrupting me. Why should an application ignore keystrokes just because another application is loading in a butt-load of libraries? Why should I have to restart typing in my passwords because the operating system can’t keep up with me and simply ignores the keys I’m typing in? It’s the 21st century for crying out loud. These annoyances should be a thing of the past.

Sure it’s cheap for me to complain, and it’s cheap for you to say “build it yourself if you don’t like the way we do things”. But there is a free market economy. We specialize in different things. I do application work, but if you want to pay me to do operating system work I’ll be happy to take on the challenge. If Apple OS X is a polite operating system let me know, when I upgrade my machines I’ll switch. But to date, I haven’t run across one single operating system that can behave properly in this regard.

Just a Thought...: Tag linux

Operating Systems are Rude