Already regretting it?

I've been using Linux as my primary OS for a good number of years now. However, a series of events has convinced me to use Windows as the OS for my next computer. I feel a little dirty about it, but now is not the time to discuss my reasons.

Now is the time to discuss my comeuppance.

Since the soon-to-exist Windows box will be my primary (or, at least, most powerful) box, it is of course necessary that all my data be accessible on that machine. I've been doing occasional backups of all my data from my Ubuntu box onto an external drive formatted as NTFS, so it would be possible to recover to Windows if necessary.

Today I started the process of moving things over, and figuring out how to live within the file structure chaos that is Windows 7. And that's when I hit my first "... Really? I mean... really?" moment.

Linux filesystems allow for more characters than NTFS does, both in length of file or path names and in individual characters. While copying a folder with hardware user guides, I hit an error.

"Right," I thought, "Windows doesn't allow quotation marks in the filename. I'll just fix it."

Only... I can't. It's impossible. Windows won't let you do it.

See, in order to rename a file, SOMETHING has to specify the OLD name. And when you try to give it a new name, it fails because the old name is invalid. Of course, Windows Explorer has no trouble SHOWING you the supposedly invalid name; it just can't DO anything with it. The error dialog even TELLS you to use a different name. Notice that it doesn't give the option to "specify a different name" RIGHT THERE.

In the end, I had to power up my Ubuntu box, find the same file, rename it on that box, copy it to a shared drive on the Windows box, and then, finally, move it to the proper place.

Other things I copied over were my music files. Several album names (ad downloaded via Amazon) were too long, and a few others contained invalid symbols ( : " ). Before tonight I didn't even know that WinMerge could compare directory structures. I don't know what I should have expected from an operating system that thinks you're too stupid to understand file extensions.

I haven't even started shopping for what will become my new Windows box. Already I wonder if I've made a poor decision. But it's the only way I'll be able to take full advantage of Diablo 3, so...

Edit: Oh, and of course the perennial favorite: Windows can't handle filenames with "only" extensions like, say .htaccess ... Right. Good job.