My last attempt at getting the Microsoft Zune to work was a complete failure. After some encouragement from spaceinthewho, I decided to give it another go.

This could bode poorly for Han, cause I promised him he could have the Zune (maybe it would work better for him) after my initial frustrations with it. Would the Zune work, thus depriving Han of a portal music player?! YOU'LL FIND OUT!

. . .

I can be overly critical, so I decided not to go in with a negative bias. I would forget about my past bad experience with installation and try again. Like an overly affectionate boyfriend clinging onto a girl he knows is too good for her, I needlessly showered my Zune with compliments when I opened the box (again). Here goes the installation process again!

What lovely packaging! What an attractive device! So far, it sure looks like I can believe the 94% customer satisfaction rating!

I excitedly popped in the installation CD and got this screen:

Holy crap. I'm joining the social. This is going to be awesome.

If there's one thing Microsoft is good at, it's showing diversity. Check out the install screen pictures I screenshotted (screenshat?):

I've never felt so hip and relevant in my life. Look at all these racially diverse groups of people having so much fun joining the social. I can't WAIT.

18 minutes later, the installation is done! Yippee! I connect my Zune as instructed and then ... what?

I guess the 18 minute install didn't include the driver. And then ...

Sigh. Windows ... blah. (This one isn't Zune's fault, I know).

Anyways, this time I got much further into the install process. I could see the Zune on the software end, and the Zune reported it was connected as well!

First things first, delete all this useless music off!. (It took me a bit to figure it out, but I had to turn off auto-syncing before I could delete anything). Alright, let's do a simple operation, DELETE!

Toodle-doodle-ooh...

5 minutes reaches the limit for how long I'll wait for an application to delete a file. Le sigh.

An early conclusion

I give up. Again. It really is a shame, cause the Zune (from a hardware perspective) looks very promising. It's a shame the software for it absolutely sucks.

I hate to reiterate this point, but iTunes + iPod just works. On Windows. When I installed the iPod, I didn't waste an hour trying to get the product installed, and then run into a brick wall of failure.

The software sucking would be acceptable if there was some fall-back. Like, for example, mounting the goddamn thing as a hard drive. I understand the DRM limitations probably prevented this feature from happening on the Zune, but seriously, can't I just drag and drop some files from Windows? Please? Can we stop reinventing the wheel?

One caveat: Yes, this could all be the fault of my computer. Maybe my copy of Windows (WinXP Tablet SP2; now going at least 4 years old without a reformat) is the issue at hand here. I'm perfectly willing to accept that reality. But that doesn't change the fact that my iPod works, and the Zune doesn't. As a consumer, when I drop a hefty chunk of money for a piece of hardware, I expect it to work. And the Zune failed. Miserably.

Anyways, Han, do not worry. Your Zune is on the way.

Sorry, spaceinthewho!

A note: It may seem like I doctored these photos or did something on purpose to crash the Zune. I promise, I did nothing of the sort. I did my best to prevent any unexpected scenarios. I assure you that I didn't drop $150 to write two snarky, sarcastic posts on the Zune (I'm not that desperate for popularity).