MANILA: I’m greeting the New Year by doing two things I had to think two times about doing. They have nothing to do with each other, but both have to do with Windows.

I have been reading & receiving all negative bytes & vibes about Windows 8, the latest operating system by Microsoft. I have been using Windows since at least Windows 95 (starting perhaps in 1997). Loyal user by choice. My son Jomar has been convincing me to switch to the Apple Mac because it’s divine to use, but I have stubbornly resisted the temptation to go to Heaven because, I argue, my book clients are here on Earth - meaning they don’t use Mac-based Apple computers; instead they use Windows-based PCs. The clients are always right, right?

After Windows 8 came out this year, I never read so many negative reviews about a Microsoft product such as this one! One reviewer, Philip Greenspun, an eminent MIT professor who is a well-known Internet entrepreneur (Zach Epstein, 06 December 2012, news.yahoo.com), said Windows 8 was a “Christmas gift for someone you hate” (05 December 2012, blogs.law.harvard.edu). So, my initial thought was: It must really be that bad.

Even before that, Microsoft Philippines released Windows 8 locally on 30 October, and I wasn’t interested. ANN quoted Karrie Capellan-Ilagan, Managing Director, Microsoft Philippines, as saying, “This platform can seamlessly bridge the gap between PCs, laptops, tablets and mobile phones, to create a no-compromise experience for all” (author not named, 30 October 2012, gmanetwork.com). Ms Karrie, I don’t want to seamlessly bridge the gap between hardware and another hardware, I just want to do my brainwork with a willing PC! I’m a writer and a blogger; at 72, I want to write and blog with the greatest of ease and the highest of output as creatively possible.

But the itch to try something new remained, also because Windows 8 had the irresistible look of a temptation that promised, if you yielded to it, to be not painless but sinless, and visually if not viscerally fulfilling. Huh!

So I got myself a copy of Windows 8—a legitimate one, I must say—to fight the beast myself. If this is a dragon, I think I know much about dragons already. Said Hiccup, the hero in the DreamWorks animated movie How To Train Your Dragon, “Everything we knew about you guys were wrong!” He was talking to the dragons, one of them his pet, Toothless. The principal lesson in that DreamWorks movie is this: “We shouldn’t fight our dragons; instead, we should tame them, and then we can train them to work for us.”

I’m 72, so I must be crazy, right? Yes. I’m a writer, blogger and teacher; I’m into many other things with a creative mind at work and, I tell you: “You don’t have to be crazy, but it works!” (I memorized that quote 37 years ago when I and my good friend Orli Ochosa were copywriters for Tony Zorilla’s Pacific Publicity Bureau with Nonoy Gallardo as Creative Director.)

So, on Thursday, 27 December 2012, I installed Windows 8 on my dual-core 14" Lenovo G470 with 2 GB RAM, 500 GB hard disk, and an Intel HD graphics card. I didn’t time it, but it was about 60 minutes before it had installed itself completely. My Lenovo was more than ready for it; the minimum system requirements to install Windows 8 successfully are: a PC with a processor running at 1 GHz , I GB RAM, 16 GB hard disk space, and a DirectX 9 graphics card.

Despite Prof Greenspun and Ms Karrie, I installed Windows 8 and, conveniently forgetting the Windows 8 Bugaboo of Confusion, I understood enough logic of this user program within three days just by guessing, based on what I knew of Windows, not reading online instructions. In fact, right now, I’m using it happily writing this column and blogging at the same time using the new Start menu of tiles.

So, like Hiccup, I’ve been taming the beast. The taming is the reward. Windows 8 is Windows+. The fight doesn’t come better than this.

Taming the beast?Yes, I’m proposing that as a way to deal with Reproductive Health to which I as a Roman Catholic was opposed, writing enough number of creative essays to make a book of 200 pages. (It’s in pdf form with the title The Emperor’s New Clothes. Tito Sotto and the Roman Catholic Church are of course prominent in the pages. It’s yours free if you email for a copy, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .) If Noynoy Aquino is proud that he pushed RH successfully, I’m prouder that I penned RH intelligently. Similarly, with the apostle Paul, We have fought the good fight, we have finished the race, we have kept the faith. Differently, up to the signing of RH into law, that was just one fight. One window closed. We need to open Windows+. Then the fight will come better than that!