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I've been a staunch Windows user for more than a decade. I've used Windows since Windows 286. I openly embraced Windows 3.0, 3.1, and 3.11.
I was resistant to Windows 95, but eventually came around. I adopted Windows NT and have even (been more or less forced to) used Windows CE.
When Windows 98 came along, I abandoned 95 like a used battery.
And when XP finally came out, I resisted until my Windows 98 machine ate itself in a spectacularly cannibalistic manner, at which point, I bought XP.
I even used Windows Server 2003 for a brief period when I thought I wanted to be an admin-geek instead of a programming-geek.
Then Vista came out. All the reports were that it wasn't worth licking the sweat off the testicles of Windows XP. And some said it would have to improve by an unbelievable amount to make it up to even that level.
And because Vista was a steaming pile of fresh, aromatic excrement, I avoided it. And when I got a new desktop computer two and a half years ago (egad, has it really been that long?), I made sure to buy it from a vendor (NewEgg) that would not automatically install Vista on it.
Shortly before that, my first laptop (now rechristened The Dull) started having problems with Teh Slow™, and I correctly diagnosed the problem as Windows XP, installed by the manufacturer, and loaded down with approximately 8.3957 blortloads of "trialware," "bloatware," "nagware," and other assorted annoying -warez on it, and no way to get rid of it other than formatting and re-installing, because when you buy a laptop, you don't get an XP installation disk. You do get the ability to "restore to factory default," but that includes all that -warez crap. "Firetruck1 that!" I cried.
So I made the decision to reformat that old laptop with Ubuntu. The computer was too slow for some of the more interesting features of Ubuntu, but I liked the OS.
And when it came time to replace that laptop with something faster and more usable, I went the Apple route with The Shiny.
This morning, I was doing my usual morning routine of checking email and such on my desktop machine, which is still XP. My BitTorrent app informed me that it had finished downloading the latest episode of Leverage, so I double-clicked on that .avi file to check to see if it was okay. It loaded and started to play. Then I thought, "I should sync my iPod," so I double-clicked on that, as well.
Which apparently crossed the streams.
Causing a rip in space-time.
Which apparently manifested itself by bypassing the dreaded BSOD and going straight to "OMFG Black Screen of Immediate and Ignominious Doom from which There Is Likely To Be No Recovery" (OMFGBSoIaIDfwTILTBNR for short.)
"Well, that can't be good," I thought. (For the sake of the children, I won't tell you what I actually thought. Or said. Or how loudly Isaid yelled shouted screamed it. Because it frightened the cats.)
When it came back up, it had fried my user profile. So it created me a temporary one. One without all my installed software. Or iTunes. Or Chrome. Or Firebird. One, in other words, for a completely new user.2
[Aside: I know all that stuff is still on my drive. I'm not claiming it deleted or corrupted any of the actual software. But what it lost was my registry that had all my settings and paths and accounts and stuff like that. I might as well be back at square 1, because that means all my licenses are also toast.]
Or...or I could just punt. XP dying like this without any sort of explanation of what happened may be the last straw for me, and I don't know that I can bring myself to trust Windows 7 after all the problems associated with Vista...and now this nonsense about rebooting without warning.
I think it's time for a Ubuntu box. A powerful one that can do all the neat stuff my old laptop wasn't up to.
After I copy all that stuff off my hard drive, of course. Or at least some of it. At least this time, there are only three Windows-only applications that I care anything about: MailWasher Pro, Info Select, and Semagic. <sigh>
Have I mentioned lately that I hate (Windows) computers? <sigh>
I was resistant to Windows 95, but eventually came around. I adopted Windows NT and have even (been more or less forced to) used Windows CE.
When Windows 98 came along, I abandoned 95 like a used battery.
And when XP finally came out, I resisted until my Windows 98 machine ate itself in a spectacularly cannibalistic manner, at which point, I bought XP.
I even used Windows Server 2003 for a brief period when I thought I wanted to be an admin-geek instead of a programming-geek.
Then Vista came out. All the reports were that it wasn't worth licking the sweat off the testicles of Windows XP. And some said it would have to improve by an unbelievable amount to make it up to even that level.
And because Vista was a steaming pile of fresh, aromatic excrement, I avoided it. And when I got a new desktop computer two and a half years ago (egad, has it really been that long?), I made sure to buy it from a vendor (NewEgg) that would not automatically install Vista on it.
Shortly before that, my first laptop (now rechristened The Dull) started having problems with Teh Slow™, and I correctly diagnosed the problem as Windows XP, installed by the manufacturer, and loaded down with approximately 8.3957 blortloads of "trialware," "bloatware," "nagware," and other assorted annoying -warez on it, and no way to get rid of it other than formatting and re-installing, because when you buy a laptop, you don't get an XP installation disk. You do get the ability to "restore to factory default," but that includes all that -warez crap. "Firetruck1 that!" I cried.
So I made the decision to reformat that old laptop with Ubuntu. The computer was too slow for some of the more interesting features of Ubuntu, but I liked the OS.
And when it came time to replace that laptop with something faster and more usable, I went the Apple route with The Shiny.
This morning, I was doing my usual morning routine of checking email and such on my desktop machine, which is still XP. My BitTorrent app informed me that it had finished downloading the latest episode of Leverage, so I double-clicked on that .avi file to check to see if it was okay. It loaded and started to play. Then I thought, "I should sync my iPod," so I double-clicked on that, as well.
Which apparently crossed the streams.
Causing a rip in space-time.
Which apparently manifested itself by bypassing the dreaded BSOD and going straight to "OMFG Black Screen of Immediate and Ignominious Doom from which There Is Likely To Be No Recovery" (OMFGBSoIaIDfwTILTBNR for short.)
"Well, that can't be good," I thought. (For the sake of the children, I won't tell you what I actually thought. Or said. Or how loudly I
When it came back up, it had fried my user profile. So it created me a temporary one. One without all my installed software. Or iTunes. Or Chrome. Or Firebird. One, in other words, for a completely new user.2
[Aside: I know all that stuff is still on my drive. I'm not claiming it deleted or corrupted any of the actual software. But what it lost was my registry that had all my settings and paths and accounts and stuff like that. I might as well be back at square 1, because that means all my licenses are also toast.]
Or...or I could just punt. XP dying like this without any sort of explanation of what happened may be the last straw for me, and I don't know that I can bring myself to trust Windows 7 after all the problems associated with Vista...and now this nonsense about rebooting without warning.
I think it's time for a Ubuntu box. A powerful one that can do all the neat stuff my old laptop wasn't up to.
After I copy all that stuff off my hard drive, of course. Or at least some of it. At least this time, there are only three Windows-only applications that I care anything about: MailWasher Pro, Info Select, and Semagic. <sigh>
Have I mentioned lately that I hate (Windows) computers? <sigh>
- Hey, boys and girls, do you know what word begins with an F and ends with U C K? Yes, that's right! Firetruck!
- It should be so noted here that this is almost exactly the same way my 98 machine cannibalized itself. It yelled and screamed at me to update a driver, which I did, and from the Windows site. And it shut down...and never booted again until I did a "repair install," after which it treated me as a new user.
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My machine crashed while I was reading this post...
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That said, the only time i use it is as a VMware install on my Mac at home, because I insist on having at least one copy of WIndows around, just in case. The IT guys at work are still running XP on all the machines because, well, the devil you know and all that. :D
But I'm with you, Ubuntu has gotten to the point where I'm comfortable using it as my every day machine. I really do like it as an OS.
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Win 98
It was when I "upgraded" to Windows ME that it completely wrecked my box.
The only saving grace I had was that I had installed a second hard drive that I used to store all my data.
When the box died, I was able to pull the drive and stick it in the new computer. Didn't lose much at all.
Been operating that way ever since.
But now I have an older PC that is bogged with an old and patch-laden XP, and I am considering pulling the last of the last from it, and putting some Linux distro on it for a "kids want to surf" computer.
(And when I do, I'll be running with this playbook, too: http://ike4.me/sefk)