Posted on 5/20/2005, 2:35:53 PM by CFC__VRWC
After ten years of working on Windows based PCs, I have finally had enough! The last straw came Wednesday night, when I set my Win XP computer up to run Norton Speed Disk and then went off to bed. In the morning, I found the computer locked up hard, and when I restarted it, it hung up on the opening screen. I tried to do a repair with the XP installation disk - it hung up.
I finally did a clean install of XP on an old 40 GB hard drive I have, and then hooked up my now screwed drive to try to recover what I could. No soap - it's obvious that lots of my files are hopelessly corrupted, and when I try to copy them or even look at them the machine crashes. The only thing I could maybe try is to rerun Norton on the drive, but since I already did an aborted reinstall of XP, I'm pretty sure that the drive is toast.
I can get back most of my data, but even at that I'm faced with my third "wipe and restore" for my PC in the last two years, the second in six months (I think that's what's got me so torqued)! That means a couple of days rounding up CD after CD after CD of drivers, utilities, data files, etc. and sitting at the desk feeding them to the machine, and then weeks of poking and tweaking to get everyhting set up the way I like it.
I'm not playing that game anymore. I'm through, kaput, finis, done. Bill Gates can kiss my big fat hairy white butt.
The way I see it, I have two choices - keep my current box and turn it into a Linux-based system, or buy a Mac. I've looked at the Macs a little, and I have to admit that I've been very impressed. The new Tiger OS seems to be a very sweet system. I played with a G5 iMac a bit at a nearby Apple store and I could easily fall in love with it. It nmight be a bit out of my price range right now, though, so I've been thinking hard about the top of the line Mac Mini, which I could definitely swing.
As far as Linux goes, I'm a complete novice. I know there's several versions of it out there, and I'm sure that each has it's own advantages and disadvantages. One of the things I need to concern myself with is that I'll be stuck with XP platforms at work, and I may need to bring files back and forth occasionally.
Any advice on what I should do?
I've been hearing very good things about Macs lately. I'd go for it.
Linux. I've been Winblows-free for years.
I know you guys contribute a lot to the Mac and Linux threads, and I'd appreciate it if you could ping your lists and maybe give a fed-up Windows guy some advice on how to get that thing out of my life.
Once you go Mac, you'll never go back..... 8^)
Red Hat Fedora with Open Office. Will run on your current platform easily.
There is an easier solution. Don't use Norton products.
First thing is Norton sucks and why you would be running speeddisk on XP is beyond me.
Despite my constantly chiding Mac users for being gay, I am starting to come around. Now that I don't play computer games anymore (no time) Mac is a theoretical possibility. If Mac's cost less, I would really consider getting one for my next computer.
You should definately go to Linux- it is so easy to install and you can learn all the wonderful command line commandd such as 'grep' 'awk' 'sed' 'cwd' 'pwd' 'ls -al' 'find * -prn'
Microsoft is SO HARD after all. No on can hardly use it! And when you run Norton it crashes - and that is NOT nortons fault~!
your problem was with that crappy program from symantec/norton
Installing Norton Systemworks was your first mistake.
READ the INSTRUCTIONS !!
I'll admit it's not as much fun as roasting Bill Gates, but it may bring you closer to the root of your problem...
Knoppix boots from CD and finds/configures all your hardware without disturbing your hard drive unless you want to save a persistent home directory.
The only problem is that, if you are using dial-up, it won't find WinModems (internal PCI modems). If you have an external serial port modem, it will find that just fine. Serial modems are better modems anyway.
If you want more info, Freepmail me.
It largely depends on what you use the machine to do... but if you are a UNIX novice you will definitely need a good deal of ramp-up study to get your bearings. There will be much less acclimatization with a Mac.
Find some old disks and install Win95/98. They finally got most of the bugs out. Alsmost all of the software manufacturers except Microsoft issue versions which will run on those systems.
The Mac will be a lot more user friendly than Linux.
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