Flutterby™! : Why Microsoft and the paradigms it festers must die

Next unread comment / Catchup all unread comments User Account Info | Logout | XML/Pilot/etc versions | Long version (with comments) | Weblog archives | Site Map | | Browse Topics

Why Microsoft and the paradigms it festers must die

2007-12-16 15:35:07.765908+00 by meuon 1 comments

I just bought a new laptop: HP ZD9620, Dual AMD's 2gb of ram, 240gb HD's.. so that I had enough ram and HD space to do some server-style computing, VMware sessions, etc.. Installed Ubuntu 7.10 desktop, LAMP server, vmware, etc on the 2nd drive. No real issues, everything installed and works well. Ubuntu Linux just works and as Dan has said; gets out of your way. This machine is fast and works well.

This morning I'm trying to use it in Vista mode just so I can run MSIE 7.0 under WinVista. Frustrating. It takes a while for Norton to die (Why bother, even with it on, I can command line FTP a few files up and down from a server before it pops up to block things, and often it doesn't even if you say 'yes'), it takes a while for all the desktop widgets to load (I'll remove them later).. and then the HP AnnoyWare starts in, buy maintenance/support, total care advisor crapware.. welcome screens, yahoo toolbar wants updating.. yada.. yada.. yada.. WinVista's (as normally installed by OEM's) personality is Whining, Complaining, Needy...

I finally get it functioning as a web browser, start doing work, and as I glance away it shuts down to install freshly downloaded updates. Which is did Friday and Saturday as well. Only now.. I have enough time to make this blog post waiting for it to do whatever it thinks it needs to do.

I wish Ralph Nader would do a sequel: "Unsafe at Any Speed: Vista"

[ related topics: Free Software Interactive Drama Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Weblogs Open Source Invention and Design Space & Astronomy Work, productivity and environment Heinlein ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2007-12-18 14:24:39.788653+00 by: JT [edit history]

Doing a lot more windows work with my second job, I've found that even if people just bought norton's and paid for a whole year contract, you still have to take the time to explain to people that it's not worth the performance issue and security risk to leave it on their computers.

Quite a few times we've found people who are complaining about how their computers are slowing with age, and after a short period of time we either find aol's software or a norton's app that's been put on their computers. People who use aol to access the internet (yes, I live in a place where dialup is the norm) can't get rid of the software, but about 9 times out of 10, we talk people into dropping norton's and they're amazed at how much better their computers run, how fewer times there's odd application problems, and how much quicker they boot up.

Try one of the following alternatives
Avast! antivirus
AVG antivirus

I personally use Avast and recommend it, but I know quite a few people who are happy with AVG, even though it gives a bit more of a hit to performance than Avast does.