And I take it back!

Aha!

So I knew that hard drive that was just laying around the case wasn't some kind of adornment. Turns out the PC had Windows 7 installed and not XP, which is what was trying to boot up, so somehow, somewhere along the lines that HDD got disconnected before it reached me.

Point and case here, patient goes back into the table for another operation, a quick and painless one this time around.

And we're better off now!

Last tuesday drew the final line with Windows 7 and the Microsoft Windows line in general. I've used Windows during my entire life and I've transitioned from Windows 3.1 up to Windows 7, learning a fair amount of tricks, but I've grown tired of bloatware and in general Windows tendency to lose compatibility between versions.

Yeah I'm probably an old dog, not that old though, but those are the little details that piss me off... and the drivers which is what took me to fly into Linux and say good bye to Windows.

This bad boy over here is an IBM/Lenovo T61 running an Intel Centrino Core Duo at 2.0 Ghz, 2 GB of DDR2 PC-6700 and a 500GB Hard Drive, which I got from somewhere else. Even though modest in this time and year, considering these were built back in '05. Interestingly this machine had issues running Windows XP, I somehow felt there was something wrong, and even though I went for Windows 7 it still felt the same way and it wasn't until at work, while trying to fix a T500 I had been assigned, I realized that the T60/61/500 line had SERIOUS problems with driver compatibility. So bad it was that if you tried to format the computer with a Windows XP CD it wouldn't let you and if you didn't have the recovery discs then you were in for an ugly ride until you yet again realize you have to mess around with the BIOS to get it working and then after the install is done you have to mess with it again... not cool Microsoft/IBM/Lenovo. And I'm not going to talk about my experience with Windows Vista and the T500, believe me I have NOTHING good to say about it.

So it all comes down to this, Linux. I had intended to do this transition earlier but for X or Y reason I just wouldn't, OK I procrastinated, but in the end it is a change I don't regret at all. In comparation Debian 6 "Squeeze" is running way smoother with the Gnome interface at a noble 300~ MB when it has completely finished booting up into the Desktop, after 30 seconds, which in no way was happening with either XP or 7. Oh joy, Windows Security Updates, Windows Driver Updates, Windows Something Updates, sorry what's that? 300MB patches? Windows Genuine Advantage Mathingy? Resource Hogs at the turn of every corner?

Things like that always made me cringe in terror but fortunately that's all in the past and if I ever need to run anything I just go for WINE or fire up the Virtual Machine which contains an original version of Windows XP. And for those telling me that's not true remember that all branded PC's contain a label with the key and I'm using mine for the VM XP so Microsoft can go and kiss my ass with their retarded policies.

And as a final note the only issue I had with Linux was the Wireless Driver which took me around 5 minutes to find, which unfortunately with Windows XP was a whole different story because the property drivers are NOT included in the installation disc which literally consists of most components in the laptop except for the motherboard, monitor, keyboard, mouse and the USB hubs... aside from those it could vary and if you weren't using a Windows XP SP3 CD then you weren't going to find the Hard Drive, EVER, since there were no SATA drivers included or if you found 'em it was minimal.

Yes Microsoft, quite a joyful time I had with your operating systems...