Back to Reality

Fast forward...
I have subsuquently experiemented with a variety of Linux distributions (or "distros"), guided in part by Chess Griffin's "Linux Reality" podcast and website (to be discussed in a future blog entry) and his pointers to LinuxQuestions.org and DistroWatch.com... Debian, Ubuntu, fedora, OpenSUSE...

I've had good and easy successes with many of them (connecting to my home WPA wireless network, sharing printers with my Windows computers... I still have some work to do on the file sharing issues. That is somewhat trickier due to the increased native security of Linux as compared to Windows. I also haven't settled exactly on how I want all of my computer configurations (dual-booting)... which will host several of my printers and backup external drives. Chess Griffin discusses networking and file sharing in some detail in several of his 100 podcasts.

Lack of Linux drivers for a Document Scanner

There is some hardware (graphics accelerator cards, scanners, modems, etc.) out there which is not compatible with Linux, because the manufacturers don't make the software specifications available, and the Linux community can't reverse engineer a solution. This is a problem that many Linux users learn to deal with by checking out hardware compatability lists for Linux before buying hardware. My $400 Xerox scanner has such an issue. It is actually made by Visioneer, but in any case, this particular scanner has no Linux drivers and is not recognized by Linux.

Since a digital documents have become such an important part of my life, the scanner is important to me... although having a stable computer and backup system is also a part of that equation... But I resigned to reinstall Windows XP and Vista on my office desktop and Dell notebook anyway... wise this time to make sure that I have made allowances in the partitioning to install dual-booting Linux as well. (Vista is supposed to be able to let you shrink its own parititions from its computer administration menus, but that can be complicated to do successfully... it is easier to restrict Vista's partition *before* you install the Vista OS.)

Work VPN Incompatability with Vista

Windows Vista is incompatible with my work's VPN. Put another way, we are restricted/admonished, etc. *not* to try to install the VPN client on a Windows Vista machine. Of course I've tried to do it anyway, but the installer won't let me.

Interestingly enough, *approved* platforms for my work VPN (a US govt agency) include Windows NT 4, 2000, XP, Mac OS X, *and* Red Hat Linux 6.2 or greater... but *not* Microsoft Vista. Red Hat Linux costs $80 to download and try. I might just get around to installing that on my Dell Notebook to see if I can get the work VPN running.

Epilogue

One response to problems with operating systems and computers might be to put the machine in a closet and give up. Some of my friends have taken this approach. Their Windows computers have become so riddled with malware that nobody has been able to fix them, and they themselves aren't knowledgeable enough to even try reinstalling the operating system to start over.

Another response is to just move away from Microsoft and Windows and Vista... "buy a Mac", or start moving to Linux. This is a perfectly reasonable way of dealing with things as well for most people who just need to *use* their computers and don't care how they work...

But I am of a different ilk... when there is a problem, I want to understand it, I want to learn to anticipate it, and I want to learn to try to outsmart it. These Linux endeavors have been just the thing... slowly learning to keep Microsoft in its cage, while continuing to expand my own horizons.

It would be no surprise that a company like Microsoft which has so many products used by so many people around the world would have a lot of complaints against them... and they do, including one from me... unresolved. For your entertainment:

The BBB of Alaska/Oregon/Western Washington Reliability report for Microsoft:

http://alaskaoregonwesternwashington.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=114&bbb=1296&firm=501264

Clone Wars

Being the cheapskate that I am with 2 perfectly good, 8+ year old computers running Windows XP, I was starting to run into a problem. The 20 Gb hard drives on these machines were running out of space... with 5 years of jpegs of the kids, some forays into CD ripping, and the final capitulation and purchase of Microsoft Office Home and Student... (I wish that I had found out about OpenOffice.org sooner... could have saved $150!)...

The solution is to clone the hard drive... make a backup disk image of the hard drive using a program like Acronis TrueImage, save that on an attached external HDD, install the new hard drive in the machine, and then use Acronis to "restore" the image to the larger hard drive. A little bit dicey, because Windows XP can get finicky if it thinks it is being shuffled illegally to new hardware, but this procedure does work. Just let XP reboot an get its bearings again. I successfully completed the process with the basement XP Home machine.

Lurking Linux

I had been coming across more articles (thanks to Google News) about the Linux operating system, its purported advantages in security and stability over the Windows Family, etc... When I went to my college reunion... a top flight school, I ran across a new computer science grad and asked him what they were learning these days and he said, "Linux". That was all I needed to hear to finally spur me on.

A Sign from God

Back on the ranch... I was backing up all of the important files on my XP Pro system in my home office anticipating cloning its hard drive to give the system more breathing room... and then, just as I was about to clone the drive, it stopped working... wouldn't spin, wouldn't boot.

What the hell. I had been listening to Chess Griffin's Linux Reality podcast for a few weeks. I had downloaded and burned some installation CDs for Debian, Ubuntu, fedora and OpenSUSE Linux... time to put Chess's teachings into practice.

I installed the new, blank 60 Gb HDD on the 8 year old machine and I loaded up the Debian Netinstall iso boot CD I had burned. I started up the computer, and "Viola'!". In about 1/5 the time of a typical Windows install, I had desktop Debian Linux installed on this machine. Not long after that, I had the machine talking to my Windows XP and Vista machines, sharing their printers and files over a home, wireless, WPA-secure network.

Vista: The Big Mistake

Over the years, since Windows 95, Microsoft has been slowly sucking the life out of my enthusiasm for working with computers (for managing family photos, getting into digital music playing, programming, etc.). Microsoft has been controlling more tightly every year my ability to freely use the software that I have bought from them... requiring me to "activate" it to make sure that I am not trying to use copies illegally... having the operating system check its hardware environment to make sure that I haven't tried to clone an installation, etc.

I did get to a point for a few years between ~2002 and 2007 when my home computer systems were working pretty well together. I had upgraded 2 older machines to Windows XP and was successfully running a secure, home wireless network to share printers and files... and computing was as it could be with minimal hassle and administration effort.

When I decided to buy a new computer in April 2007, I considered Apple/Macs ("just work"), but I *believed* the reviews which described Vista as "warmed over XP". I figured I would try to keep the home computer environment homogenous, and I ordered a new notebook from Dell with Vista.

That turned out to be a big mistake.

I won't go too much into the gory details, but... within the first year, I had to reinstall the operating system (and lost lots of data) due to a graphics driver problem. In the next 6 months, I had repeated problems with compatibility and function of the DVD burner... very slow and erratic... not to mention the file system taking *forever* (read "hours") to copy a few Gb of files from one folder to another on the *same* C: hard drive. This led to a second reinstall of Vista... from the installation disks this time... under Dell's direction. Now some of the DVD burner issues seem to be resolved, but not all. (Vista takes 20+ minutes to burn a data DVD... fedora Linux running dual-boot on the same hardware takes less than 10 minutes for the same job.)

At this point, I don't put any important files on this notebook (under Vista) without backing them up immediately on the attached external hard drive.

Next... the desktop XP Pro hard drive fails.

Enter Linux.

Flashpoint

I bitch to my family members too much about my frustrations with Microsoft operating systems and Microsoft's recent release of the troubled Vista operating system. One of them finally suggested that I blog about it. Blogging sounded like a great way to blow off this steam. Maybe it will help to put me in touch with more like-minded souls, as well.

What I plan to do in this blog is to describe some of my frustrations and experiences with Microsoft Vista (Don't buy it!!!), but, more importantly, I plan to describe my explorations into the world of the *free* Linux operating system. I have discovered some great resources on the Web and will share them as well.

I do owe Microsoft a big debt of thanks... for pushing me into learning about the wonderful world of Linux. Linux has been around since the early 1990's thanks to a man named Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, and a cast of thousands. With the World Wide Web, Linux is out there for anybody to try... for free.

--bbneo