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