The story of a former Windows XP User
To state my experience level - I'm a relative Linux newbie and an amateur programmer.
When I bought my computer - Windows was on it - I didn't choose it. They didn't have to aim for me at all. There is only one windows, and it's made the way Microsoft wants it.
When I first came to the Linux world - I saw the number of distros as a weakness but now know better. One size doesn't fit all. Ubuntu is a good desktop. But for older (which I have a few) computers you might want to run Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux or Vector Linux. For a more hobbyist/poweruser/speeddemon type, you might want to Linux From Scratch, Gentoo, or perhaps Yoper. Or if you need a solid server - Slackware or one of the *BSDs.
Windows One Size Fits All doesn't work with a lot of people.
Quote:
“Its a matter of being difficult to shape Linux into being what you want.”
Okay, this quote threw me into a WTF moment^_^ Because it infers that Windows is easy.
Oddly enough, I found the opposite to be true. Windows is easier on the superficial aspects but as soon as you use it for a while or want to go beyond the GUI it gets either very hard or very expensive (no free programs) to do what you want.
For instance, I would have never switched but for this - nearly two years ago all I WANTED out of Windows was a fast computer (to this end I bought a 2.6GHZ P4) to browse the web, have an ftp client to upload stuff to my site, a graphic file manipulation program (photoimpact), play/create some mp3s, and do some eBay auction management with ebay auction assistant software.
I didn't run as Admin/root ever except to install programs and it was a hassle to learn how to do that because many programs expect admin priviledge off the bat as standard - but it can be done.
At first everything ran great - Windows started up in around a 30 seconds. Things ran fast. My first problem I ran into was explorer and the 1 million pop-ups! Every time I went on the web I started getting more and more which, with every click, would only spawn a dozen or so more children. Okay, so I switched to Mozilla. That was good but explorer kept nagging me about setting it back to the default browser. It's especially annoying when a program opens IE even if it isn't the default browser.
Then I wanted a graphics program beyond Paint. I had an old Photoimpact OEM pre-install from a previous 1998 computer that I was no longer using. Would it install? No. The disk was for Compaq computers only and now I had a Medion. So I had to either go out and steal it or buy it for circa $70 dollars. My time is money and I run my own business sharing a location with several other businesses, so I can't afford to pirate software as stupid as that sounds so I bought it. It was the same basic program in 2003 as it was in 1998. For me at least - not being a power user needing super advanced functions.
Then I needed an FTP program. Were there any free ones? Not that I saw - just a bunch of shareware. I bought wsftp from Ipswitch for about $40 at the time. A little overkill for what I needed, but it worked.
Then my database for the eBay auction assistant software became corrupted. The company promised to fix my data if I send them my database file. I did. They never sent anything back. I had to look at a solution to get into my corrupted database and at least find a way to extract my information (customer lists, transactions, inventory) if nothing else - it was based on Access so I bought an Microsoft Access 2003. It was a cool $300 bucks. I installed the application and it turned out I couldn't fix the corrupted database because my db was based on Access 2000 format. I could read it, but not find the problem and save it because Access 2003 would only allow saving it in the new format but then Auction Assistant couldn't read it. I wanted to return the POS Access 2003, but since the shrinkwrap was opened, I couldn't. Microsoft wouldn't address my complaint of this lack of basic functionality nor would send me a previous MS Access. I had to find one that hopefully wasn't a pirated copy on ebay. That was a major hassle.
Then on my same auction assistant software I wanted to make some programs that connected to the database and did things that the auction software didn't. Since no programming software comes with Windows, I had to buy some. Even though I trained in C/C++/Lisp, I wanted to hack out something fast and so I tried Visual Basic. Coming out of college as I did, I expected MS Software to be cheaper. In college, I could get many MS things for my own like $50-90. Visual Basic for the average joe cost $300! That wouldn't be bad in itself, but oftentimes the program or language just ignored my basic instructions or macros for no reason. To this day, I don't understand how to search MSDN nor did MS host communities like this one to help people solve problems. If I wanted support, I had to buy it and that I wasn't willing to do.
Well, that's all as programs went. Throughout that MS adventure, I installed programs regularly just to check them out. Installing is much easier than uninstalling in many cases - programs that uninstall leave remnants all over the place. Despite my best efforts and only seldomly running as root, spyware/malware/crapware built up.
I first started with Lava's Adaware. While it detected things, my computer still got slower. Next came Spybot - Detect and Destroy (? name). Not only did my computer get slower but now things were starting up at boot time w/o my permission. I installed StartUpControlPanel but once things were deleted, they would just reinstall themselve again. I tried another start-up program. Same results. I went into the registry. I don't understand the registry at all - I don't want to. I changed settings there - settings were being changed right back. I installed AVG free antivirus program. It slowed down the computer even more, checking everything. It broke a month later. More spyware was taking control of my computer - I installed Microsoft's Beta Spyware detector - thankfully free. All the spyware detectors started detecting less and less while my compture was getting more and more infested.
I got a HiTi photo printer. It was sweet. But once it turned on and connected with the computer, it had to be REINSTALLED, in this case daily in the controlpanel-hardware. It was like it was never installed before. NO firmware upgrade nor latest drivers fixed it.
I read up on windows Services. Many service are enabled by default. So I turned things off according to a list. ActiveX and servers the experts said were vulnerable. My computer couldn't print anymore. Even if I turned the services back on. Microsoft Update wouldn't work anymore. Even if I tried it manually. Because ActiveX wasn't on. I have to turn on one of the most vulnerable services to get security patches? Microsoft's update website won't work with firefox, which I replaced mozilla with by now. Why wouldn't an update website not work with another browser and only IE? Isn't this getting fascist? When I turned off the services I don't need or are vulnerable, half of everything breaks.
My IE was now regularly hogging my processor for no reason, I'm not even using it yet it's taking up to 90% of the processor. I know of no way to fix it and it happens every 90 minutes. It's the filebrowser of the system. There's no way to tear out I think. Windows isn't modular enough to do that - once I shut IE down, there is no more GUI capabilities in the system - I'm left staring at my empty desktop. Which is nice because all the folders and icons are gone and I'm left staring at my beautiful Wallpaper!
Now booting takes 12 minutes give or take. Yes, XP gets to the sign-in in about 1 and 1/2 minutes. But then after signing it, I hear my harddrive whirring for the next 10 or so minutes. I can't do anything or start up any programs. By now several unwanted programs are started up instantly and splayed across the screen. The task bar is also full of services and programs that I tried deleting to no avail. I haven't done anything yet but over 750MB of my 1024MB ram is used already. Windows wants you to reboot on installation of every single software or minor setting change, it seems. A hassle.
A business client sends me a file that has to be open in MS Office. I check the price. Insane - like over $400-500. Up to now, Worddoc was good enough - I'm only a start-up, no one fancy, but I don't want to appear like unprofessional and ask him to reformat it. I hear about OpenOffice. I download it. A little quirky. But it works, and for free. It's actually pretty nice.
More popups now. In firefox no less. I have a router/firewall plus have been using XP's firewall but my friend tells me of a free firewall that is better. It's called Tiny Firewall. We look it up but by now it costs 49 dollars. No longer free. Apparently the company wanted its own cut. Which is fine. But I'm not spending more money.
I'm contemplating whether to do a clean install. As a minor in CS, I can only imagine what normal people are going through. But I lost the CD quite a while ago in the shuffle that is my life. The last straw comes when I find a software-based keylogger running on my machine. I don't know where it came from or how it got there, but it's such an incredible invasion of privacy.
I was running a free browser and free office software anyway so I dumped Windows back in December 2004 and never looked back. I found Ubuntu in April with the new release of 2005. I'm still experimenting but my computer boots up in 40 seconds like it did in April. Slightly slower than a clean Windows install but after I sign in I don't have to wait for the services to start up which Windows hides and Linux does before booting X. No software has installed without my permission and while some hardware took a bit of tweaking to get install, no settings have miracously changed back for no reason afterwards. The only thing I'm missing is the ebay software, but now they have an online version I'm checking out....
All the software I need is free and usually better. I can even program for free or setup all types of servers which is nearly unthinkable in the MS world (except for the occasional print/filesharing server, barring 10 simultaneous users or more) I was surprised that Gimp is better than Photoimpact (for me) and more of my computer resources go towards running my programs - not running AV software or a million spyware detectors.
Microsoft is very good at making the superficial seem easy, but underneath the surface lies a very inflexible system and if your way isn't their way, you are out of luck.
The problem with making it more like Microsof is that the command line does have a steeper learning curve and it's not as pretty. But you trade in that initial pain for being able to do more and more effectively. The GUI cuts off your choices to begin with and will never let you get past a certain level.
Computers should be marketed as a toolbox. Microsoft would be a better pretty looking tool box but nearly empty upon delivery. For every tool you need, you'd have to pay money. And the tools would be very restricted in use. There are some flashy tools that you don't get elsewhere unfortunately.
Linux would be a toolbox that comes in any shape or size. You can fill it up with tools for free and do what you want with them. But your hammer would be missing a nice cushy rubber grip like the Microsoft hammer and just be plain. But you're more comfortable at the end anyway because you can leave by 3p.m. while the MS guy has to work overtime to finish his job
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