Well, I finally got sick and tired of Windows XP. The connection dialog for my VPN kept popping up at extremely random times, and when I clicked Cancel, it'd would disconnect my ethernet connection. I did everything I could think of to correct this situation. I've dug through every file, talked with the local gurus, run virus scans, etc. Nada.
So I pulled my Debian hard disk out and packed my XP hard drive away.
It's so great to be back. Last night I configured the HP DeskJet 5550 and LaserJet 2100TN. Tonight I finally got around to de-uglifying the fonts. Everything is nice and purty.
Now, if I could just find the energy to tackle my ever-growing ToDo list. LDAP, mod_perl, e17 - can you hear me coming?
The weather today sucked a nut. Continual wind of about 20 - 30 MPH gusts. The temperature was 35 degrees or so, but the wind chill was around 24. Freezing sand storms. That, I can live without.
Posted from exitwound.org.
I've now been exclusively on Debian at home for several weeks now. I've not booted into Windows, and I'm really happy with my Debian/KDE system.
At work I'm forced to use Win2K, and comparing the two is quite interesting.
Windows has all it's eye-candy turned on, and it's underlying defaults wide open! You then need to configure about a zillion settings to make it safe and secure (well as far as you can...), then you have to install a whole slew of software to make it useful. For example to make it half usable you have to install Cygwin, which while great, is still only a skin over a very broken OS.
While there are some cosmetic defaults in Linux systems that are a bit bland, e.g. fonts support is usually naff, at least the system defaults are now quite sensible. You can and should adjust the default settings, but things are now by default quite good in most modern Linux/BSD systems. I found it was simply a case of turning on the things I actually wanted with Debian. If I need an app, then apt-get gets it for me.
After a little font deuglification of my own, I now think my home system has much nicer font rendering on the screen and in print than my work system. This is very noticeable on brightly coloured web pages, and in a console window.
My mother could have no more set-up a Windows box, than she could have set up Debian. However, I'm quite confident that if properly configured she could have used either, and would not have really cared which. I naturally prefer Linux as it's easier to administer and look after, but most end users don't care.
Re:Windows is so primitive...
Lunchy on 2003-12-16T14:13:24
Yea, I've switched to Gentoo linux several months ago and never looked back to windows. I feel like I've woken up from the matrix.:) Re:Windows is so primitive...
ajt on 2003-12-16T21:32:29
I've never thought of it like that, but having used NT4 for it's entire ~7 years life, and more recently 2K, switching Linux on permanently as my desktop system is like waking up from a long sleep.
It's not like I've not used Unix or Linux systems before, I used Solaris and Irix at University, and I've dabbled with Linux for about as long as I've had NT, but to actually switch is, and I have no plans to go back is quite a change.
At work I no longer view the Windows system as a nice desktop and the Linux systems as servers, rather I view Windows as an impediment to my work, as it just doesn't do the things the servers do.
I still have NT sitting on a partition, and my better half still uses Windows, but I think when the next hardware cycle starts, Windows won't be on at all.
Re:Windows is so primitive...
shockme on 2003-12-16T15:31:51
I don't know that I'd consider Windows primitive. However, MSIE is absolutely primitive. There's been no innovation on it since Micros~1 "won" the browser war. (Actually, that should probably be "browser battle part 1"... Firebird is going to breathe new life into the overall war). You can't block pop-ups, it doesn't have tabbed browsing, etc., etc., etc. I've happily been using Debian since January 2001, All of my servers at the house run it, and it's been running quite happily on my desktop at work ever since I took the job.
The deuglification is a must for Debian boxes. But once done, it looks almost as good as anything rendered on a Windows box.
Debian defaults are very sensible. I love that you have to turn stuff on as opposed to turning off what you don't want. That's like setting the default configuration on your water to on. If you don't want it on, turn it off. Why the hell would I want my water running all the time?
Re:Windows is so primitive...
ajt on 2003-12-16T21:51:51
I don't think from my perspective that Windows is that sophisticated. Perhapse from a home or game using person XP is quite cool and feature complete, but for me it doesn't come with a reliable version of:
- SSH and SSHD
- Perl
;-) - Web Server, e.g. Apache
- Any developemnt tools
Now, I know that you can get Perl, SSH, Apache, and the Cygwin tool-kit, but they are only patches, and odd things still happen. Perl, SSH, Apache and the GNU tool-kit are much happier on a Unix/Unix like OS.
I couldn't agree more that MSIE is a dinosaur. I've been playing with Opera 7.x of late, and it's very nice, Phoenix/Mozilla are fantastic, and I gather the more recent kHTML based browsers are also pretty good. Virtually all the modern browsers bar MSIE support tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, and some form of ad-filtering, and half decent privicy protection.
Don't get me started on MSIE/Outlook/Exchange and the spread of spam and viruses....
I don't run "Windows for Teletubbies" at work, so I can't really compare it with my Debian desktop at home, but I find the features that got added to NT4 to create 2K annoying, and when I have used XP briefly I think it's terrible. I've never used Me or 2003, but for me the best Windows GUI was 98SE and NT, which didn't treat the user as a moron too much.
On the whole I find the Windows defaults of locks that aren't locked great for getting in, and making things work (sort of), but you quickly find that everyone else can get in, and plugging the holes, and locking the doors is much harder than you ever expected. By default the whole Windows design ethos is flawed, and Microsoft knows this, but can't really fix it, as they still focus more on look'n'feel and ease of use over security and stability. I gather than 2003 has better defaults and some decent tools built in, but it's only a server version.
At the end of the day Debian isn't perfect, but it's solid, reliable, and it's develped with security in mind. For me it's a good balance of form and function, and I can live with it and be happy.
