When I first moved to Atlanta in 1990, ostensibly to make my way in the world as some sort of journalist, I did so with a Zenith computer system – complete with two (count ’em, two) 5 1/4″ floppy drives, a rocking 640K of memory, no hard drive and a totally kick-ass VGA monitor. Microsoft Windows was, at the time, not a true operating system, but an “operating environment” which ran on top of MS-DOS and was largely ignored because it was as quirky as MS-DOS itself. My Zenith system, on the other hand, ran CP/M DOS (which preceded – and was eventually stolen by – Microsoft’s OS) and I had very little need for anything that didn’t come on my collection of floppy-based programs. I had a rudimentary spreadsheet, a database, a word-processor…I even had a couple of desktop publishing things (I don’t recall their names), which allowed me to put out an annual “Tomarama” (I use the word “annual” in the loosest possible way) and a weekly newsletter for my darts team which was released under the banner of “The Thermonuclear Arrow.”
My first long-term job in Atlanta consisted of me using an IBM PS2 running MS-DOS, but I rarely had any need to play with the operating system. I wrote the occasional batch file and tweaked my autoexec.bat and config.sys files (what was all this “HIMEM” stuff about?), but primarily my workstation was a window into NYNEX’s mainframe and something upon which I was eventually allowed to run Lotus 1-2-3.
My boss had a really hard time with that, by the way. She did everything she could to make sure that my two co-workers and I were not allowed to do anything that she didn’t understand, and she had no clue when it came to spreadsheets.
At some point over the next year, Microsoft’s Windows 3.0 came onto the scene at NYNEX, and I took the first tentative steps on the road upon which I’ve fashioned a 20-year career – one that has involved working with, troubleshooting, managing, programming in, supporting and administering Windows systems.
That may be changing. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not one of those people who are going to bash Microsoft and talk about how unsecure and quirky and buggy and worthless and terrible Microsoft Windows is compared to any other OS, up to and including pen and paper. I like Windows. I like Microsoft. I prefer PCs over Macs, and I will never understand why Steve Jobs has been so adamant about keeping everything related to Apple secured behind proprietary software and – for the most part – hardware. People bitch and moan about Microsoft being a monopoly, but the fact is that Bill Gates’ empire has created more jobs and done more to computerize the world than Apple has ever even dreamt about. And it’s all because Gates opened up his software and let programmers do what they do best. Why are viruses most prevalent on Windows-based systems? Two reasons: There are (a lot) more of them than any other OS, and the software is accesible to programmers, for good or evil. Shit happens. Deal with it.
Windows has done a few things lately that I really don’t like, however. First, it’s gotten more and more bloated with each new release. Windows XP Pro is a fantastic operating system, and it was a great follow up to Windows 95, NT, 98 and (God help us all) the miserable failure known as “Millenium Edition.”
Windows Vista is also a very nice OS, and I don’t understand why so many people seem to despise it. I’ve run it for several years on one of my laptops (I actually installed it when it was still in Beta) and I’ve never – not once – gotten a blue screen with it. I never had any real problems with it, other than the occasional hardware conflict (why Microsoft didn’t build in support for older hardware is beyond me) and the always-annoying, “Are you sure you want to do this?” question that pops up anytime you try to do anything with it. That seems to me to be an over-reaction to viruses on the part of Microsoft, but I can deal with it.
The main problem with Vista – and now with the soon-to-be-released Windows 7, which I’m running on my desktop computer at home – is bloat. When it takes 45 minutes to install an operating system, there’s too much in it. When the OS includes programs that no sane person would ever use, there’s too much in it. When older workstations have trouble running at a decent speed, even when they were top-of-the-line systems just a year or two ago, there’s too much in the OS.
My second problem with Windows lately is that, in addition to applying new patches every 24 hours, they’re also coming out with completely new operating systems every 18 months. That’s positively Mac-like. Since 1996 or 97, when Windows 95 finally hit the streets (uh, you missed the deadline, dudes), there have been at least 9 new Windows OSs, and God knows how many different flavors of each. Improvement is nice, but not when you’ve got to shell out $200 and do a complete system upgrade all the time. I’m lucky – my job has allowed me to get all of Microsoft’s software for free – but I still get annoyed by the constant changes. That’s the main reason I got out of the programming gig: I got tired of having to learn a (basically) new interface every year.
Then I got the iPhone, and I’m starting to see that – at least as far as phones go – Apple’s slowing coming around. They released the Software Development Kit (SDK) to programmers everywhere, and – though they still keep too tight a leash on what can be put on the phone – people started using the SDK to create, at last count, somewhere around a quarter of a million approved applications for the iPhone. Most of these apps are free. Software is good. Free is good. Free software is great.
So last weekend, I finally got off my lazy butt and purchased a new hard drive for my Dell Inspiron 8600 – a laptop that I had had custom-built and which had been my favorite machine for about three years before the original drive died about 18 months ago.
Obviously, it’s an older machine. So I didn’t want to put the latest and greatest Microsoft OS on it. I opted instead to go a completely different route – one that my final position at BellSouth (a UNIX administrator, remember?) put me in a position to try. I installed Linux on my 8600 (hereafter to be referred to as “Kramer,” because that’s the nickname it was given when I bought it….mainly because it has a wood veneer and it reminded people of the crazy weird character named Kramer on the Seinfeld sitcom).
Specifically, Kramer got outfitted with Fedora 10 (and I’ll probably upgrade him to Fedora 11 when it’s officially released in a week or so). After a few normal growing pains (*nothing* is simple in a UNIX-based system), I’ve gotten Kramer to the point where he will do just about anything that my Vista or XP or Windows 7 systems will do. True, there are few high-quality games written for Linux, but I do most of my gaming on my Playstation. Also, once football season rolls around, I’m going to have to do my photo editing using the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) rather than with Photoshop, which will be a challenge unless I start doing some serious practicing with the GIMP; but that’s about all. I have a complete office suite, compatible with Microsoft Office. I have programs to play movies, synch my iPod, play tunes, burn CDs and DVDs. I can surf the web, maintain my email, keep a calendar, write programs and have instant message conversations with all of my existing contacts. I can maintain my websites. I can pay my bills. I can put up a webcam. I have access to wireless networks, bluetooth and all of my printers. How much did I have to pay for all of this? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Linux is free, and so are 99.5% of the programs written for it.
And the installation took about 5 minutes. So, at least on Kramer, I have finally cut all ties with Microsoft.
I was going to continue on to other news and recent happenings here, but I think I’ve written enough for one morning. That’s right, all you lucky people. Look for another entry, with totally non-geeky stuff, in just a day or two. How exciting is that?
TWD