July 20, 2006

I also hate Linux..

Following is a letter by a person who used to speak against microsoft and windows. In such mindframe, he went to Linux and following is description of how he got experienced by that move. Worth reading it :-))

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Dear Microsoft,

I'm sorry. I'm sorry I dissed you over the years and complaining about your monopolistic business practices. I'm sorry I complained about your non standards compliance, your focus on adding fading menus and cursor shadows, and transparent window support. You were right, I was wrong. Is letter this a joke? Sadly no.

Why am I apologizing to Microsoft now? I'll tell you why. I have just come off a month long stint trying to live with Linux on the desktop. I have come back to Windows and ditched my Linux desktop.

This was after I was forced to google for a solution, download extra software, and search for the right text files to edit to allow Linux to run at my new Dell laptop to run at its native 1200x800 resolution. This was after I had to google for a solution, download extra software, and search for the right text files to edit to allow Linux to connect to my wireless router with WPA-PSK security enabled. This was after experiencing various unexplained problems of my wireless network stopping or slowing down. This was after I struggled to get my system to play multiple video formats. This was after I struggled to get video to work in web pages. This was after I was disappointed to find that flash 8 wasn't supported. This was after I experienced the unexplained loss of sound when trying to watch videos online. This was after I struggled to get mid files to play. This was after rogue processes locked up my window manager, forcing me to reset. This was after my window manager refused to start when I selected the Crux theme. This was after my distro automatically downloaded updates and in the process removed my desktop manager. This was after chatting with Linux users on irc and receiving replies like "why are you complaining, it's free software" and "just re-install". This was after struggling to find a decent windowed text editor with that worked with the system clipboard and allowed you to record, save, and playback keyboard macros. This was after I struggle to fix monodoc's unexplained random crashes and isolated the error in my distro's faulty glibc library. This was after struggling to find old versions of some libraries to successfully compile f-spot.

It's not that I couldn't get Linux to work, it's that it takes too much of my time to get Linux to work. I realize now, back in Windows, how nice it is to not have to worry about any of those things. I realize now, back in Windows, how great Textpad really is. I realize now, back in Windows, what a well behaved wireless network connection is.

I'm sorry Microsoft. I apologize for disrespecting you.