New and annoyed with M$

[Sophie]

Hello
 
I have just had a very nasty expereince with the "Talk to us at Microsoft about WGA" forums, they are evasive, nasty, and one individual Phil Liu Deleted every question I aksed. So I said that's it I am dumping Windoze. (I like using Damn Small Linux and Ubunto Linux. so that is what I am migrating to over the next few months).
 
Has MS finally lost the plot or what?
 
Sophie

[hm_murdock]

Finally? I think they lost years ago. I ditched Windows as my main system in 1999, moving to Power Macintosh when I realized that Windows totally blows and that (at that time) OS 8.6 kicked its ass all around. I took the huge plunge in '01 to Mac OS X, then in late 05, I finally was able to totally ditch the Redmond OS and I'll never look back. Acquisition of another PC will mean installing Ubuntu.

Unlike a lot of folks around here, I'm not like OMG HATE THE MICROSOFT. I don't like 'em, but I'm not foaming anymore. I went through my spiteful, hateful stage, just like I went through my rabid Apple fanboy stage. I'm happy to say that I like "computers", and prefer UNIXy systems, my favorite being the STEPs (NeXTSTEP, OPENSTEP, Rhapsody, Mac OS X).

[Sophie]

Finally? I think they lost years ago. I ditched Windows as my main system in 1999, moving to Power Macintosh when I realized that Windows totally blows and that (at that time) OS 8.6 kicked its ass all around. I took the huge plunge in '01 to Mac OS X, then in late 05, I finally was able to totally ditch the Redmond OS and I'll never look back. Acquisition of another PC will mean installing Ubuntu.
 
Unlike a lot of folks around here, I'm not like OMG HATE THE MICROSOFT. I don't like 'em, but I'm not foaming anymore. I went through my spiteful, hateful stage, just like I went through my rabid Apple fanboy stage. I'm happy to say that I like "computers", and prefer UNIXy systems, my favorite being the STEPs (NeXTSTEP, OPENSTEP, Rhapsody, Mac OS X).

Well I have used other oses, mainly ubuntu and DSL and a slax distro, Using some windoze stuff where others wont work. It is the WGA that has finally done it for me, and thier resident robot (Phil Liu) who seems to have problems when somene describes the inner workings of WGA encryption. (He asked for it though). I would be better off with linux because it is more usefult to me than the bloated crap M$ put in thier software. And there is none of this upgrade and cough up, armtwist bullshit, just an operating system that does what I want it to.
 
I am still foaming I think, Billyborg Gates is like some sci fi monster surrounded by drones trying to assimilate my PC. I just do not need that.
 
I mean the best advert for Linux is Microsoft. I have DSL running on one Machine, 50 mb that is all it takes up. This new Microsft Vista, like 50 Gb, an inbuilt spanish inquisition, "Customer support" that makes the Gestapo look like really nice people, and a grinning corporate image that reminds me of a religious cult.
 
So yes, I am going to get a hammer to the CD, and set fire to the COA sticker, and send the lot to M$ with the words "Bye" written all over the packaging.
 

[mobrien_12]

Welcome Sophie,

I started using Linux back in 1997.  I used it because I wanted a fast slick unix-Like system on x86 hardware.  I ran it (slackware) on a 486 with 8MB ram and it worked nicely.  

I kept using MS stuff, but they kept making me more and more annoyed. The cutting point was Windows XP, with the Activation Scheme.  WGA, which is a geniune advantage for NOBODY but Microsoft, is just another extension of activation: screw their loyal customers.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

Welcome indeed,

I switched to Linux about 9 months ago ... if only I had known about it earlier, unfortunately there are no Linux ads or at least I have never seen them, which is really too bad. As for M$, I've always hated them ever since let's see ... was it Window$ 95, yeah it musta been. I don't see any good points in an OS that is as unstable, unorganized, and as infused with nonsense and BS as Window$.

I only wonder, if I had switched earlier would I have been able to handle it ? Techinically Linux has only recently (like 3-4 years ago) become reasonably user-friendly and really I would not have switched if  openoffice were not available. I've been using Openoffice since 1.0.0, so maybe I could've switched back then ? Anyway, so far Linux has been able to do everything that Window$ can and then some ... if you encounter obstacles with Linux, don't give up, there is always an answer at least that's what I've found. Oh, yes, and I have sworn to myself never to go back to M$, never ever ever, no matter what I have to lose. I can't their shit anymore, I won't !

[Orethrius]

I just wish someone would air these adverts.  I mean, if MS can do it, why can't RH?

[H_TeXMeX_H]

They should air those ... especially the Truth Happens one. But, unforutately it costs a lot to air commercials, especially where and when they count And who has the $$$ ? M$ of course ...

[worker201]

I see this has become a "tell your Microsoft story" thread.  Very well, then.

I started on Windows with 3.1.  Of course graduated to 95 and 98 as they came along.  I used to fuck around with Linuxes, I installed Mandrake 6 on my laptop once, but I couldn't connect to the internet and download the drivers for my LCD, so I kinda swamped it.  Many years after, I bought SuSE 8.1 and installed it, had a great time with it.  Then I decided it was time to get serious, so I dumped SuSE for Slackware, and I went apeshit trying to configure sound and build my own kernels (with eventual success).

Meanwhile, at the office, I needed to install an open source program for work.  I got Microsoft SFU, and was able to install a sort of half-assed Unix client within Windows XP (that's right, I managed to skip 2000).  It worked well for awhile.  But then there was another program that I needed to install that required a lot more strength than SFU could provide (install script kept saying my RPC was damaged or some such shit).  That was like the same week Fedora Core 1 came out, so I scooped it up.  Installed it fine, and had all my open source work programs running within the week.  Now I'm on Fedora Core 5, and I boot back into Windows only to use Illustrator.

At some point in all that, I set up an FTP server with Slackware and bought a couple Macs.  The Macs are great, but I still like to download source tarballs and build shit on the Mac that no one ever thought of building on a Mac before.  And I take every opportunity I can to mention to anyone who complains about Windows that they don't need it.  Nobody believes me, of course.

[Sophie]

Hi

I see this has become a "tell your Microsoft story" thread.  Very well, then.

Well most of your stories are similar to mine in some ways. I was OK with windoze 3x because it was small and on a good machine worked well. Then came "Chicago" (the Win 95 betas) and that is when the nightmare started.

It has been year after year of "Are you Windows ready buy now, upgrade now now, do it now" I used small distros of linux because they were unix like, and there was none of the memory hogging clutter consisting of animated characters and meaningless helpfiles etc.

XP with that product activation crap was the last straw. It was quite interesting to know how it works and circumvent, but it was not the point, the point is that windoze is badly coded, bloated rubbish, that now treats users like criminals. I am sitting here now with a nice slax distro of Linux, using the KDE desktop and Konqueror browser. As for coding I can use the compilers I like using, GCC, Lazarus Pascal and so on. I can just get on with what I want to to do.

I really find Microsoft's latest attempt at being "Hip n trendy" by setting up "Customer community forums" irritating, These in truth are just clearing houses for complaints run by little Hitlers (As in Phil Liu) where every complaint is ignored and dumped after a while.

I have seen ads for linux, about a year ago, in the UK for linux based servers buit by IBM, It involved this "Mysterious child" that "spread to word" It was only run about four or five times on TV. I think M$ are screwing thier customers so much people will migrate to linux a lot more.

I know distros like Ubuntu, and this one I am using now, Slax, would be familliar enough to most point n click users of windoze to make escape easy for them. So if M$ keep pushing thier Spanish Inquisition on people then people will switch.

I am myself looking to see what distro suite me the best, (I Need something with Gnome preferably, and good hardware support)


 

[7031]

I actually quite liked Windows until 98 when it got worse. Then WinBlowz Xtra Pathetic advertised Linux for me.

 Now I use Mac OS X Tiger :macos:  on a Mac and Ubuntu Linux on a dual boot PC (until Darwine works with PowerPC).

:DWelcome to Microsuck Sophie.

[pofnlice]

Welcome to Microsuck!
Though it's obvious your not a beginner, this is a great place to get the move on! You'll find here loads of support, and if we don't know or can't figure it out, we will be more than ready to tell you to get the right answers. If you're not sure where to start with the permanent distro, that's ok too. Many here have switched distro's throughout just to play, experience or because it suited more to what they wanted, so have a wander through it all. Or, you can let some script pick it out for you...The Linux Distro Test

I have seen ads for linux,  about a year ago, in the UK for linux based servers buit by IBM, It involved this "Mysterious child" that "spread to word" It was only run about four or five times on TV. I think M$ are screwing thier customers so much people will migrate to linux a lot more.

I remember those commercials...They started airing around a Super Bowl a couple of years ago.

Anyway, I can break my switch down easily...
win3.1 - happily plodding away not knowing any better
win 95 - disappointed, but I was a windoid who didn't know better
Win 98 - Starting to get frustrated, heard about, read about and experimented with SuSE, Red Hat, but never committed.
Win 2000 - Hionestly, except for the blue screens, I was quite happy with it, it did all I wanted with little hastle...but my hard drive filled up fast with every update...rebooting was really starting to piss me off. I then discovered this forum...not really sure how I did now, I think a google search, the name made me chuckle a bit so I checked it out. I decided to go for the plunge after reading and talking with people here and I chose SuSE. It was loads of fun and I had lots of Growing pains. I now use Ubuntu and find it extremely satisfying, like fish n chips after a night on a pub crawl...or a taco bell hell... My wife is still on Win, now XP and that just annoys the shit out of me. However, I do keep my computer on Ubuntu all the time and she seems possibly to be getting to the point of actually liking Linux.

There's me! Welcome fellow UK'er (Actually I'm a Texan Living in Birmingham, UK, so do ex pats count?) and enjoy the forum!

[Sophie]

Hi

Thanks for the welcome

I managed to install Ubuntu whuch sort of reminds me of happier days. The thing I really like is they have a lot of Python stuff in the distro, These recent linux distros are in my opinion far superior to windows. I have not had one crash yet. From what I can make out the Ubuntu distros are debian-ish under the hood, (They seem familiar in that respect) Of the others The slax distros have a few bugs in the installation of packages on the fly. One slax based distro (DNA Linux) I am going to use that for my work, I have managed to start porting my bioinformatics software (Coded in Delphi) via Lazarus. the nice thing about it is the additional plugins that used python instead of pascal are also well covered in linux as python seems to come as standard in some distros.
DSL (Knoppix based) it brilliant for networking, I looked at a Suze cover DVD and didnt like it much, what I am going to do is look at the live distros and see which one I prefer to use and stick with them, I think in about two months time I will be rid of M$ software altogether,

The thing is I can pick and choose what I want to install and there are no strings attatched. In terms of "The good old days" it is the unix they had that on the university machines years ago all of them talking to this old Prime 750 mainframe.

I think I am settling down on about four linux distros,



Sophie

[pofnlice]

If you are a female (as your name suggests) and you keep talking like that, some of these guys are going to fall in love with you...actually, some of them even if your a guy. It will only get ugly from there!

[H_TeXMeX_H]

DSL is one of the best live distros in my opinion. And it seems you know what you're doing, so it's a good choice. There's a nice list of em here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LiveCDs

Only other live Linux distro I like is Accelerated Knoppix

And there's also Belenix but it's OpenSolaris not Linux.

[worker201]

From what I can make out the Ubuntu distros are debian-ish under the hood, (They seem familiar in that respect)

Ubuntu is in fact an independent fork of the Debian project.  Don't be surprised if Debian and Ubuntu start to have less and less in common as the years roll by.