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expletivewindowsdeleted

So, back from my excursion with my family (had a great time, maybe I'll write about it later), I find that -not for the first time- my desktop computer has taken the opportunity of being left off for several days as a chance to fuck itself over. So now, after several unsuccessful attempts at repair and reinstallation, including -definitely not for the first time- a perfectly functional new XP install suddenly becoming unbootable and unrestorable after exposure to one of Microsoft's "critical security updates, I'm now writing this from my shiny new Ubuntu 8.04 installation.

Is that a run-on sentence? Or something else? Parenthetical statements and nested subordinate clauses just look to me like side branches to a no-longer-merely-linear sentence.

This isn't my first foray into linux territory, having previously played with Xubuntu's Fawn and Gibbon varieties, and briefly with Debian and Stormix years ago, and of course my laptop is an Eee. And I'll be running linux and nothing but until some future time when I delude myself into thinking a dual boot would be cool and maybe I can coax this ancient computer into running games again. (Games, and certain proprietary programs in certain professional industries, are the only thing you might require Windows for.)

I find any of the desktop-oriented linux distros is much easier to install and use than Windows. I have to delicately tweak and coax XP for hours to get a desktop environment I like, with a high risk of failure, whereas a linux liveCD can give me a comfortable working install in half an hour or so. This in spite of my slipstreamed updated XP install disc. (If you are inclined to play with windows, I highly recommend getting the latest service pack and your own pick of relevent updates in download form -the one where Microsoft says "only for IT professionals installing on many computers"- and using either nLite or vLite to burn a fully-updated Windows install disc. This will cut your Windows setup time in half --to a mere two or three hours.)
Posted by Zac at 9:23 PM
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1 comment:

Sra said...

Could have been worse. Could have been Vista.

6/8/08 10:50

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