Reading Windows

After having accidentally dropped coke on my Dell laptop, I was forced to change it. I won't get in the details on how awful I felt about what happened - that computer was my friend, and I killed him. Rudy... that was his name. I had a wonderful relationship with him (now, I know I am causing the jealousy of the new one :P) and I do miss him.

Most of all, Rudy had a wonderful Win XP PRO OS and I was totally satisfied with it. I admit that ever since I started hearing rumors about Longhorn, I have been very curious towards Microsoft's newest OS. But it wasn't anything more than that... just mere curiosity. Out of curiosity, I installed windows blind on my laptop, just to see what the new version would look like and things like that (not that it helped so much in detecting the changes).

Well, now that I changed computer, I moved away from Dell, and I landed on Toshiba. It's a neat little jewel, I gotta admit it. At first I was almost tempted to get it with Win XP, also because you know what they say about the newest OS. But afterall they have been working on Longhorn (sorry, I don't like the name Vista :P) for about 6 years, and this is what I told myself to get convinced on moving on to the next OS. Plus the laptop with Win XP would cost more for some strange reasons, and since it was my parents' birthday present and we had compared both Dell and Toshiba offers, in the end I decided for the latter.

This Toshiba has the new OS by Microsoft of course, and right now I cannot say whether I enjoy it or not. I mean, it is neat as far as the new graphics is concerned and everything like that, but... I don't know if it is just my impression, but I don't feel myself very familiar with it. It takes me a while to remember where I had last seen my data, and how the organization of the whole thing works. Like I said, I don't know if maybe it is just me. In the Italian version they changed a lot of names (and icons) for the folders and I admit I am not feeling very much at ease yet. They even changed the way the information is displayed on the start menu. And I think that they changed it for the worst... according to me, in fact, it is rather sloppy.

I guess it is just a matter of getting used to it. I hope so anyway. And I know... you geeks out there will suggest for me to switch to Linux. But Linux to me is not straightforward enough, so I will not even consider that. Furthermore, I don't want to learn to use another interface... yet.

This post doesn't mean that I am totally against Win Vista. It's not so bad afterall (I hope I won't regret such words later), but is it only my impression or things have been changed a bit since the very last version? I mean, I think that all Windows versions have been quite standardized. That is to say that once you knew how to use Win 3.0, then you could use any other version without problems, aside from minor changes you had to get used to. But I feel that with this version, Microsoft has somehow gotten disjoined from the previous trend.

I'd really like to know what you think about this. I am really curious to know whether there is someone out there who feels in the same way, or if it just me being picky :P

Un bacio è un'apostrofo rosa scritto tra le parole "ti amo".

I've heard somebody compare Windows Vista to anal sex:
Sure it feels different, and it's a bit hard to get into at the start, but its true merit shines after a few tries.

(But at the end of the day, it's still 'fucking shit'. Heh.)

Consider yourself hugged.

Well, according to Mr. Köhntopp, you should stop using your computer immediatly (in German only, sorry):

(...) Wir verabschieden uns also von unseren Lesern auf Microsoft-Betriebssystemen bis auf weiteres. Und vergeßt nicht, Eure MS benutzenden Freunde anzurufen und ihnen zu sagen, wenn ein Patch bereitsteht und sie das Internet wieder anknipsen können.

SCNR :D

cu, w0lf.

Naturally, I love Jesus very much. I love him so much that I'd like to crucify him all over again.

Well heck, maybe that's just a little bit exaggerated, don't you think? Surely there are bugs and problems, and surely all the Microsoft geeks are already working to solve them so that the endless stream of patches will be issued, but I don't think it could be that bad.

Like I said, they've been working on this shit for 6 years, so it must be at least slightly better than what XP was to start. At any rate, I am confident in my firewall. At the moment I have also the trial version of Norton Antivirus, but it will expire in 3 months. By then I will have already switched to Zone Alarm Security Suite. I think that so far it is the best product I've ever had as far as antivirus and firewall are concerned. Maybe some of you might disagree, but since I installed it, I stopped having problems with viruses and spywares.

Un bacio è un'apostrofo rosa scritto tra le parole "ti amo".

I'm not going for vista. xp is most likely the last windows that ever was installed on my pc.

i don't know about you but if a company throws a mountain of money into development of an operating system, and it still treats its customers as beta testers, because their product is full of embarassing bugs (file copying performance is one of them) - how do the customers feel? cheated?

besides the system has exaggerated hardware requirements and it's totally infested with DRM. also the system registration system is getting more and more paranoid with each windows version. (is it possible to activate vista on networkless pc?)

Surely there are bugs and problems, and surely all the Microsoft geeks are already working to solve them so that the endless stream of patches will be issued, but I don't think it could be that bad.

vista already is ridden with problems. security and usability ones. and microsoft approach to bugfixing is far from perfect.

"Life is a queue. You come in, hang around for a bit, get some service, then depart."

XP was to start. At any rate, I am confident in my firewall. At the moment I have also the trial version of Norton Antivirus, but it will expire in 3 months.

I'm not using any antivirus AT ALL. I simply dont need one. ;)
And about that firewall thingy: I dont need that, too.

You are only in need of that if you're either running a server or an unprotected Windo(w)s system. Under linux, you just stop any daemons and services you dont need - if they're installed on your system at all - and that it. No open ports like Windows. It's the direct opposite way of the MS concept of using ports.

By then I will have already switched to Zone Alarm Security Suite. I think that so far it is the best product I've ever had as far as antivirus and firewall are concerned. Maybe some of you might disagree, but since I installed it, I stopped having problems with viruses and spywares.

Since starting to use linux, I dont have troubles with that kind of malware, anyway. And about viruses: didnt have one infection for the last 7 years (yes, using windoze)! :-P

And thats not because of some good AV engine, but me being cautious and handling stuff with care. Eg. I've never EVER been using Outlook or even Outlook Express (also called 'OjE' in german security circles, translates to something like 'oh no!' or 'god help me!'). I've been using Thunderbird, The Bat!, Sylpheed (Claws), Foxmail and lots of other non-MS products of high quality and features ;)

For each and any M$ tool I found a (better) replacement. K-Meleon for lightweight browsing (works quite fine on my 233 MHz Win98SE oldster), Thunderbird and Foxmail for e-mailing, Editpad and Notepad++ for editing textfiles and code, IrfanView for viewing and quickly converting images, Total Commander for browsing the hard disk, doing FTP transfers, and lots of other things .. and thats just the tip of the iceberg!

After switching completely to Linux, I'm just missing a good to handle image manipulation tool (Photoshop doesnt like to work with current version of WINE :-/) and Total Commander itself. IrfanView still works great using WINE.

cu, w0lf.

Naturally, I love Jesus very much. I love him so much that I'd like to crucify him all over again.

'm not using any antivirus AT ALL. I simply dont need one. ;) And about that firewall thingy: I dont need that, too.

You are only in need of that if you're either running a server or an unprotected Windo(w)s system. Under linux, you just stop any daemons and services you dont need - if they're installed on your system at all - and that it. No open ports like Windows. It's the direct opposite way of the MS concept of using ports.

i'm still a bit paranoid. so i block all ports i don't use. just because there might still be a security risk - there was a bug in the kernel when the system could be crashed by sending special malformed packets on an open unused port. it was fixed but that does not mean it can't return someday.

For each and any M$ tool I found a (better) replacement. K-Meleon for lightweight browsing (works quite fine on my 233 MHz Win98SE oldster), Thunderbird and Foxmail for e-mailing, Editpad and Notepad++ for editing textfiles and code, IrfanView for viewing and quickly converting images, Total Commander for browsing the hard disk, doing FTP transfers, and lots of other things .. and thats just the tip of the iceberg!

same here - elinks, mutt+procmail+fdm+spamassassin , vim , imagemagick, mc + wget/wput/ftp respectively :]

linux can be more keyboard-oriented - i _love_ that. you simply can't run away from clicking in windows.

"Life is a queue. You come in, hang around for a bit, get some service, then depart."

same here - elinks, mutt+procmail+fdm+spamassassin , vim , imagemagick, mc + wget/wput/ftp respectively :]

Well .. what I've spoken about was the windows world. I've moved completely to Linux about 2 months ago, after using it for about 4 years as secondary OS.

I dont like MC too much - it cant beat Total Commander, anyway. I guess there's nothing that really can beat TC at all. Sadly, its only availabe for the windoze world. Krusader is a poor replacement, better ones are mc and emelFM2, but they still dont reach the current usability state of TC.

Note: TC is NOT your daily click-a-licky-ding-dong shny asshole windoze NC clone, but completely hotkey-enabled, got a full-blown, unstoppable graphic FTP client, lots of file viewing extensions, and lots of other nifty stuff.

If you want a light-weight but heavy-feature- and usability-ladden mail client, try elm. me (= mini-emacs) is also a fine replacement for vi(m) on the command line. Esp. for folks like me who HATE vim and avoid it like the plague.

cu, w0lf.

Naturally, I love Jesus very much. I love him so much that I'd like to crucify him all over again.