SagaLore
Elite Member
I was very happy with Windows 2000, great replacement for NT. But now XP is like ME chewed up 2000 and spit it back out... with a Macintosh interface...
I've gotten use to XP, but only because on first install I tweak everything to pretend to be 2000. But the final straw is not the interface or the usability. It's the spyware. Both my work and home machines reached a point that I had to reformat them because the OS just turns to goo.
I'm just disgusted. Fed up. Windows is too expensive to degrade like that.
Okay rant over - which Linux distro should I try?
What is a good alternative to MS Office - and can it be compatible with the file formats?
What about Adobe - are there versions for Linux? I guess I'm out of luck with Frontpage. I know that VMWare will create an environment to run Windows - can I easily run the Windows products I'm accustomed to, through VMWare?
so frustrating...
edit:
Okay, to defend my XP'ertise... I am well versed in spyware defense and cleaning. It is one of my primary tasks. Perhaps my rant was a little strong not so much because of my own computers, but because I support 450+ other computers that users whom are spyware magnets. I'm cleaning something up every week, and there is a new variant that I can't figure out how to clean, it is frustrating me.
And yes in my rant yesterday, I'm blaming XP for spyware but it really is the Internet Explorer. I shouldn't have lumped them together. I would love to use an alternative to IE at work but too much relies on it at this time - we have discussed it as a possibility in the near future.
As far as my home computer, I did get spyware once but because I was testing out Kazaa, which won't run with out it. I effectively removed it when I was done, no problem. The reason my home computer died was because of an overheating video card and a fauly power supply. So it wasn't fair of me to lump XP into that either.
But my work computer... yea Spyware killed me. I keep up on critical patches for the company, I handle our web proxy, our antivirus, personal firewall, etc. But because of troubleshooting and product evaluations, I have a proxy exception for my machine, and sometimes my AV is disabled or not installed, and I look through suspicious sites in our proxy reports - and recently, apprently my IE still had an exploit and BOOM I was infected - no prompts or anything. And it was this same spyware that is showing up on other machines, that I'm having trouble finding a solution to (none of the mainstream spyware cleaners can detect it). A few weeks ago I had to reformat because my machine was becoming unusable.
So that's my story... my biggest gripe, is not that I personally have a problem with spyware, but that I have to go through all this effort just to keep it off my machine and everyone elses. For $250 a license, this OS shouldn't have this problem (again I'm lumping in IE, but IE is part of the OS now...)
Okay carry on with your Linux arguments.
I've gotten use to XP, but only because on first install I tweak everything to pretend to be 2000. But the final straw is not the interface or the usability. It's the spyware. Both my work and home machines reached a point that I had to reformat them because the OS just turns to goo.
I'm just disgusted. Fed up. Windows is too expensive to degrade like that.
Okay rant over - which Linux distro should I try?
What is a good alternative to MS Office - and can it be compatible with the file formats?
What about Adobe - are there versions for Linux? I guess I'm out of luck with Frontpage. I know that VMWare will create an environment to run Windows - can I easily run the Windows products I'm accustomed to, through VMWare?
so frustrating...
edit:
Okay, to defend my XP'ertise... I am well versed in spyware defense and cleaning. It is one of my primary tasks. Perhaps my rant was a little strong not so much because of my own computers, but because I support 450+ other computers that users whom are spyware magnets. I'm cleaning something up every week, and there is a new variant that I can't figure out how to clean, it is frustrating me.
And yes in my rant yesterday, I'm blaming XP for spyware but it really is the Internet Explorer. I shouldn't have lumped them together. I would love to use an alternative to IE at work but too much relies on it at this time - we have discussed it as a possibility in the near future.
As far as my home computer, I did get spyware once but because I was testing out Kazaa, which won't run with out it. I effectively removed it when I was done, no problem. The reason my home computer died was because of an overheating video card and a fauly power supply. So it wasn't fair of me to lump XP into that either.
But my work computer... yea Spyware killed me. I keep up on critical patches for the company, I handle our web proxy, our antivirus, personal firewall, etc. But because of troubleshooting and product evaluations, I have a proxy exception for my machine, and sometimes my AV is disabled or not installed, and I look through suspicious sites in our proxy reports - and recently, apprently my IE still had an exploit and BOOM I was infected - no prompts or anything. And it was this same spyware that is showing up on other machines, that I'm having trouble finding a solution to (none of the mainstream spyware cleaners can detect it). A few weeks ago I had to reformat because my machine was becoming unusable.
So that's my story... my biggest gripe, is not that I personally have a problem with spyware, but that I have to go through all this effort just to keep it off my machine and everyone elses. For $250 a license, this OS shouldn't have this problem (again I'm lumping in IE, but IE is part of the OS now...)
Okay carry on with your Linux arguments.
