[aklug] Microsoft Weaning

      A little over a year ago, I was having some problems with my XP machi=
ne. I noticed that the system was running a little slow and had become unst=
able. No big surprise really, every year or two I would reinstall Windows o=
n my machine. I decided to try to upgrade to Windows Vista. So I downloaded=
 the 60 day trial version from Microsoft. Then installed Vista on a separat=
e drive. There was a huge performance hit on my PC after installing Vista. =
Then I knew that I would get a further performance hit once I installed a v=
irus scanner. =0A=0A Oh well, I thought, and decided just to reinstall X=
P and be done with it. After installing XP my PC was running fast and stabl=
e. But here is where the trouble starts. The next thing I did was install a=
ll of the patches and =E2=80=9Csecurity=E2=80=9D updates from Microsoft. We=
ll low and behold my system slowed down and became unstable. I have two hyp=
otheses regarding why the security updates would mess up my system. First, =
Microsoft may have assigned its less skilled programmers to develop the sec=
urity updates. Or second, Microsoft may have deliberately slowed down the X=
P operating system. So that when you upgrade to Vista. The performance hit =
is less noticeable.=0A=0A That was the last straw, I decided to try Linu=
x. The only two versions that I had heard of at that time was Red Hat and U=
buntu. I knew that you had to purchase Red Hat and it was mostly for server=
s. So Ubuntu 7.10 is what I would try. =0A=0A I knew there would be a st=
eep learning curve. So I wanted to ease myself into Linux. Surprisingly, Mi=
crosoft was very helpful at this point. I downloaded and installed Microsof=
t VirtualPC 2007. Then Ubuntu would be run as a virtual PC while I was lear=
ning to use Linux. Thanks Microsoft.=0A=0A Slowly, piece by piece, I fou=
nd replacements for all of the software that I used on Windows. Once most o=
f the software I used was running under Linux. I flip flopped the operating=
 systems. Now my main operating system is Ubuntu Linux 8.10 and Windows XP =
runs as virtual PC under VirtualBox. Most surprising of all, my virtual XP =
machine runs faster and more stable than running XP as my main OS. =0A=0A =
  It has been at leased 6 months since I have needed to run anything under =
Windows. I still have VirtualBox installed just in case. But I don't think =
I will need it. =0A=0AJames A. Tweet

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Received on Wed Mar 4 05:30:06 2009