Rain On Window
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Goodbye Microsoft

Ever since I got that last virus I have not felt able to trust my machine. In my efforts to find the virus and get rid of it completely I explored my machine and found all sorts of things.  Things I don’t understand.  Things are running in the background on my computer and I don’t know why they are there or what they are doing and there are more of them than there were in previous versions of Windows.

When I pressed ctrl, alt, del once upon a time I used to get this small list of programmes I knew.  Now there is a long list of things – too many – way too many and any one of them could be something nasty that should not be there.

My machine has not been performing as smoothly as it did before the virus and it has created duplicates of things I turned off so I just don’t trust it.  I don’t do online banking or use my eBay account because I don’t trust my machine any more.

I decided, when I saw the machine wasn’t performing the same as before, to assume something nasty was hiding on it.  The plan was to stay away from sensitive areas until the latest version of Windows came out.  I was going to buy that, reformat my hard drive to clean everything off it then clean install the new Windows Vista.

Then Microsoft released Vista and they have gone too far this time.  This is the straw that broke the camels back!  I found this comprehensive review of Windows Vista and I don’t like what it says.

I particularly don’t like the Orwellian overtones of this section of the review:

“In today’s environment these content protection features are indeed a nonsense. I don’t think, however that MS are thinking about today’s environment beyond keeping these features low-key for most users in order to avoid rejection. In their heads MS see the ‘connected home’ where everyone has a network and displays around the house that integrate everything from TV to email, Internet, telephone, lighting and heating. In order to do these things on your TV you need a computer attached to it and MS want that computer to run Windows.”

I will never accept a home that is dependent on computer power.  I don’t TRUST computer power enough.  Young people might accept such a future but I never will.  If that is the vision Microsoft is working towards then they have forgotten about me and I don’t like it.  They have been forgetting about me for a very long time now and I have had enough.

I am a fairly average sort of Windows user.  I’m lazy.  I want to point and click.  I don’t want to have to type commands into my computer to make it work.  I want simple.  I want easy.  I want the computer to do everything for me.

I’m not, however, as green as I used to be when it all began.  I have been forced to learn a few things over the years like what my bios is and how to get into it.  I’m not as afraid of computers as I used to be either so easy does not have quite the same definition it used to have for me.

Microsoft just lost their “easy” label in my mind.  Suddenly it looks to me like it will be a lot easier to have to type a few basic commands into my computer than it will be to work with Vista.

Microsoft is chasing the young people so hard they have forgotten me.  I don’t NEED all the latest doo-dads and thing-a-ma-bobs nor do I particularly want them.  I have a CD player and I use THAT to listen to music.  I have a TV and I use THAT to watch programmes.  I have a DVD player and a VCR and I use THOSE to watch rented movies.  I have a land line and a mobile and I use THOSE to make phone calls and send SMS’s.

I will fight tooth and nail to keep all those things separate because then, if one doo-dad breaks down (and doo-dads ALWAYS break down!), I will be able to turn to my other doo-dads for entertainment.

Microsoft has given me an easy to use OS (operating system) but I am sick to the back teeth of their endless requirements to update and patch and I am also sick of constantly having to worry about viruses and malware.  I do not like pressing ctrl, alt, del and seeing a long list of things going on in the background of MY computer that never used to be there and have never been explained to me.

I have not changed – I still want simple – Microsoft is no longer simple.

They claim Vista will allow me to stop worrying about viruses and mal-ware but that is no consolation for what I am sure is going to be an even LONGER list of things that will run in the background without my understanding or permission!

It is already too hard for me to be certain I have gotten rid of any nasty things that have slipped through onto my machine.  Windows is already so complicated that any effort to do that leads to all sorts of problems.  From what I have just read Vista is going to make it, deliberately make it, IMPOSSIBLE for me to clean off anything nasty that slips through now.

My years of experience with Windows has left me with no doubts, none at all, that there WILL be security holes and nasty things WILL be able to slip onto my machine even if only because I do something stupid.

They have crossed the line and I am ready to abandon them.  I am eager to abandon them.  I am even willing to learn to type commands into my computer and give up the point and click if it will allow me to abandon them.

The Apple Mac campaign has reached me and I rarely watch TV!  I’m hearing them and I am listening.  I’m listening real good.  If I had not just bought a brand new computer system I would be buying a Mac for certain.  The problem is I HAVE just bought a brand new system and I cannot afford to abandon it.

I’m so pissed at Windows I did consider buying an Apple Mac plug in hard drive but there are a few things I don’t like in what I have heard about Apple either.  They also seem to be trying to get a monopoly on some things and I am afraid, in time, they will also shaft me like Windows has done.

This has left me with no other choice but to explore the idea of changing over to a GNU-Linux Operating System and I have been cruising the internet.  The problem is – nobody is answering my three burning questions!

What I need is a website that I can go to, authorise them to check out my system, and find out if GLOS (the acronym for GNU-Linux Operating System is not as scary as Linux in my mind so that’s what I am going to call it hehehe) will be compatible with all the hardware I currently have now.  I want to know what I am going to have to lose or replace, what price am I going to have to pay, to be able to abandon Windows.

If that site says all my hardware is OK, or can be made OK, burning question number one will be answered.

Then I need answers for burning question number two – will I be able to play my Maxis “The Sims” game under GLOS?  If the answer is no – will I be able to arrange it so I can still play it somehow?  If the answer is no – I’m stuck with Windows.

If the answer is yes then there is only one more thing I want to know – will I be able to write documents that Windows Sufferers will be able to open and open the ones they make if I switch to GLOS?  Will I be able to cut and paste blog entries from the GLOS writing system to my blog editor and things like that?

Windows is too untrustworthy for my taste.  They have had all the time I am willing to give them to create the perfect OS and they have failed.  If GLOS will let me use my current hardware, or even most of it, read, write and post website and blog pages and play my favourite game I am ready to swap over.

I am ready to take control of my computer and learn some simple commands – be a little less lazy in return for being a lot less frustrated and virus vulnerable!  Until I get the answers to those three burning questions, however, I am stuck with Windows and a machine I can’t trust.

I’m sure the answers are out there – buried in some technical list somewhere.  All the Linux related sites I have found so far seem to be concentrated on teaching me the commands I will have to learn and I am not ready for that.  I need a simpler site – one that will answer those three questions.  I already know I’m going to have to learn commands and I am ready to do so once the more practical side of things has been taken care of.  Until then I need simple – really really simple steps – I’m a Windows user after all.  Take me through it one click at a time hehehe.  Save the technical information for after I have the new os on my computer and I need it.

I can’t be the only Microsoft user who has had enough.  The demand for a way out of the Windows trap must be out there.  Wherever a demand exists someone will create a supply to meet it.  As soon as they create the help I need it’s goodbye Windows and good riddance!

Failing that – my next computer WILL be a Mac.  I guarantee it!

2 Comments

  • Serena

    Well, if the whole GLOS thing doesn’t work out I’m happy to take your computer off your hands so that you can go buy a Mac =:) Free of charge =;)

  • Kim

    ROFL

    What a kind and helpful daughter you are. You might want to get some polish for that halo of yours. It looks suspiciously tarnished to me lol

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