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I hate M$, really hate it, hate it with a passion. I would dearly love to use Linux for many reasons, because it’s Open Source, to play with all those lovely toys I’ve read so much about (programming tools, OpenGL, etc.), just to try it out to see what all the fuss is about, to bask in the Nirvana that is Linux, because it’s not M$. From time to time I try to install Linux. Over the last three or four years I’ve made about ten attempts on two different desktop (...)

I had began to think that i was dense . Once I installed Linux ( many different versions - at least I did mostly succeed... ) I found that I could not get this , or that to work properly . It might be the printer on one , the scanner on another , the internet ... The list goes on .

I really liked Xandros . It installed easily , it found the printer/scanner/internet etc . It came with a copy of Open Office ( an old version , but I could live with that ) all went well , I was prepared to switch . There is a but , of course . That but came in the form of Opera . The help files seemed to imply that any installer of the right type would install in Xandros ( it could be RPM installers , but I can’t swear to it ) so I downloaded Opera in the correct format . Double clicked the installer , it started , went along , told me that Opera was now installed . I couldn’t find it . Looked in the ’start menu’ looked all over the disk , logged in and out , nothing . Did this again , same results . I then tried to install it using the Xandros installer , located the Opera package , started the install , was told of success - still couldn’t find it ... After some more head scratching decided that life was too short . Back to M$ .

I would have stuck with Windows XP , after all it did work reasonably well . Things I didn’t like I could try to better myself with Delphi . Then the latest update was forced upon me and it started ’phoning home’ to Bill every time I switched my PC on . This would have been OK if I had been told the truth of what this ’security update’ really did but no it was never admited what it would do , after a (very) lengthy call to M$ support where they insisted it could not be removed from my PC I flipped .

So what am I now using ? Not M$ . Not Linux . I now have a Mac Mini . Yes I know that it is Unix based , but it is reasonably well hidden , and it works . Installed programs don’t disappear , printers aren’t lost , scanners work , the internet connects .

It may not be heaven , it may need some effort on my part to learn , but it certainly isn’t hell .