[Lvlug] HERESY

[Mark]

On Fri June 26 2009 07:10:24 am C. Hever wrote:
> So my old computer broke (or, ostensibly, the power supply did) and I
> am now using a PIII with Windows XP and about 1G of real memory,
> because somebody owes me favors and I besides he needs me to have a
> computer to do stuff for him.
>
> ANYWAY, this is the first time I've had a Windows installation that I
> was able to modify extensively. I installed firefox, ghostscript &
> ghostview, cygwin (for the purpose of using vim, octave, and tetex),
> maxima, vlc, xchat, and just one commercial app: winrar.
>
> I have to say I really like this combination. I noticed a lot of
> things are much less of a pain in the ass on Windows if you have full
> leeway over the system, but you can still enjoy nearly all the
> advantages of Linux or a similar Unix OS. In fact, I really wonder
> whether I will continue to use this configuration in the future.
>
> So am I hell-bound already?

Oh yes you are.  Just because you painted a turd shiny red doesn't make it 
less of a turd.

You are in the "first 5 minutes" phase of a clean O/S installation.  You have 
yet to face the onslaught of anti-whatever software that is worse than, but 
necessary to combat, malware.  You have yet to face an O/S, which after 6 
months, the manufacturer recommends reinstalling to maintain a clean, working 
registry.  Blue-Screen-Of-Death sounds nice too, doesn't it?

Other things to look forward to:  Having to reboot without being able to save 
your work.  Rebooting just to change the hostname or IP address!  Missing 
access to raw sockets and needing direct access to hardware ports.  Software 
installations that munge your preferred settings and prevent you from 
changing them back.  Inability to create and copy disk images.  Constant 
security patching and software updates that are worse than the problems they 
deign to fix.  Security holes and software bugs left unfixed because of cheap 
manufacturers.  And most importantly, vendor lock-in and no source code for 
your programs.

Enjoy. ;)

-Mark