start up screen to load. Then wait while every process that you need loads and loads and loads only to get
rotating infront of you for what seems to be an eternity. And you may have noticed that over the years, Mr. Gates has artfully designed the hourglass from the simple drawing to a full blown animated gif that is supposed to mesmerise you into a patient lull so as not to get completely frustrated. But for those few megamoments that you are waiting for that wonderful desktop to appear to get online, draft your thesis, or write Mommy a letter, you get another set of hourglass thingys because the processes that you thought were loading are not completely cooked and have to be sent back to the kitchen to be heated up.
Then you start to think that maybe there is other problems and you search and search for ways to eliminate whatever sniffles your baby puter may have caught.
Then you think that maybe your hardware is just getting too old to run all the new stuff out there. But then I thought for a moment (yes, I only think in moments), when I bought this hardware it ran perfectly with a new windows install. Windows hadn't changed in that time, it only updated itself with the service packs to stay ahead of the sicko's out there that want to grab all your information, or destroy your hardware. The hourglass sand trap and slowdowns increase and frustrations just get worse, and just when you think they can't get any worse, Mr. Gates announces a new operating system that will solve all the problems of the previous Vista Operating system, which by the way, also came with a promise that it will solve all the problems of Windows XP, which by the way, also came with the promise that it will solve all the problems of Window 2000, which by the way....I think you see the motif here.
So the decision was made. Dump Microsoft completely, but to what? I didn't want to go with Mr. Jobs either. Mainly because that would mean an entire hardware and software change. So searching the net was the answer. I searched for all kinds of Unix distros. I had used Unix in university way back, so I was curious to see what versions of Linux were easy to install, friendly, and would let me do all the stuff I normally do. Then I found Ubuntu Linux which seemed to fill the bill for me.
The install was flawless. Then came the learning curve for a new operating system. That didn't seem to be too difficult either. My computer had gone into hyperdrive. Instead of Megamoments of bootup time, bootup is just slightly over a minute with everything out of the kitchen and fully cooked. No clicking on an icon and seeing that animated hourglass pop up again. The next step was to tweak it to my user style and preferences. And that's when the fun started. It's hard to explain what I mean by fun if you have never seen a Linux desktop, so I thought you might like to see what I mean:
You are probably thinking now that why would I need all those bells and whistles. Sure some of the effects that you can do are nice to look at, but as for functionality the cube is incredible. I never thought I would be having so many windows open without a mess on the desk top and not have the computer lag and complain about a plethora of stuff happening all at once, and still get some real work done--faster!
Yes, my little lap top has gone hyperactive. Doesn't whine or snivel. No hourglass. And fun--again.
Shameless plug for Ubuntu? Maybe. But when I really like something, I like to share. And it seems, so does Linux.
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