The Blackest of Heresies

OK:

I had to go out and buy a new laptop.  The Compaq that I bought back in 2007 finally gassed out and I needed something to work with. 

So, over to Dell to see what they have on sale.  Nice 17 inch monitor laptop with a reasonable processor, 500gb of hard drive and 4gb of RAM.  $335.00

Sweet.

But it came with Windows 8.  Shit.

So I say to myself, what the hell.  I’ll strip off the windows and install Linux.  No harm, no foul.

I get the machine and start playing with it to see what all the fuss is about.  The interface is a touch odd, but that is about it.

So I get to the point of starting to install the latest flavor of Linux Mint and I find that the spiffy new computer also has a spiffy new BIOS called a EUFI.  Doesn’t like a lot of the flavors of Linux.  The Linux community currently has it nipples out of joint because Microsoft is taking care of the digital signing of the EUFI interface and selling the license for $99.00.  Now, just so you know, I don’t see how this can be anything but a pain in the ass for Microsoft.  The Linux community has a tendency toward going gibbering batshit whenever you mention Microsoft.  I think that if Microsoft had a lick of sense , they would offload the job to someone else, but hell, who really cares.

I am sitting here with a nice laptop that I can’t install Linux on without 2 days of sitting on my ass (It is beautiful outside), mucho cussing, and several pots of coffee.  

As I procrastinate,  I begin using the system as it stands.  Now it is a week later and I have come to the conclusion that It really is not that bad.  It really is just cosmetic changes to Windows 7 which I use all the time at work.  The start button is gone, but once you get it into your head that the lower left corner is a big ol’ start button, I can’t really see a lick of difference.

Look Microsoft is now back in the realm of the mortal.  They are trying to get back to their glory days of earth-shakers, but they really don’t have the gas to do it.  I think that we can review their products without the histrionics.

Windows 8 isn’t bad.  Seems to be stable.  Using it is not really all that different from using anything else.  The learning curve isn’t that bad. 

Sure as hell beats RSTS on a PDP-11