I will start this 3 part series by first sharing my own experience.
Micorsoft products came into my life about 18 years ago when I started using the IBM XT computers. Through these years, I have used MS DOS from version 3.3 through 6.0, and all versions of Windows from 3.11 to Windows Vista (skipped Windows ME).
Though I secretly despise the way Microsoft conducts its business, the perception of lack of viable choice has left me using almost exclusively their products. In my previous job, I even approved for full MS Office licensing, MS Project, Visio, and etc., without much evaluation of alternatives.
What really pushed me over to the light (or the "darkside" from MS perspective) was when I received my brand new laptop from Dell loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium.
The excitement of trying out the new OS turned out to be a nightmare-- incompatible software corrupted the OS, resulting in re-installation of the OS & drivers on the first boot. I was also very unhappy with DRM & WGA even though I do not watch DVD on my laptop, and I suppose the OS bundled with hardware is genuine. What right do they have to install spyware on my PC? The computer that you purchased is no longer yours the moment Windows Vista is loaded, it will control what resolution you can view your DVD, and decide whether upgrade of the PC is allowed, and god knows what other information will the OS feed to MS now and the future?
To add salt to the wound, the brand new Office 2007 really ticks me off. Darn, you don't have to change the UI radically to show that it is a new version!
Since I need to learn something new, I might as well learn Linux! Someone in Microsoft must be a Linux spy, they made the new Vista + Office 2007 to up the obstacles of upgrading from XP, and migrating to Linux looks more viable than ever.
I thought it could be a difficult step forward and might take me months if not years to get productive on Linux if I could persist long enough. To be frank, at that time I really thought Linux is mainly command base with some primitive GUIs... To my surprise, Ubuntu is easy to install and use, in fact, it took me less than a couple of weeks to become a 75% Linux user at home, and about a month to become a 90% user.
Today, after 5 months, I hardly boot into Windows anymore at home, I do not see a need to, except maybe to use the Canon digital camera software to stitch photographs, and use the Canon Selphy printer. The home is invaded by Linux, my daughter is happily surfing the net using PCLinuxOS which gives her stable wireless unlike the old Windows 2000, and I bet she still do not know that she is using Linux :-D
4 PCs: 1 running Ubuntu/ PCLinuxOS, 1 purely on PCLinuxOS, 1 Vista/Ubuntu, and another XP/Linux Mint. :)
Micorsoft products came into my life about 18 years ago when I started using the IBM XT computers. Through these years, I have used MS DOS from version 3.3 through 6.0, and all versions of Windows from 3.11 to Windows Vista (skipped Windows ME).
Though I secretly despise the way Microsoft conducts its business, the perception of lack of viable choice has left me using almost exclusively their products. In my previous job, I even approved for full MS Office licensing, MS Project, Visio, and etc., without much evaluation of alternatives.
What really pushed me over to the light (or the "darkside" from MS perspective) was when I received my brand new laptop from Dell loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium.
The excitement of trying out the new OS turned out to be a nightmare-- incompatible software corrupted the OS, resulting in re-installation of the OS & drivers on the first boot. I was also very unhappy with DRM & WGA even though I do not watch DVD on my laptop, and I suppose the OS bundled with hardware is genuine. What right do they have to install spyware on my PC? The computer that you purchased is no longer yours the moment Windows Vista is loaded, it will control what resolution you can view your DVD, and decide whether upgrade of the PC is allowed, and god knows what other information will the OS feed to MS now and the future?
To add salt to the wound, the brand new Office 2007 really ticks me off. Darn, you don't have to change the UI radically to show that it is a new version!
Since I need to learn something new, I might as well learn Linux! Someone in Microsoft must be a Linux spy, they made the new Vista + Office 2007 to up the obstacles of upgrading from XP, and migrating to Linux looks more viable than ever.
I thought it could be a difficult step forward and might take me months if not years to get productive on Linux if I could persist long enough. To be frank, at that time I really thought Linux is mainly command base with some primitive GUIs... To my surprise, Ubuntu is easy to install and use, in fact, it took me less than a couple of weeks to become a 75% Linux user at home, and about a month to become a 90% user.
Today, after 5 months, I hardly boot into Windows anymore at home, I do not see a need to, except maybe to use the Canon digital camera software to stitch photographs, and use the Canon Selphy printer. The home is invaded by Linux, my daughter is happily surfing the net using PCLinuxOS which gives her stable wireless unlike the old Windows 2000, and I bet she still do not know that she is using Linux :-D
4 PCs: 1 running Ubuntu/ PCLinuxOS, 1 purely on PCLinuxOS, 1 Vista/Ubuntu, and another XP/Linux Mint. :)
2 comments:
Hugin seems to work pretty well to stitch photos on Linux, if you're still looking for something to do that.
thanks for the info, will try that out!
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