On second thought....

[sinanju]

After doing some netsurfing on snippy's computer, I've reminded myself of the several good reasons why I originally didn't want Windows XP. To wit: software registration (i.e., asking "Mother, may I?" of Microsoft to install and run programs on MY computer; XP spying on my computer and sending reports to Microsoft of its own volition; unilateral EULA changes in software updates and patches; and reports of XP refusing to function if too many hardware devices are changed and it thinks its being run on another computer.

Also, buying two copies of XP would be very expensive. And I realized that I couldn't use my copy of Office 97 with XP, which would mean an additional expense on top of that.

Screw that. Maybe I'll just reinstall Win98SE afresh after reformatting the drive.

Or...maybe I'll just reinstall Linux SuSe 9.0 (and Mozilla and Agent and WINE and Office 97) and use those for the time being. I can't play most of my games in Linux, but hell--I can't play most of them in Windows right now either.

Note: I am posting from my computer again. I ALREADY reinstalled Linux, and my internet connection is working just fine, thank you. Obviously NOT a hardware issue. And I've installed the Linux build of Mozilla and imported my Windows bookmarks. Now I need to either find a Linux version of Agent or install WINE and run Agent in that, and I'll be 90% back to my pre-weekend status.

But for right now (1:30 a.m.), after a long day of fighting my computer, it's time for bed.

Comments

[aiglet.livejournal.com]

If you're not really attached to Agent, you should check out Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/). I use it for mail and news on my Mac, and it's a lovely little program.

If you are attached to Agent, well, it's a very good program (my dad uses it, and it was my first news client), and it does have functionality that Thunderbird doesn't have yet. Just a suggestion.

Agent

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

I'm not wedded to Agent, though I've used it happily for many years now. I'll try Thunderbird (and I'll probably see what other news/mail agents are available for Linux as well). But I want to play around with WINE to see how (and how well) it works, and Agent is as good a test as any.

Re: Agent

[aiglet.livejournal.com]

Point.

I'm rather fond of Thunderbird, so I'm trying to convert as many people as possible in the hopes that some of them will be spiffy enough to help with the upgrades (which I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination.)

RE: Linux vs. Windows

[raine-wynd.livejournal.com]

If you want an opinion from a Linux geek, may I recommend technoshaman?

Also, my boyfriend, radarrider works for the Evil Empire and would have a better idea of Windows XP capabilities than I. M'self, I really like Windows XP Service Pack 2, and it works really well for what I have going (full website, Media Center, email, photo manipulation, etc.)

Of course, you could always go the Macintosh route.....

Re: Linux vs. Windows

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

Macintosh? I think not. That would be even spendier than buying a couple of copies of Windows XP. My computer hardware is perfectly functional (in fact, I recently quadrupled the RAM and upgraded the video card); it's the software that's giving me fits. And while I'm willing to concede that the XP I've been using at work for the last few years has been remarkably stable, as I noted there are reasons why I don't want to install it at home after all.

Which leaves me with two choices--reformat my drive and reinstall 98SE from scratch, or leave the system dual-boot and use Linux for a while until I decide on my long-term strategy. And really, the only reason for sticking with Windows is gameplay. Everything else I do I can do in Linux. And there _are_ FPS games that will run in Linux, so....we'll see.

But I'll keep technoshaman in mind if I have questions.