It is often said, that you should never look a gift horse in the mouth. Except that this little gift from the good folks at Microsoft caused me two days of agony.
I have heard much about this all-new operating system, under it's various names such as longhorn and Vista beta Build x.x. Nothing quite prepared me for the disappointment of actually trying to install the bloody thing.
Let's start out with the packaging. I was expecting a decent sized box, complete with manuals and shiny new Certificate of Authenticity (COA) labels, and a well made DVD. Instead, I got a DVD so poorly made, it seems as if the adhesive between the two halves of the disk was applied with a rather Van Gogh-esque touch, slathered on in one corner, and so thin in one place, i could see the two pieces de-laminating already. Then, there was no manual. Only a flimsy piece of paper, a mere ghost of what it should be, that glibly informed me that the install could take several hours. Finally, the COA, thoughtfully stuck to the back of the DVD box, with no tab or any means to remove it properly.
The install went on to first uninstall every damn thing deemed incompatible, and plodded on for another good hour or so, before it announced the completion of this dreary task. But this was only the beginning. the installer then went on to download a new version of everything it had just removed, from the Internet. That alone took another hour. Why, I ask, did Toshiba not include these pieces of software on the DVD? Updates could have been done later. Installing all the drivers required a re-boot every five minutes or so, and I had 34 bits of software to install.
Thus went the next two hours.
by the time I finally got to see the slick GUI of Vista, my Laptop was sizzling. The fan was whining at an alarming unsteady pace, the palmrest was hot, and the job was still not done.
things were finally looking better, when i remembered that this clean install had wiped out my Ubuntu as well. Hells Bells! I popped in the Ubuntu Disk, rebooted, and installed Ububtu in, ahem, thirty minutes.
Thirty minutes! That is all that it took! a complete, full-fledged Operating System, including extras like the GiMP, and OpenOffice.org!
At this point, Mr. Vista decided to step in and say, "now hold on just a minute! where do you think you're going with my disk space? trying to load an alternative Operating system, eh? Don't like my new translucent window borders, do we? Trying to do things your own way, are you? well, i'll show you what's what!"
having said that, Vista went on to pull its pistol out, and shoot itself in the foot.
Ubuntu booted up, complete with Masai music in the background, while windows lost its bearings and corrupted a system file. It refused to boot up. completely belligerent. While my Linux hummed along.
Okay, I said, no problem. i'll just have to stay awake all night and re-install. take it easy. get a cup of that delicious Godiva chocolate.
I did re-install, and go through six to seven hours of torture, only to find that monsieur Vista was acting up again. AGAIN. That was it. I whipped out the hard-hitting, disk-formatting Toshiba Restore DVD, and waved Vista goodbye.
Am I ever going to re-install Vista? probably, but not anytime soon. I don't want to look at that DVD again, for a while. I liked Vista at the first glance, the new explorer, the new start menu, everthing. It comes with some very interesting and innovative techologies, such as ReadyBoost, and the active, always-on Defragging system. it's a good piece of work, but why, oh why, does it behave so malevolently? why do I still see the 256-color icons from the cursed Windows ME transported into something as 'cutting edge' as Vista? That is what I call a bad omen. Why did I have to Install all my software all over again? why didmy laptop have to sit, unshielded by an antivirus, as I removed the bloatware called McAfee and install my $80 copy of Kaspersky? why? Why! WHY?!?
As I write this(on my newly restored and very stable, thank you very much) Windows XP MCE, I browse over some Linux webpages...will try out the KDE Desktop environment instead of GNOME soon.
I have heard much about this all-new operating system, under it's various names such as longhorn and Vista beta Build x.x. Nothing quite prepared me for the disappointment of actually trying to install the bloody thing.
Let's start out with the packaging. I was expecting a decent sized box, complete with manuals and shiny new Certificate of Authenticity (COA) labels, and a well made DVD. Instead, I got a DVD so poorly made, it seems as if the adhesive between the two halves of the disk was applied with a rather Van Gogh-esque touch, slathered on in one corner, and so thin in one place, i could see the two pieces de-laminating already. Then, there was no manual. Only a flimsy piece of paper, a mere ghost of what it should be, that glibly informed me that the install could take several hours. Finally, the COA, thoughtfully stuck to the back of the DVD box, with no tab or any means to remove it properly.
The install went on to first uninstall every damn thing deemed incompatible, and plodded on for another good hour or so, before it announced the completion of this dreary task. But this was only the beginning. the installer then went on to download a new version of everything it had just removed, from the Internet. That alone took another hour. Why, I ask, did Toshiba not include these pieces of software on the DVD? Updates could have been done later. Installing all the drivers required a re-boot every five minutes or so, and I had 34 bits of software to install.
Thus went the next two hours.
by the time I finally got to see the slick GUI of Vista, my Laptop was sizzling. The fan was whining at an alarming unsteady pace, the palmrest was hot, and the job was still not done.
things were finally looking better, when i remembered that this clean install had wiped out my Ubuntu as well. Hells Bells! I popped in the Ubuntu Disk, rebooted, and installed Ububtu in, ahem, thirty minutes.
Thirty minutes! That is all that it took! a complete, full-fledged Operating System, including extras like the GiMP, and OpenOffice.org!
At this point, Mr. Vista decided to step in and say, "now hold on just a minute! where do you think you're going with my disk space? trying to load an alternative Operating system, eh? Don't like my new translucent window borders, do we? Trying to do things your own way, are you? well, i'll show you what's what!"
having said that, Vista went on to pull its pistol out, and shoot itself in the foot.
Ubuntu booted up, complete with Masai music in the background, while windows lost its bearings and corrupted a system file. It refused to boot up. completely belligerent. While my Linux hummed along.
Okay, I said, no problem. i'll just have to stay awake all night and re-install. take it easy. get a cup of that delicious Godiva chocolate.
I did re-install, and go through six to seven hours of torture, only to find that monsieur Vista was acting up again. AGAIN. That was it. I whipped out the hard-hitting, disk-formatting Toshiba Restore DVD, and waved Vista goodbye.
Am I ever going to re-install Vista? probably, but not anytime soon. I don't want to look at that DVD again, for a while. I liked Vista at the first glance, the new explorer, the new start menu, everthing. It comes with some very interesting and innovative techologies, such as ReadyBoost, and the active, always-on Defragging system. it's a good piece of work, but why, oh why, does it behave so malevolently? why do I still see the 256-color icons from the cursed Windows ME transported into something as 'cutting edge' as Vista? That is what I call a bad omen. Why did I have to Install all my software all over again? why didmy laptop have to sit, unshielded by an antivirus, as I removed the bloatware called McAfee and install my $80 copy of Kaspersky? why? Why! WHY?!?
As I write this(on my newly restored and very stable, thank you very much) Windows XP MCE, I browse over some Linux webpages...will try out the KDE Desktop environment instead of GNOME soon.
