The time has come.

[Dustin]

A bit of a rant, but I would venture to say that I'm not alone in my sentiments...

For the past fifteen years, I, like so many, have relied exclusively on Microsoft operating systems. Starting with Windows 3.11 meshed with DOS 6.22, we would upgrade in protest to the successive replacements only when software and hardware became painfully antiquated. Once Windows XP was patched up to my satisfaction, I migrated from 98SE to XP Pro in '04, then to Vista in '08. My experience with it has not been without trial. From the very start, it has been a struggle. I am finding it increasingly difficult to tolerate, much less get anything done. I envision more of the same with Windows 7. The final nail in the coffin occurred just a few minutes ago. Windows defender popped up telling me that a trojan had wormed its way past my highly fortified defenses. When prompted to quarantine or remove the offending file, I chose the latter. Upon successful removal, Windows Defender informed me that I had just joined Microsoft SpyNet, and now hold Basic Membership status. It went on about how my computer's security has been greatly enhanced due to the automatic reporting of malicious files, and that on only the rarest of occasions, some personal information may be "inadvertently" collected.  I was assured I have nothing to fear, for Microsoft would never furnish such information to any third party, nor would they ever dream of using it to identify me. I immediately opened up my registry, located the appropriate entry, switched of SpyNet, and rebooted. It didn't work. The trojan is back, and gaining ground. My anti-virus software has joined in the excitement with great fanfare.

This is, without question, the very last straw. Ready the lifeboats lads, we're bailin' out. OGG and MIDI files first.
 
I have been familiarizing myself with Linux, and find it to be vastly superior in so many ways. I had long harbored curiosity about it, but never got around to actually testing it out until a few months ago. To say that I'm impressed would be an understatement. The compatibility, support, performance, and efficient operation of Linux is staggering. I look forward to replacing windows with it and washing my hands of Microsoft indefinitely.

I highly recommend http://linuxmint.com/. It has a familiar interface which makes for an easy transition.

 
Freedom awaits

[andrew603]

Yeah, Win Defender is pretty much worthless in my experience.  I've been using just Eset NOD32 AV for a long time now and it has yet to fail me.

I only use Vista, and soon Win7, for one thing, PC Games.  I isolate almost everything else, like music and work stuff, to XP in a dual-boot config.  Or I just use my Macbook LOL!

Might I additionally recommend, assuming you may have the extra hardware:  http://www.openfiler.com/
Setting up a network storage array can really work wonders in many ways if you have a good network setup and multiple machines.

I would dual boot vista/7 and linux myself, if I didn't love FL Studio so much.  What's the DAW situation like in linux these days?  Does your build come with Ardour? (http://ardour.org/)  If not you should totally check it out for us! 

[Dustin]

I am now free and clear of windows, and have things running quite nicely now. I was unable to get the MInt distro to reliably connect to the Internet with the laptop I'm using, so went with a copy of Mandriva I had on hand. It certainly is more responsive than Windows. I'll use this one for the time being until I decide what's what with Mint.

No DAW in this distro, but I'm not terribly concerned with that, as I am also an FL Studio follower. There is a program for Linux called Wine; which allows one to run a great deal of the windows apps on Linux with little effort and minimal tweaking. I imagine the stability with multiple VST's is rather good, too. This program is actively being improved for enhanced compatibility. I am unfamiliar with DAW's

Microsoft has lost some market share with their recent releases, and Linux is gaining steam slowly but surely. Aside from games (though Wine plays a great deal of them with a high frame rate), Linux does everything else. Perhaps not with the extended features of Windows software (I love Photoshop), but for the most part, "there's an app for that". 

Good call on openfiler. When time allows, I have every intention of setting it up.

It just feels great not to have Microsoft and the NSA nosing around my stuff. Microsoft is so tied in with the government it isn't funny.

I stumbled across this article when searching for Linux distros. I have to agree entirely with its implications.

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/microsoft/index.htm


 

[MusicallyInspired]

Congratulations on your exodus from slavery to the evil empire. I myself migrated to Linux a while back but couldn't do it fully. I kept one hard drive with a Windows boot because I still needed Windows programs for the thing I do (Cakewalk SOnar and, at the time, games since they worked in Linux but the framerate wasn't as good as in Windows). I used Ubuntu Studio. Big follower of Ubuntu. Love it.

But eventually I had to completely abandon Linux because I just found myself not using it enough. These days I do most of my gaming on my Wii and 360 upstairs anyway and don't have time to go downstairs to the basement on my significantly lower-end (lower than an Xbox 360) to do anything unless it's recording music. And nothing in Linux comes close to Sonar yet and Sonar is not compatible with Wine at all at the moment. Maybe someday...I'd love to become completed Linux-ed again.

[Marten]

Grats on your escape!

At home, I'm an dual OS person - I have Windows XP on two PCs there (one laptop, one desktop), with AVG AntiVirus and ZoneAlarm Firewall on each.  ZA will stop anything that tries to "dial out" of the system if AVG doesn't catch it first.  A third PC runs Linux, and it is the media server for the house.  It gets upgraded when I feel like it... I don't apply daily or weekly updates because I know with Linux, there's always a chance something may break.  Last but not least, the home network operates on its own private network, with a gateway router to the real internet; in today's world, this should be an absolute requirement for anyone on a cable modem, regardless of operating system.  (Although note:  routers can have vulnerabilities too.  Especially don't leave the default password in place, even if the router is supposedly configured for local administrative access only.)

My Linux box runs straight Debian at the moment.  Next time I perform a major upgrade (new hardware), I'm planning on switching to Ubuntu, which has received high praise in the overall Linux community, and which has demonstrated greater staying power as the distribution-of-choice than Gentoo, which caught on for a short while but proved to be a fad when everyone realized, "Hey, it DOES get a little old to compile every software update from scratch."

Last point - Please be aware that Linux boxes are not immune to vulnerabilities themselves.  You are much less likely to open an e-mail and have something automatically execute, or even have something accidentally execute from clicking on it, because most virus payloads in e-mail are aimed at Windows.  The danger on Linux rests mainly in the services that you run; if you run NFS or Samba to share files, or if you run your own DNS server or Web server - in short, any program designed to facilitate connections from other machines to the Linux machine - any of those programs may have vulnerabilities.  So if you do put your Linux box onto the 'net without putting it behind a separate dedicated router (enthusiasts like to use the Linux box AS the router, which it can do quite well), know your stuff, know what services are configured, and keep on top of updates for those particulars.  A good starting point for "hardening" your Linux box is to play around with Bastille UNIX - http://www.bastille-unix.org/ ; even if you choose not to use the program, you can learn some things about security from it.

Best of luck in your new Linux world

[Dustin]

Very helpful stuff, Marten. Most appreciated.

 
The switch to Linux has created some issues, however.

In my all-out rage with Vista, I may have been a bit
hasty in abolishing it.

My USB hard drive (full of the stuff I
backed up before dumping Vista) will no longer function
when plugged into a computer running any variant of
Windows. It will now only function under Linux. I believe
this was caused by my copying an ISO file from Linux to
the hard drive. When attepting to view the contents
of the drive in Windows (tried two other PC's running XP),
A little dialog bubble will pop up and inform me that the
hard drive is all but corrupt. Certainly, it was operating
just fine before I tried to copy a file from Linux to the
drive. It would appear then, that Linux has somehow currupted
my USB drive with its own filing system. I also notice that
some files are missing. I salvaged what was left and placed
it all  on a USB thumb drive. Hardly convenient.

For now, I'm going to install XP pro, and do my usual security
tweaks. I may install Linux beside XP, but for now, I am
finding that I can't operate without Microsoft.

I see what you mean now, MI.


As an aside. I am typing this post from true DOS using
the Arachne web browser for DOS and Linux. The FreeDOS
operating system is quite excellent, and comes with a host
of different software utilities.

While not an end all solution, I do enjoy it.

If only there existed a version of DOS that was totally
modern, and designed for today's hardware. Modern GUI,
etc. Certainly would be the ultimate.


Just when I thought I could get out from under Microsoft's
thumb, I am now fleeing back, tail between my legs.

   

[gortmertl0]

MalwareBytes is another great anti-malware program...

The free version is passive (whereas $$$ version is active), but it gets rid of the viruses/trojans/malware at home and on our systems at work.

Running a scan once a week or so does the trick for me.

Gary

[Marten]

My USB hard drive (full of the stuff I
backed up before dumping Vista) will no longer function
when plugged into a computer running any variant of
Windows. It will now only function under Linux. I believe
this was caused by my copying an ISO file from Linux to
the hard drive. When attepting to view the contents
of the drive in Windows (tried two other PC's running XP),
A little dialog bubble will pop up and inform me that the
hard drive is all but corrupt. Certainly, it was operating
just fine before I tried to copy a file from Linux to the
drive. It would appear then, that Linux has somehow currupted
my USB drive with its own filing system. I also notice that
some files are missing. I salvaged what was left and placed
it all  on a USB thumb drive. Hardly convenient.

Ouch.  When you say that some files are missing, I am guessing that you have reconnected the drive to the Linux box, and are viewing the contents that way?

I hope that with some experimentation that you are able to recover more.  You might try cloning the drive to another device as a backup before doing any serious recovery work.

[Dustin]

My USB hard drive (full of the stuff I
backed up before dumping Vista) will no longer function
when plugged into a computer running any variant of
Windows. It will now only function under Linux. I believe
this was caused by my copying an ISO file from Linux to
the hard drive. When attepting to view the contents
of the drive in Windows (tried two other PC's running XP),
A little dialog bubble will pop up and inform me that the
hard drive is all but corrupt. Certainly, it was operating
just fine before I tried to copy a file from Linux to the
drive. It would appear then, that Linux has somehow currupted
my USB drive with its own filing system. I also notice that
some files are missing. I salvaged what was left and placed
it all  on a USB thumb drive. Hardly convenient.

Ouch.  When you say that some files are missing, I am guessing that you have reconnected the drive to the Linux box, and are viewing the contents that way?

I hope that with some experimentation that you are able to recover more.  You might try cloning the drive to another device as a backup before doing any serious recovery work.

Indeed, I was viewing the contents of what was left on the drive using Linux. Fortunately, what was lost is easily
replaced, though the consolidated arrangement I kept everything in will take some time to duplicate.   

All of the precious family photos and the like were safely transferred to the thumb drive, so I can hardly complain about the somewhat superfluous data that was lost. Replacing that portion will be inconvenient at the most, but quite doable.

Once the files were safely backed up, I took the drive and formatted it on an XP machine. It now operates perfectly again.

Linux somehow changed the file system of the drive while retaining most of its contents. Since I frequently use USB hard drives between computers, this posed quite the problem. Being left with no viable alternative, I begrudgingly installed XP in the interests of compatibility. Certainly, I am far better off with it than I ever was with Vista. Boot time is  just a scant 7 seconds to Vista's 15. Granted, I made all of my usual tweaks to keep things lean after installing.

I shudder to think what I'd do when Microsoft stops activating new installations of XP. I may do something rash like switch back to Windows 98SE. I hated to let go of that OS.

Despite not having a place on my hard drive, I still love to run Linux off the CD to browse the web with great speed.

Until I can come up with a more permanent solution, this arrangement will do.   

Going through this little fiasco has got me thinking how great it would be if the world still ran on DOS. Stuff just seemed to work without the hassles back then. No updates to worry about, drivers could be downloaded from the BBS easily enough... life was good. And when you wanted to modify something, you got right under the hood and got your hands dirty, changing things around in the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS. I took it all for granted then.

[MusicallyInspired]

Ahhhhhhh the good old days. Makes me glad I still have a 486 computer lying around for retro needs. A modern DOS would be awesome too.

DOS supporting a nVidia GeForce.....playing Oblivion or something. What a thought.





It'd have to get rid of the lame 640k base memory limit though. Stupid Bill Gates...

[Dustin]

From what I am finding out, the idea may not just be a pipe dream. http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ak621/DOS/DOS-Fal.html

[MusicallyInspired]

That IS fascinating!

[Locutus]

@Dustin: I can fully understand your experiences with Vista/7. Having used and installed every Microsoft operating system ranging from DOS, over Win 3.1, then 95, 98, Me, 2000 and at last XP, I finally chose not to upgrade any more. Vista is the first operating system by MS that is so truly bloated and so ridiculously full of stuff nobody needs, that even I won't use it anymore. And with Windows 7 only being a Vista Second Edition, I find myself stuck with XP. It does all I need it to do and with great efficiency. For everything else (internet routing and services) I use my Linux router (based on Debian Linux).

I may do something rash like switch back to Windows 98SE. I hated to let go of that OS.

Please don't. :-) I have it installed on my Windows 9x gaming machine for compatibility and it will run fine, once hardware and drivers are configured properly. But getting there is a real pain. Besides, you can't run much of the new software on it. I believe Firefox 2.0 will run on it, but that's pretty much it when it comes to browsers. Adding to this you can only have 512 mb of RAM and multi-core CPUs are not supported, much less up-to-date motherboard chipsets.

Locutus

[Fisu2]

Also Windows hasn't supported MPU-401 devices from Vista onwards. SCC-1 and LAPC-I need Linux or Mac to run nowdays on up-to-date OS. Linux has seen staggering amount of visible development since I've been using it for over 5 years and is becoming very solid.

[Great Hierophant]

I may do something rash like switch back to Windows 98SE. I hated to let go of that OS.

Please don't. :-) I have it installed on my Windows 9x gaming machine for compatibility and it will run fine, once hardware and drivers are configured properly. But getting there is a real pain. Besides, you can't run much of the new software on it. I believe Firefox 2.0 will run on it, but that's pretty much it when it comes to browsers. Adding to this you can only have 512 mb of RAM and multi-core CPUs are not supported, much less up-to-date motherboard chipsets.

Locutus

Actually, Win 98SE can run the latest version of Opera 10.50.  I can manage about 1GB of RAM with a little patience.  How much processing power you need is up to you.  I have never found getting drivers loaded to be much of a pain, unless the hardware itself was very poor. 

[Dustin]

I certainly feel most comfortable with XP. I can tweak it to run quite smoothly, and compatibility is never an issue. However, during that latest install on my laptop a few months ago, I experienced some initial difficulty in getting Windows to activate online. That kinda scared me. It worked after about the 4th try, but I know that there will come a day when XP won't activate online or over the phone. This has been in the back of my mind for the past few weeks. Unless a patched or hacked version is made available, that will be the end of it. Then again, buy that time, I'll (hopefully) be using something different.


I've used nothing but Windows since the beginning. I bought a Mac SE from a garage sale years ago to see what an Apple was like, and thought it great, but their hardware is painfully overpriced. So, I stuck with MS.

I tolerated all the annoyances for many years. But dammit... I've had enough. After awhile, you tend to forget all that is required to keep a Widows PC running properly.

You have to install several different programs to keep viruses, and spyware/adware out, make sure they update their definitions regularly, you defrag, run disk cleanup, run checkdisk, clean the registry, wrestle with windows defender, chase down .dll files, reinstall printer drivers, update windows, scan for viruses, scan for spy/adware, disable the unnecessary processes to free up resources, the list goes on. And despite your best efforts, windows always becomes markedly slower as time goes on. You also have to reactivate if any major hardware changes are made.

Nothing short of ridiculous.

To remedy all of this, I'm going to do something I should have done many years ago: I'm buying an Amiga.

There are new motherboards currently being made, and the Amiga OS is at version 4.1. Lean, efficient, rock solid performance, and security through obscurity. I've yet to see a better-designed operating system. I can only dream of where we'd be had the management not gone bad.

I've decided to grab an A1200 with the works. Wanted one back in the day, but when the company went bust, it scared people off (good news for MS and Apple). The dedicated user base has kept it alive all these years, and development continues. While I don't expect them to make a large comeback, they are a totally viable option that is literally plug and play, and can run circles around the resource-hungry operating systems of today. Plus I'll be able to use Deluxe Paint in its native environment.  Not an end-all solution by any stretch, but it will accomplish my day to day tasks with considerable ease.