feel crippled when in windows

[spook1980]

i've used Linux about 4 years ago when i started using computers even though i used windows as well for about the same time, i mostly ran different linux distros just because i feel like i'm very limited in what i can do in windows.

don't get me wrong i still have a windows partition, just in case i need it. in the past 7months thats been about a dozen times i can fix windows problems no problem.

linux i feel is so much more flexable, now i don't think though linux is for everyone. when i started getting into computers i started with linux and windows, so i had no learning curve,

some people just have a real hard time learning how to use computers in the 1st place so they just don't want to have to go through that again, if u would have started that same person on linux they would not want to have to learn windows at all...

[manzdagratiano]

I share the sentiment... I take care of the general health of my Fiance's Windows install, and I get utterly frustrated having to deal with the old ways of a crippled command prompt/antivirus/spyware etc etc etc... I cannot imagine how I used to use Windows at all before I switched completely three years ago.

[Timmer1240]

The only time I ever play with windows anymore is to fix it on other peoples machines!My wife still runs windows 7 but Im running Linux Ive had enough of the windows fun!

[FormatSeize]

This rant will eventually come around to the topic at hand. It turned out longer than I thought.

When I first got the job that I currently have, I was not a computer person at all. I have a degree in Chemistry, and even in college, I would avoid/not learn things about a computer. I carefully followed instructions if given assignments that involved MathCad, Excel, or Maple. I even wrote out my papers by hand, and then procrastinated typing them up until the last minute because I did not want to sit in front of a computer.

Then I landed a job, and I had to use Excel. The guy whose position I had taken (he went to go work for Wachovia), was an Excel master. I came on as a temp-to-hire, and when I saw the things that he had done with Excel, I figured that I would never be hired permanently. There was no way, I thought, I would be able to reproduce anything that even came close to the things he had done.

He was like a living legend around here; and it was wierd because there were others that were good with Excel (maybe like two other people), but this guy was known for it. And I, the person that didn't even know that I liked computers, was supposed to fill these shoes.

Long story short, that guy is forgotten. I am the new Excel Legend now. Not only that, I'm the general computer guru here at work. Not only did I master Excel, but just about anything that Microsoft makes. Even though programs like SQL Server and Visual Basic don't directly apply to my job, I made a conscious decision to make sure that they did so that I could get to program, develop, or just Use A Computer To Make Something Cool Happen Automatically. I even have a program written in Exel that actually plays Magic: The Gathering.

I found that I actually do like computers after all the time that I thought that I hated them. Even now, I am either mistaken for someone that works in the IT department, or asked why I am not wanting to go over to the IT department.

And the reason for that is because two years ago (almost to the day), I found Linux.

I use Windows every day at work. Linux is something that I do at home, in my free time. But I love it, I love learning it, and I will never, ever, use Windows at home. I feel like I can't do what I want, that things aren't accessible for no other reason than Microsoft Said So, and I don't feel like it's a system of my own, but rather something that someone thought that I would like to use.

When I use Windows, I don't feel like it's "my system", but rather someone else's, which I happen to be using right now.

It took quite some time for me to learn Linux in a manner that I would like to have been learning it, that's why my join date is two years ago but I just started posting regularly this month. It took some time to figure out what you guys were talking about, but now that I am starting to get a grasp on it, I am finding that there is even more to learn, and it's exciting.

Windows does not excite me. Mac does not excite me. Both my best friend and my girlfriend us Mac (she doesn't let me touch her computer because she thinks I am going to "hack" it). I don't have a problem with Macs, but I also don't have a lot of experience with them. But I have no reason to.

Note that this isn't a page about hating Windows. I don't hate Windows, it's just that whenever I cut it on, or cut on a Mac, and begin doing whatever it is that I am doing, I feel closed in. I feel like there should be something more, something else, or just...

... something.

That something is something better, and it's what I use: Linux.

[Bitmagic]

if u would have started that same person on linux they would not want to have to learn windows at all...

It all begins in school. Then M$ hooks them young with cheap deals. They are no better than the tobacco industry

[desktorp]

They (Microsoft) are no better than the tobacco industry

My father died from cancer. He would have smoked Microsoft brand cigarettes if they had ever been produced. Still, I think this comparison is ill-conceived. If it's supposed to be a joke, forgive me for being a total bonehead.