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For the past few months, I've been using a junky Windows XP box to play Starcraft. Considering the frequency with which I run Starcraft, and a limit on computer cables (lack of KVM, etc.), this meant turning OFF my beloved GNU/Linux and turning ON Windows.
For several months I had become accustomed to running Windows 24/7, and checking my email in a browser instead of Pine, transferring files with a graphical SFTP client (lol drag drop for noobs) instead of 'scp', and doing remote logins with putty instead of just 'ssh'.
I was adjusting to a different lifestyle with different standards. System unresponsiveness was becoming a standard. Using shitty applications that hog system resources was becoming a standard. Crashes, forced halts, and degraded performance were becoming a standard. Even Starcraft lagged (wtf!?).
Today my Windows box got a virus. TaskManager wouldn't run. Command Prompt wouldn't run. SafeMode wouldn't work. FUCK THIS SHIT.
Patiently waiting in the corner of my room, next to my radiator and trash can, occasionally fulfilling the role of a footstool or dinner table, my GNU/Linux box waited faithfully.
At first I felt ashamed coming back to the one that I'd dumped. I had almost reformatted my beloved GNU/Linux box in favor of an optimal gaming rig, but for some reason I just couldn't build up the nerve to taint this one proud machine I had built up from scraps by my own toil; I could not taint with the evil that Microsoft spews.
I swapped all of the cables from my shit box to my shiny GNU/Linux box. I pressed the ON bottom. Blue LEDs awoke from months of hibernation. A familiar login screen greeted me, and immediately recognized my unchanged password.
My GNU/Linux box never let me down.
My GNU/Linux box never lagged.
My GNU/Linux box never got a virus and turned into a crazy psychobitch that I never knew and then left me for some fling with a worm from a 3rd-world country.
The lesson: Dance with the one you came with.
Until SC2...
 
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If all I used windows for was a wordprocessor and several basic media players, I'd probably never have trouble either. Unfortunately my needs expand beyond that 
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this is some commie bullshit. everyone knows windows runs well if you don't suck at using it. delete your linux partition and put windows 7 on it. you no longer have an excuse not to.
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On February 14 2010 15:34 kazokun wrote:
this is some commie bullshit. everyone knows windows runs well if you don't suck at using it. delete your linux partition and put windows 7 on it. you no longer have an excuse not to.
yeah, what are you, a socialist? GOSH
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WARNING: incoming wall of text and slight rant 
For several months I had become accustomed to running Windows 24/7
Ever since I got my laptop I have run Windows on my desktop and Linux on my laptop. I consider it a fact of life that I do just want to run some things in Windows. More recently I've begun dual booting my laptop with Windows so that I can use Office 2007 (and a few other things) when I'm at school or on the road. A small FAT32 partition at the end of the drive holds things that I need to use in both environments.
checking my email in a browser instead of Pine
I like Thunderbird. If you like Pine, you could always run it on your Linux box (alongside irssi of course) and ssh into that. Personally Mutt is my command line email client of choice, but there's no accounting for some people's taste. 
transferring files with a graphical SFTP client (lol drag drop for noobs) instead of 'scp', and doing remote logins with putty instead of just 'ssh'
The PuTTy suite includes PSCP and PSFTP, both command line applications that operate very similarly to their counterparts from the OpenSSH suite.
I was adjusting to a different lifestyle with different standards. System unresponsiveness was becoming a standard. Using shitty applications that hog system resources was becoming a standard. Crashes, forced halts, and degraded performance were becoming a standard. Even Starcraft lagged (wtf!?).
You can't blame Windows for this. Don't use the Windows CD that comes with your computer - get an OEM or Retail disc with a recent service pack slipstreamed and just add your drivers after install. Don't install a million and one apps that stay running all the time and suck up memory. It's completely possible to have a stable and relatively efficient Windows XP installation. If you have more than two or three icons in your system tray, there's a very good chance that you have several things running that don't need to be.
Pro tip: antivirus/antispyware/firewall programs are the biggest source of system slowdowns. Take responsibility for your own computer's safety instead of assuming that some algorithm can do the same job.
Today my Windows box got a virus. TaskManager wouldn't run. Command Prompt wouldn't run. SafeMode wouldn't work. FUCK THIS SHIT.
I'm sure it was incredibly important that you download and run that sketchy executable from that equally sketchy eastern european or chinese site. I'm sorry, but you won't get much sympathy from me on this. A little more if it was something more obscure like Adobe Reader and a JavaScript vulnerability; but still not much. FWIW I have been using Windows since 98 was released, have never used an antivirus, and have never had a virus. It's a simple matter of not running code or scripts that you don't trust.
for some reason I just couldn't build up the nerve to taint this one proud machine I had built up from scraps by my own toil; I could not taint with the evil that Microsoft spews.
Poetic. What do you have against Microsoft, anyway? Have you ever considered that companies that publish shitty and barely tested drivers/crapware/"value-add" should get at least as much blame for the state of a typical Windows install?
I feel like I should write some sort of conclusion here but I don't really know what else to say. Please don't take the above as hostile or trying to insult you; I just really feel like you're using your Windows in a really suboptimal way, and that's what's causing you to have a bad experience with it. If there's an overall point that I'm trying to make that Windows on its own is stable and performs quite well -- it's all of the programs and cruft that OEMs and endusers install onto it that slow it down and make it unstable.
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I've run SC:BW w/ ICCUP launcher under Wine in *nix with never a hitch. VMs are another option for gaming but I've never used them for more than building a system to test before exporting it to another box. To me, these days, Windows is little more than the propriety software needed to make a computer a game console. If more games were produced to run natively on *nix I would abandon Windows completely.
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Canada8031 Posts
R1ch wrote an excellent guide regarding securing your PC. You should never have virus issues as a Windows user as long as you take the proper precautions and don't do anything stupid.
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I would have been impressed if you hadn't mentioned the blue LEDs -.-;
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Helpful (or idiotic) comments aside, this blog has nothing to do with software. Please read it as a parable.
It's about staying faithful to the one that was always faithful to you. It's about staying true to your principles and not selling out for perks in the short run.
It's about honor. It's about truth.
It's about blue shiny LEDs and a strange attraction between man and machine.
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Baltimore, USA22253 Posts
So in other words, it's basically like all the other girl blogs on here, minus the girl.
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On February 14 2010 18:03 EvilTeletubby wrote:
So in other words, it's basically like all the other girl blogs on here, minus the girl.
is it really? aren't those more about lacking confidence or misreading signs or being friendzoned than sticking to your guns?
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EPT
