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Saturday, July 24, 2010

Gone Done and Did It

At times, dogged determination and persistence are laudable traits. When faced with daunting circumstances or emergencies, having someone in your corner who refuses to give up until the job is done certainly is something most of us admire greatly. At other times, however, it can be a wee bit excessive...like the past 18 hours or so for moi.

As I mentioned earlier, I purchased a nice refurbished IBM computer that came pre-loaded with Windows XP. Upon booting it up for the first time, I immediately reformatted the disk and decided to try Kubuntu. This very popular Linux operating system appeared to hold promise and so I went about the process of both trying to add my backed up files and familiarizing myself with the set-up.

Part one of my task went very smoothly. In no time at all, I had my preferred programs with data back in place. Unfortunately, trying to personalize the system to meet my tastes was anything but easy. I would set-up a certain number of parameters for the desktop or window behavior and it wouldn't work as expected. At one point, for reasons I can't fathom, my main taskbar suddenly disappeared and I couldn't figure out how to bring it back.

After working on this problem for some time, I decided I didn't need this headache in my life, so I erased Kubuntu and reloaded the more familiar Debian GNU/Linux. Of course, this meant I had to reassemble my backed up data and set-up my personal preferences all over again!

Now, me thinks a NORMAL person would have set about to get all this accomplished in a reasonable amount of time. I am not a normal person; I am an autistic fellow with OCD. So, rather than do all this work spread over a day or two, I sat at my computer for nearly 9 straight hours!!

The process began shortly before 11 p.m. and I didn't roll into bed until a little after 8:00 a.m. this morning!!!

My computer clock shows the correct time, but my internal clock is now all out of whack. ;-)

5 comments:

  1. Get a MAC and relax.

    Even a used MAC is a bizillion times more reliable than any PC (Pitiful Computer) and already runs on Linux with no fooling around.

    My wife and I have two MACS: my 2005 eMac and her 1998 iMac. They've run 5 years and twelve years respectively with no problems, no hard drive failures, no data loss, no problems WHATSOEVER. Never seen the inside of a computer repair shop.

    I've done heavy stats, self-publishing, illustrations and database management on MACS since 1992. None better.

    Nuff said.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A Mac is an expensive way to have Linux, yes the Mac OS is a rework of Linux but with a tasty price tag.

    The Hours of work on Linux is nothing to the days weeks and months I have put into it. I love what Linux offers the world, for free.

    The version of Linux that "Just Works" is Linux Mint. If you want to avoid long settups then Mint is installed, up and sailing in 15 minutes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sometimes we have no sense of timing. The last time I installed Linux, I started after 10pm with work at 5:30am the next morning.

    I was tired but thought "ho hum... I think I'll just install linux before I go to bed".

    I was pretty tired at work the next day.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Expensive? Compared to what?

    Our MACS have cost nothing, $0, nada, zip, in 12 years. Zero dollars. Not a penny.

    How much is spent on the average Pitiful Computer in 12 years?

    ReplyDelete
  5. It simply depends on what you want a computer for: a toy to play computer programmer with, or a tool to get things done.

    ReplyDelete

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