When One is troubled with Windows What one can do?
It is strange that when one is troubled with Windows he or she goes into shell and blame oneself and not the operating system.
It is the opposite when one is troubled with Linux.
If he / she is a one who comes from the windows background without batting an eyelid he / she blames the distribution as if the whole hell has descended on him / her.
It is often a minor glitch he or she has overlooked to configure or may be downloading a suitable alternative package or worse come file a bug report to which a ready solution is available within 6 weeks.
If that does not help one can swap the distribution and select one that suits and download it.
(I have two books already available, not digital yet selecting a distribution and also the utilities and packages, if this blog entry is not adequate enough).
One problem with this approach is if one is not using a torrent download (even this can be painful if there is one seeder who has gone into hibernation at night-simply switched off the computer) it can be time consuming.
The download time can be awfully long and and painful (I have enough of stories often due to failure of the telecoms but now never or do not complain because I download several at a time and I know one will be finished by morning when I am in deep sleep and dreaming some bizarre episode of Cloud Computing like star wars of yesteryear).
But once one has a CD (ideally D.V.D with almost everything one needs in one pack) the live session is breezy and installation is cakewalk if not catwalk.
Only thing Linux guys forget is to keep it running 24 hours (cron jobs at midnight are vital to get rid of the junk files that collect is one switches off the computer regularly; leave seeds for others to access) at least once or twice a week.
If you are lazy use a the sweeper or do it manually which I prefer now because of the frequent downloads.
Now come to Window guys/girls.
Steps.
1. Do not blame yourself.
2. It is often the operating system at fault.
3. It can be due to a corrupt file or large macro sitting on the file and spying on you.
4. The pet devise to blame is the latest virus and I bet you you will not have a solution this side of 6 months.
With so many holes in the operating system which Microsoft will never able plug and then they will promise you the new version is very beautiful (but very slow to run unless you doubled up your RAM) and one should change and upgrade and works better (of course till the next ultra new version is ready for upgrade).
You are in this vicious cycle (V.C) and never get out of it.
If a guy of my age descends on me with a problem, I do not try to convert the guy to Linux fearing one gets a heart attack.
I ask a few questions.
If it it a pirated copy.
If the answer is yes, thrash the pirated copy and get a copyrighted version.
This is I am openly campaigning for the guy to remain with Microsoft.
Microsoft should be happy with my efforts now but I do not charge anything for this advice.
The poor guy has to pay through his nose anyway.
Do not forget the virus guard and that also will cost you some quids.
Get somebody to format and install, I won't do that for you unless he or wishes to have a Linux distribution dual booted.
His has to spend a half a day with me with food and beverages ready and ample.
This is Christmas time anyway.
If the guy has not got the money, then the scenario changes.
I ask what are the things that he uses computer for, regularly.
Invariably, the answer is that he uses the email and nothing else to be in contact with the family and friends.
Then I give him a breezy Live CD and ask the guy to use it till he himself try to find a remedy for the malady or ultimately ditch Microsoft and ask me to install the new distribution in his computer.
The long course works well for Linux and I of course have to have two visits instead of one.
That of course keeps our friendship lasting and viable.
Who says Microsoft is bad.
It makes "my sphere of activity" to enlarge and expand.
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