Introduction: Why I'm Doing This.

It's been one security problem and one reformat too many. After years of starts-and-stops and flirting with the idea, I am going to make my best effort at leaving behind the Lovecraftian tentacled horror that is Windows.

No, really, for my purposes Windows isn't that bad. I'll discuss why I want to migrate to Linux, but first, so you'll understand better where I'm coming from, a minimal bit about me.

I am 29 years old. I got my first computer at 17, a Sam's Club special from a long-defunct fly-by-night called Pionex, and got addicted to the wonders of AOL and SimCity. Twelve years later, I still am essentially an internet and SimCity junkie.

I would call myself a moderate-casual computer user. I'm not a programmer. Years ago I could edit and even produce some rudimentary HTML and even learned a little PHP back when that was new, and was a staffer of some importance at a medium-large video game fansite. I took one semester of Introduction to C++ at Penn State--only because it meant I could avoid taking calculus for my liberal arts major--and got a B-. (Although I did get A's in high school dicking around with QBASIC and PASCAL.)

I know just enough about computers and programming to delude myself into thinking I know what I'm doing. That is to say, I have the technical knowledge of the typical newegg user that marks his technical knowledge as "high". That is to say, little, but more than zero. Unlike those newegg users, I have no illusions of being better with computers than I am. I know only enough about computers to get frustrated when they don't work right and after a day's effort I can't figure out why.

Which leads us to Windows. Not working right and requiring ridiculous effort to fix (or, just as often, discover you can't fix it and reformatting/reinstalling everything) is pretty much Windows' job. And that's coming from me. I write, and am a semi-professional editor and proofreader (using OpenOffice and Notepad++ where I can; sometimes Adobe Acrobat is required); I do various things on the internet; I play SimCity and Baseball Mogul. That is pretty much what I use computers for. Unfortunately, Windows is such a bagbiting atrocity of an operating system that clicking one stray link (a bad habit of mine and my wife's) will bring it to its knees and compromise your data (which is why I back up my data ritually). I do not enjoy this.

So that's the practical reason I would like to be through with Windows.

But, honestly, that's not enough to motivate migrating, because--and I'm going to bold-face this sentence for any Linux community members that might read this--I can't figure out how the hell to get Linux working. I have tried a few times and given up after a little while. I can install the thing just fine; I just can't get any of my hardware to work with it, much less figure out how to get software that does what I want and plays nice.

People who use Linux and have a technical clue all assure me it's not that hard if you put the effort into understanding how it works. I have no doubt that is true. The problem is, I don't have the time. I manage an inn; that keeps me busy 60 hours a week. I also write, edit and proofread; that keeps me busy 20 or 30 more. That leaves not a lot of time for the concurrent but antagonistic goals of (a) dicking around on my computer to unwind and (b) making sure my wife remembers who I am. (Not necessarily in that order.)

All things considered, trying to migrate to Linux, learn the minimum amount of knowledge of programming required to use it properly (there is no way around this necessity with Linux that I know of) and get it doing what I want to do... it's not worth it. Over my lifetime reinstalling Windows every couple months will consume less of my time and cause me fewer headaches.

I'm writing this blog partly because I can, but also partly because it might be helpful to Linux users, supporters and (especially) programmers. Linux dominates server space, and it is beginning to dominate smart phones. It continues to struggle, as it has for years, in desktop and laptop space (that is to say it continues to lose to Windows, despite the fact Windows is expensive and horribly bloated where Linux is free and pleasantly streamlined) and this is mostly because it is difficult for non-technical people to figure out how to install, configure and use. This very well may not matter, because desktops and laptops may vanish into obsolescence in a matter of a few years.

But, see, even for a desktop computer, Linux is much, much better than Windows.

If you're a programmer.

If you're not--and I think that most knowledgeable Linux users either don't grasp this concept, or grasp it but reject it, preferring to keep the good stuff to themselves--Windows is better because non-programmers want very different things out of their computers than programmers do. We want to turn it on, do stuff online, play games (admittedly Microsoft uses its monopoly lock to make this difficult, through no fault of Linux's), screw around with whatever programs we like, and turn it off. Windows, for all its lossiness, allows us to do this (until we click a stray link and a virus wrecks the system; then we drop it off at Best Buy and pick it up on Thursday). Linux demands a steep learning curve before we can get to the fun. We aren't interested.

But I remain interested. I would rather use Linux than Windows because I believe Microsoft is evil.

I should clarify. What I mean when I say that is, Microsoft is thoroughly, fundamentally, saturatedly anti-customer. Microsoft has become the wealthiest company in the world by doing everything it can get away with to enslave its customers. I may never get completely off Windows because several things my job requires of me demand Windows; trying to do it on Linux is either technically impossible or (because of the opportunity cost of investing the time to figure out how) practically impossible. This is exactly what Microsoft has worked hard to achieve: monopoly lock where I have no choice. Which of course amounts to I will pay Microsoft whatever Microsoft demands, or I will have no job. It's remarkable how similar to taxation the model is.

I find that deeply offensive--and you should too--and that is why I would rather not use Microsoft products. (Except my keyboard and mouse; Microsoft does make damn fine input hardware. The world would be a better place if they would stick to that.) Combine that with how losing Windows is--and combine that with how, with each advancing version of Windows, Microsoft creeps further and further in toward the goal of enslaving you--and it makes Linux very attractive.

If I can ever get it installed and working.

So here I will chronicle my efforts, as a moderate-casual computer user, to figure out how to migrate to Linux and actually make it work. I will explain as best I can the things that are easy, the things that are hard, and why. Consider it an object study in how Linux does and does not lend itself to use by moderate-casual computer junkies.