Alfreido's Blog

A mate of mine asked me last night on MSN which operating system I prefer the most - considering that I use Linux at work (openSUSE 10.3 to be exact) at work and I use Windows XP at home (with Vista only a dual-boot away). I also own a MacBook Pro - unsurprisingly bundled with Macintosh OS X 10.5. Do you want to know my opinion? I hate them all equally, cos they all bring a case of FAIL in different areas:

Linux shits me because there is no solidarity in the community. Instead of all working together to create a kick-ass OS which shits all over Apple and Microsoft, they all decide to segregate and work on their own OS software. It also shits me that even the OS software directed towards absolute computer noobs still require some soft of computing expertise with Linux (I am not one of these noobs, but I digress).

Macintosh shits me because Apple insist on using their own standards and being a big supporter of copy protection software. Instead of using tried-and-tested standards for various things like audio and video, Apple force people to do things their way or hit the highway.

Windows shits me because Microsoft - even after numerous patches and service packs - hardly ever fix the bugs that actually matter, and usually instead throw in several products and features that hardly anyone use. Windows also shits me considering how much memory it insists on using (especially Vista) just to bloody run - and you’re expected to have your programs fit into the 5% of memory not being used. Tried running games on that? It fucking sucks.

So… you won’t be getting any recommendation from me. I’ll let the fanboys give you their opinion. Have fun decoding that clusterfuck.

As with migrating to another OS (and one that was only technically released today, mind you), you’re bound to have a fair share of problems and annoyances trying to restore your computer to almost the same state it was before. If you click ‘Read more’, you can view some of those problems and annoyances… or not.

I saw the first 4 episodes of 24 Season 6, I’m fairly certain that just those 4 episodes beats any other entire series of 24. You heard me right. If it can hold the same momentum throughout the series, I think this will be the pinnacle of 24 greatness.

Also in my binge download spree (I upgraded to a 40gb plan on Internode, I used to be on 20gb, hence the massive download mania), I downloaded the first 4 episodes of Prison Break Season 2 (I might add, both these shows have not been aired in Australia yet). While it didn’t top the excitement of 24, I was equally engrossed in them, and can’t wait to get the rest of the series.

Back to work next week…
But wait, there’s more…

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. I got meself some nice shirts, a couple of new games for the Wii, a load of cash and a striptease mug. When hot water is inside the mug, the clothes on the ladies in this picture on the side of the mug go blank, and then… yeah.

Well, I won’t tell you how, but I have managed to get the new Windows, Windows Vista, on my computer, and I shall give you my first impressions. Basically, it jumped at me as Windows XP in an eye-popping but expensive costume. It looks good, but really doesn’t offer too much more over the previous Windows version, and next to nothing over what other OS’s such as Apple OS X and Linux already provide.

It runs fairly well, not much of a speed increase over Windows XP, but that possibly could be because I didn’t wipe my hard drives when I installed this, I just installed it onto my second hard drive so I could still boot into Windows XP if I have to. All my stuff is still there.

I haven’t as yet tested any games on it, but I’ll give it a go after writing this blog, so you’ll have to wait for another entry before I talk about them.

Well let’s see, new features… the new gadgets system seems to be Microsoft’s monolopizing answer to Yahoo Gadgets which was becoming quite popular at one stage. At least it’s open for other developers to work on. The new Media Centre is fairly streamlined and sexy, giving a central place to listen to your media which is good, although I’ll still probably prefer using playlists for Windows Media Player and Winamp and the like.

I’ll post more later when I think about it, but I say wait until developers start forcing you to upgrade to Vista before actually buying Vista.

Have a good new years, don’t get too smashed.