Reply #34: Hence the reason MCE isn't that popular with DIY mediaPC people... [View All]

[Solon]

Including me, but what's even worse is the fact that even standard build it your own people, like me, get annoyances with our PCs due to Microsoft paranoia, look at my other post for that. Hell, just maintaining my Grandmother's computer, an old Gateway with Windows 98 was a pain, hence Linux comes in, now I don't get calls twice a week. My sister was given an old Compaq Pesario a while ago, with Windows ME, i.e. blue screen hell on it, I actually got rid of the drive on it, put a new 200 GB drive in it, installed Linux, put it on her home network as a File Server(her other computer is a Dell with Windows XP), with the added bonus that I can maintain it myself from home, miles away.

Slowly but surely I'm moving away from Microsoft systems, not so much because of the security or ease of maintaining Linux systems, believe me, I avoid the terminal like the plague myself, and am not experienced with Linux all that much. Learned a lot the past year I had it, but still a lot to learn, I can now set up the systems easily enough, hell its easier than XP, which I thought was odd. What I like is the freedom, with Windows 98, I could gradually upgrade my systems on a budget and be sure that 98 won't complain too much because of it. Now, with the lock in's of Windows XP and now Vista, I say fuck Microsoft, and I refuse to steal the damned thing either, it simply isn't worth it to install Windows anymore.