[Ma-linux] Interesting Experience with Vista

[David A. Hammond]

Chuck,

I don't know where you live but if you can conveniently get to
a Fairfax County regional library, you can find free high speed
wireless at any one of them.  They warn you that you may not be
able to get AC power, but I have never had a problem finding a
place to plug in.

The ssid is ffxlib and there is no encryption.  The library has
an info sheet that tells you how to set up a Windows machine to
use their network.  (You can get it from the information desk.)
It is not hard to read between the lines for how to set up a
Linux box.

Hope this helps you test your new installation.

Dave

Chuck Divine wrote:
> All,
> 
> Back in September, after getting fed up with Dell's nonshipment of the
> Ubuntu laptop I ordered from them, I went to Best Buy and picked up a
> Compaq laptop at under $500.  It came with Windows Home Vista.  The
> salesman in the store gave me no warning about what to expect.
> 
> OK, I get the laptop home and do basically nothing with it except turn
> it and become a bit familiar with it.  I carried the laptop to
> California for a conference in September.  I used the laptop to check
> e-mail, a few websites, etc.  I hadn't bothered to load Linux on the
> machine at that point.  I did use the machine to occasionally try taking
> notes using Microsoft Works.  I gather that is a simpler, free version
> of Office.
> 
> In October I used the laptop again for a conference in New Jersey.
> Again, just very simple stuff.
> 
> Last Friday I took the laptop to a local conference.  It's behavior
> seemed a bit odd -- the display wasn't quite right. I did manage to get
> the thing to do what I wanted, though.  This was the third -- and last
> -- experience with using wireless.  I had also used the machine a few
> times hooked up to my land line at home.  I wasn't using the machine
> very much on the Internet at all.  
> 
> Saturday I decided to check out laptop while I waiting for some friends
> to show up for dinner.  The display had definitely degraded
> considerably.  Colors were off, fonts were unreadably tiny, etc.
> 
> Yes, I had ignored the machine's demands to go to various sites for
> virus protection, etc.  I wasn't exactly using the machine in a heavy
> duty fashion.  My current Linux box has run for thousands of hours on
> the net with no problem.  I figured a Windows machine could go for a few
> hours until I bothered to load Linux on it.
> 
> Well, Saturday after my friends had left, I turned on the laptop again.
> This time it was unusable the display was so bad.  Hmm, I thought to
> myself, why don't I try loading Linux at this point?  OK, some good beer
> had been consumed by all at dinner.  That might have influenced my
> decision.  That plus the fact that I was bored.  Anyway, I inserted the
> Suse Linux 10.2 DVD into the appropriate slot and fired up the
> installation.  The first thing I was asked was whether or not I wanted
> to delete Windows.  I threw caution to the winds (hmm -- Guinness Stout
> and Sam Adams might have had something to do with that)  and said yes.
> Windows was wiped off the laptop.  I now have a bare bones version of
> Linux on the machine.  I haven't tested out its networking abilities as
> yet.  I need a place where I can get free WiFi for awhile I gather.
> Everything seems fine -- at least for simple stuff.
> 
> Have others reported this kind of thing happening with Windows?  Right
> now I'm wondering if Windows sabotaged the laptop because I hadn't
> signed up for anything that would cost money.
> 
> I will say installing Suse Linux 10.2 was very easy.
> 
> Best,
> 
>