My relationship with operating systems.
I started my computer career back in 1985. It was the age of main frames and CPM was in flavour. A couple of geeks (Bill and Chris) working in a garage in Seattle came up with a system to operate smaller computers. They called it DOS. In a few years it took over the world and it got me hooked too. They sold it to IBM who named it PC-DOS and it flourished. Bill & Chris changed it's name to MS-DOS and Microsoft came to the fore.
At this time I began my career as a Database Developer. I used a RDBMS called Dataflex. And till this day find that Dataflex is better than sex. Only another Dataflex Developer will understand. I was intorduced to Dataflex by a computer salesman who loaned me his Dataflex manual. I read it and found I understood it. Nobody else could? I did do 3 courses to learn Dataflex properly and within 3 months wrote a system to control a Travel Distribution company I worked for.
In the next few years the dudes at Xerox (correct me if I'm wrong) came up with something later called a GUI and also a mouse as Xerox was into document scanning/printing. Microsoft saw an opportunity and Windows was born. My acceptance to that technology was during the reign of Windows 2.0. Other versions of Windows were released and the best version for networks was Windows 3.11, which supported workgroups and networking. Do you remember 'ini' files. They rocked!
Around this time Viruses were born. I remember the Jerusalem Dos based virus, then the Michaelangelo Virus.
Years passed... the Internet came, Windows adapted. Bill even tried to compete with it and started a parallel network called the 'MSN' or Microsoft Network. It failed and was forced to infuse itself as part of the Internet. Netscape was the web browser you had to have to surf the world wide web.
In 1995 Bill released Windows 95. It was sexy, good looking and had great promise. It was a complete redesign of the Windows system, It had something called a 'Registry' and promised to encompass all those pesky 'ini' files. The masses cheered. Only thing was, when you looked at the registry it had more entries that the human brain had synapses. I was worried, and for good reason. Viruses had all this 'white noise' to hide in.
Time passed and 'NT' came. At first it was not considered as a replacement to other Server software but later was adopted by smaller companies. Windows 98, Windows ME, SE and then... Windows XP arguably the best and most utilised of all operating systems. Viruses flourished and they needed to be categorised as there were so many of them. Trojans, Worms, Bots, Malware, Adware. They all seemed to do the same thing. Make my life difficult.
I recall one time being called into the Microsoft head office in North Ryde, Sydney to offer my technical knowledge because my company was applying for a distribution job they advertised. They so proudly showed me their air-conditioned, glass walled, raised floor server room. I asked what OS do they run, NT? They blushed as replied... Unix. They are connected to Seattle directly. Gosh. Why was I there... well... they had a call centre that took calls from consumers who were interested in their software. The call staff took a blank A4 envelope and wrote down the address of the caller and on the inside of the envelope flap wrote what product they were interested in. Ya know... Windows, Office, Publisher etc. They then placed the envelope in a tray and took the next call. Someone then came from the mailroom and collected all the envelopes, inserted the applicable brochures, sealed and posted the envelope. How many calls did they take, who called, what did they ask for? No body knew as they didn't recorded anything. Nothing...
This is from the people that created Access and Excel? I was shattered. I could have done that in a week. Automated everything for them and offer them a customised sort of CRM. We didn't get the job, possibly because our solution to them was too cheap. Those Managers are probably retired now but I think they lied on their resumes when getting their job.
My 4 daughters all had PC's running Windows and I soon was fed up of restoring their OS when they became infected. Steve Jobs was plugging Mac's like crazy and they were all happy when I suggested they go Mac and not PC. Till this day they are all Apple users.
Windows Vista came and soured my fondness of computing. Windows 7 arrived and I was dismayed that it wasn't a whole new OS, but just Vista polished up. Everything was hidden but it essentially remained the same. I could have XP run with under 20 system processes. 7 had around 60 to 80 processed running and needed more and more memory and processor speed to run efficiently.
Around this time I started to notice other good lookers in computing. The old Unix system for servers had spawned an offspring... Linux. At first it was a character driven (Dos like) system, but later a GUI emerged. A friend of mine introduced me to Ubuntu. I was immediately attracted to this gorgeous system. I remember thinking about my first introduction to 95, only this was better, faster and crikey... stable.
I was intrigued, hooked, and explored like a cat in a new house. It had something called the 'software centre' which was like a catalogue of software tried and tested for that version. What's more all that software was free. Also I was completely taken aback by the fact I could now browse the internet without any fear of catching any pesky viruses. It was completely liberating.
I first put Ubuntu on my old Thinkpad laptop. Ubuntu sensed the hardware and immediately found that my old Thinkpad's scratch pad could tolerate multi-touch and enabled it. It was like having an iPad before they were invented. Windows on the other hand could only tolerate single-touch or edge-scrolling. What's more the old Thinkpad sped up like Lance Armstrong on steroids. Booted up in a flash, shut down in a flash and the 'suspend/hybernate' actually worked and didn't crash as in the case with Windows. I found that I could VPN and RDP into my work server just as if I was using Windows.
Ubuntu was now my secret 'mistress'. Don't tell the wife.
I kept my relationship with Windows alive as I was working in the IT department of the 2nd largest Privately owned Transport company in Australia. They were a Microsoft preferred organisation. However even my work PC was dual booted and I used Ubuntu first and Windows only if I really needed to. Slowly though I noticed I needed Windows less and less.
Everything I needed in a Windows system I found in Linux, with only one exception... iTunes. Apple as it seems, didn't want to bother creating a version of iTunes for Linux. Bad move Apple... I traded my iPhone for an Android. Again a breath of fresh air... instead of fussing with iTunes to update my music and ringtones... all I needed to do is drag and drop new music & video to and from the phone. No more 5 PC limitation in iTunes. FREEDOM was mine at last. It felt good... really, really good. No more rules to follow using proprietary software. No more worrying about registering a software license, looking over you shoulder in case Windows WPA itself detected you were using pirated software when in fact you weren't.
Windows is now my ex-wife. Although I still have my pc's dual booted, I can't remember the last time I needed Windows for anything. What's more I no longer need to buy software, it's all FREE.
Dataflex runs happily in Lunix and the world is wonderful again.
For those of you that have done the Microsoft MCP, MCSE courses and have been told you need to do the refresher course for the newer OS or remove the letters from your business cards and letterheads will understand the costs involved. I am free from that.
Around this time Viruses were born. I remember the Jerusalem Dos based virus, then the Michaelangelo Virus.
Years passed... the Internet came, Windows adapted. Bill even tried to compete with it and started a parallel network called the 'MSN' or Microsoft Network. It failed and was forced to infuse itself as part of the Internet. Netscape was the web browser you had to have to surf the world wide web.
In 1995 Bill released Windows 95. It was sexy, good looking and had great promise. It was a complete redesign of the Windows system, It had something called a 'Registry' and promised to encompass all those pesky 'ini' files. The masses cheered. Only thing was, when you looked at the registry it had more entries that the human brain had synapses. I was worried, and for good reason. Viruses had all this 'white noise' to hide in.
Time passed and 'NT' came. At first it was not considered as a replacement to other Server software but later was adopted by smaller companies. Windows 98, Windows ME, SE and then... Windows XP arguably the best and most utilised of all operating systems. Viruses flourished and they needed to be categorised as there were so many of them. Trojans, Worms, Bots, Malware, Adware. They all seemed to do the same thing. Make my life difficult.
I recall one time being called into the Microsoft head office in North Ryde, Sydney to offer my technical knowledge because my company was applying for a distribution job they advertised. They so proudly showed me their air-conditioned, glass walled, raised floor server room. I asked what OS do they run, NT? They blushed as replied... Unix. They are connected to Seattle directly. Gosh. Why was I there... well... they had a call centre that took calls from consumers who were interested in their software. The call staff took a blank A4 envelope and wrote down the address of the caller and on the inside of the envelope flap wrote what product they were interested in. Ya know... Windows, Office, Publisher etc. They then placed the envelope in a tray and took the next call. Someone then came from the mailroom and collected all the envelopes, inserted the applicable brochures, sealed and posted the envelope. How many calls did they take, who called, what did they ask for? No body knew as they didn't recorded anything. Nothing...
This is from the people that created Access and Excel? I was shattered. I could have done that in a week. Automated everything for them and offer them a customised sort of CRM. We didn't get the job, possibly because our solution to them was too cheap. Those Managers are probably retired now but I think they lied on their resumes when getting their job.
My 4 daughters all had PC's running Windows and I soon was fed up of restoring their OS when they became infected. Steve Jobs was plugging Mac's like crazy and they were all happy when I suggested they go Mac and not PC. Till this day they are all Apple users.
Windows Vista came and soured my fondness of computing. Windows 7 arrived and I was dismayed that it wasn't a whole new OS, but just Vista polished up. Everything was hidden but it essentially remained the same. I could have XP run with under 20 system processes. 7 had around 60 to 80 processed running and needed more and more memory and processor speed to run efficiently.
Around this time I started to notice other good lookers in computing. The old Unix system for servers had spawned an offspring... Linux. At first it was a character driven (Dos like) system, but later a GUI emerged. A friend of mine introduced me to Ubuntu. I was immediately attracted to this gorgeous system. I remember thinking about my first introduction to 95, only this was better, faster and crikey... stable.
I was intrigued, hooked, and explored like a cat in a new house. It had something called the 'software centre' which was like a catalogue of software tried and tested for that version. What's more all that software was free. Also I was completely taken aback by the fact I could now browse the internet without any fear of catching any pesky viruses. It was completely liberating.
I first put Ubuntu on my old Thinkpad laptop. Ubuntu sensed the hardware and immediately found that my old Thinkpad's scratch pad could tolerate multi-touch and enabled it. It was like having an iPad before they were invented. Windows on the other hand could only tolerate single-touch or edge-scrolling. What's more the old Thinkpad sped up like Lance Armstrong on steroids. Booted up in a flash, shut down in a flash and the 'suspend/hybernate' actually worked and didn't crash as in the case with Windows. I found that I could VPN and RDP into my work server just as if I was using Windows.
Ubuntu was now my secret 'mistress'. Don't tell the wife.
I kept my relationship with Windows alive as I was working in the IT department of the 2nd largest Privately owned Transport company in Australia. They were a Microsoft preferred organisation. However even my work PC was dual booted and I used Ubuntu first and Windows only if I really needed to. Slowly though I noticed I needed Windows less and less.
Everything I needed in a Windows system I found in Linux, with only one exception... iTunes. Apple as it seems, didn't want to bother creating a version of iTunes for Linux. Bad move Apple... I traded my iPhone for an Android. Again a breath of fresh air... instead of fussing with iTunes to update my music and ringtones... all I needed to do is drag and drop new music & video to and from the phone. No more 5 PC limitation in iTunes. FREEDOM was mine at last. It felt good... really, really good. No more rules to follow using proprietary software. No more worrying about registering a software license, looking over you shoulder in case Windows WPA itself detected you were using pirated software when in fact you weren't.
Windows is now my ex-wife. Although I still have my pc's dual booted, I can't remember the last time I needed Windows for anything. What's more I no longer need to buy software, it's all FREE.
Dataflex runs happily in Lunix and the world is wonderful again.
For those of you that have done the Microsoft MCP, MCSE courses and have been told you need to do the refresher course for the newer OS or remove the letters from your business cards and letterheads will understand the costs involved. I am free from that.
My advice to anyone that is caught in a relationship that requires constant work to maintain... it's simply not worth it. It's time for a change.
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