My new machine arrived today. It’s a beast, fast and loaded, if not exactly portable. I’ve already got Fedora Core 2 installed, in fact, I’m typing this in on Opera running on Fedora. My first impressions of the two operating systems are as follows:
Windows is NOT as easy to get going as I expected. What is this registration nonsense? I can use XP, on sufferance, for 30 days, after which point apparently I am deemed unworthy. Sure, I’ll put in completely fictional information, but one’s system is still identifiable by Microsoft over said Internet, and presumably the serial number can be tracked back to the original purchaser. I’m wondering how difficult it is to remove XP and replace it with Windows 2000, or if that’s even possible.
Fedora is not intrusive, but its strange discomfort with wireless access is annoying too. I popped in my PCMCIA card, got the Internet working on the first try, then, when I rebooted just to check things out, the Internet was no longer working. I had to remove eth0 – a built-in network card – then create a new eth0 (which had been eth1) for the wireless card before it would work again. I rebooted to verify that this fix had taken; sure enough, I’m fully operational.
Now, here’s the problem. I can network to the other Windows machines in the house. But for some reason, I can’t get SWAT going, JAGS does not show the other Fedora machine, and to copy things from one to the other I have to pass them through one of the Windows machines. This makes no sense. Why is it easier to network to Windows than it is to another Linux machine? Anyone have any suggestions?
Still, even with the headaches, it’s well worth it. The tank isn’t exactly what I would call under complete control, but at least we’re not scaring the livestock anymore.