A couple years ago I swore that I would never pay for an Operating System again. It just seemed pointless. No matter what Operating System you choose (Windows, Mac, Linux) you would always have problems. And I hated the idea that I was paying for those problems. So, I made a deal with my workplace (which is a Microsoft shop); if they provided me with an operating system for home then I would remote in when needed. This was just a polite gesture on both of our parts. I was going to remote in anyways and they knew I was going to remote in. So, they were kind enough to provide me with a Windows XP Home copy to use for remote desktoping.
However, at the time, I had already switched to Ubuntu as my home environment. So, Windows XP was loaded up in a VMWare virtual machine (I have used the free version of VMWare for over 6 years and am a big supporter of their virtual software … it’s easy to use and easy to install).
But, after 7+ years of using Linux/Ubuntu as my home Operating System I have switched back to Windows 7. It wasn’t an easy transition because there are a lot of command line features that I loved in Ubuntu which aren’t replicated in Windows. PowerShell (for Windows) really helps bridge the gap, but it’s not the same. The best analogy I can come up with is …
* using the Linux command line is like talking to a college valedictorian. They get it right away.
* using Window’s Poweshell is like talking to a high school valedictorian. They know what your talking about, but you have to be verbose.
* using Window’s normal command line is like talking to a retarded (“mentally-disabled”) high schooler. It doesn’t matter how many times you try to explain it, they still won’t get it.
The switch over was pretty painless. I was able to copy almost all the files I wanted to keep onto a thumb drive, because most of my work was replicated online (For the less Linux established this is a slight at Windows … Linus Torvalds, “Only wimps use tape backup: _real_ men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it”).
I was able to get up and running on Windows 7 within less than an hour. So, good on ya’ Windows. The only thing that I had a problem with was rebooting the system. Apparently the Windows copy I bought did something really spectacular!!
Buying a real version of Windows still seems, to me, like paying for an Operating System with problems. So, I choose the cheapest option I could find for my purposes. I wanted to remote desktop into work, and I wanted to make that remote desktop experience the best possible. Only Windows 7 Ultimate had the feature to remote desktop with multiple displays, so I bought Ultimate (a waste of money for 99% of users). But, I didn’t want to pay full price; so I bought a “System Builders” version. The system builder version comes with a couple of ridiculous stipulations which all boil down to one point: You will NOT get support from Microsoft if something goes wrong. It is about $100 cheaper to buy this version, but if something doesn’t work then you need to be really good with Google.
Of course, I had a problem right off the bat. The System Builders version doesn’t overwrite the MBR. Which means, if you restart the system, it will use your old MBR and hang if that MBR doesn’t point to anything usable. Since I had Ubuntu installed before, the MBR was a GRUB loader and pointed to a non-existent partition (since I erased/overwrote all the partitions with the Windows install).
If you have Linux installed on the system, your normal boot sector won’t be overwritten. That makes the “System Builders” version of Windows the perfect installer for dual-boot users. Unfortunately, I wasn’t trying to be a dual-boot user. So, after some searching on the Microsoft website I was able to find a MBR installer. The searching only took about 20 minutes (about 1/10th the amount of time it takes to solve a linux problem), so I was pretty happy with the easy install and quick fixes.
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