Up and running ... mostly.

Minutes after my last post, my primary laptop went down to have it backed up, then have a restore image created, then have a new OS put on it. Going from Jaunty Jackalope KDE backend and Gnome frontend to Karmic Koala XFCE front / backend. I lost my pretty pink desktop theme, and several of the GUI quick links take more effort to reset the way I like them, but those are cosmetics that will be tweaked over the next six months ... or longer if I don't upgrade.

What I do like about Linux -- and the thing that made this process painless -- is replacing my program by program settings. Remember those backups I made? I restored my /etc and some of my home folder. Reinstalled AMSN in Synaptic. Went into my new home folder and renamed .amsn to .amsn.fresh and then copy/pasted .amsn from my old home folder to the new one. I fired back up AMSN and it was like I never changed my OS or reinstalled it. CAKE! I did this with GNUCash, Firefox, Thunderbird and more ... what I didn't do it on was Open Office ... because I went from version 2.4 to 3. something I wasn't paying full attention at that point.

I used to freelance as a computer tech before I ever learned of Linux. I would service Macs or Windows machines that were no longer covered by standard warranty, as I never bothered with certification in my younger days. The headache of redoing Windows from scratch for someone that owns 2 or 3 typing programs, 4 accounting programs, 20+ games, AND wants you to not lose any of their work files or saved games if it's at all posible to save. I've done it, I managed to keep 90-95% of everything for them even from a damaged hard drive. It was a three day project. Day one was recovering the Info and doing a fresh install and waiting for them to find that blasted CD key for the install disk. Day two was 100% mind numbing instalation of programs and CD keys and making sure each worked and getting the right drivers. Day three was transferring data to the right locations with no help or documentation. While I can't sit here and say I don't have a Windows machine, I can say that I dread having to reinstall my Windows machine and all I use it for is a couple of games at a time and web browsing to make sure my CSS works on the latest IE.

Pros and Cons

Issue - Linux - Windows

Good Backup - Yes - Maybe

Cheap Backup - Yes - No

Fast Reinstall - Yes - Yes

Fast Update - Yes - No

Fast Reconfigure - Yes - No

User Friendly for New people - Maybe - Yes

Secure - Yes - Maybe

Quality Programs - Few - Many

Quantity of Progrms - Few - Many

Cost of Quality Programs - Free or Cheap - Left Arm and 1st Child

Documentation - Maybe - Maybe

Reliable Networking - Yes - No

There are reasons to use both. My husband uses Mac and Linux for himself but is required to use Windows at work because his company is a Microsoft Partner Company. He primarily works from home because he's a computer programmer and is constantly telling me about how he has to try to connect 2-4 times before Windows networking can "see" the IP he wants to connect to even though it never went anywhere. I personally don't use either of our two Macs much but I'm going to start using one of them at this coming convention.