From Iloilo, I brought my laptop I bought from my cousin (of course in easy installment payment), with me. It’s MSI VR 340, Intel Dou Core, 2 GB, and 80 GB. I started to tinker it, as a normal response for someone who has a new gadget, and exploring its capabilities. Originally, it had a Windows XP OS Service Pack 1. It was working fine, the audios, the videos (with all the codecs I need), and the internet, both wireless and regular connection. I was quite satisfied by its capabilities, fast in terms of the response time I need.
Windows XP is fine with me because I did not encounter any major issues or bugs while using it for almost 6 years (excluding the times when I have to install several updates from different service packs). However, I was reminded by the news of Microsoft that they already stopped manufacturing XP OS installers as well as beginning to eradicate its presence in the market. It means that they are slowly replacing the XP OS with Vista OS. This brought certain indecisiveness in me and I was not sure if I would maintain the XP OS of my notebook or replace it with new one. As I learned from several programmer friends, Vista OS has several bugs and issues when it comes to the operability of other softwares. It has also high security measures and it’s difficult for the users to install unregistered or uncertified softwares. Well, of course these are programmer points of view. It means they are having difficulty in cracking and getting through the mainframes of the OS. On one hand, I considered the experience of common users with Vista OS.
I had a discussion with Pow and he mentioned that Vista was working fine. One of our friends, Jay was using Vista OS in his notebook (same model as mine) and it was working perfectly. I decided to visit them to borrow the bootleg installer and would run it in my notebook also. But before I went to their apartment, I borrowed an XP Service Pack 3 installer from the IT Department as a back-up if in case the Vista thing wouldn’t work in my machine.
When I arrived in their apartment, as a usual routine we did not start to work on the OS replacement, but instead we had coffee first and some chit chat on things we know about this topic. Pow offered me to try Ubuntu first and if I wouldn’t like it I would have the Vista installed in my machine.
So, we installed Ubuntu. It was a short process and in around 20-30 minutes I had a dual OS in my notebook. I could work on both Windows XP OS (my original OS) and Linux Ubuntu OS. Upon completion of the installment, I explored the capabilities of Ubuntu. I started with the internet connection. At first, it worked fine. The wireless connection worked well and could perfectly browse through the net. Then, I checked its programs and I was quite satisfied. I already had an experience with Ubuntu from my previous housemate. Ren Gabas, a computer science major, would rather use Ubuntu than any OS manufactured by Microsoft because it’s an open source OS and you could do several tinkering its main codings/mainframes. Sometimes I would borrow his machine and I had no choice but to live with the Ubuntu OS. Now, that I had it in my machine, I was pretty satisfied.
Yes I was already satisfied because I have both OS’s in my machine. If I needed to work on things for the office I can easily switch to XP. However, while we were in the middle of exploring it the wireless connection suddenly malfunctioned. We worked on restoring the connection, uninstalling and re-installing the 802.11g driver (6877 WLAN Driver), checking the connection point/router, and some other tech checks. We already did everything. We speculated that there was something wrong with my driver. We had to try it outside or on any other wireless access point as to test if it was really my driver or it was the configuration of Pow’s wireless router.
Unsettled, I asked Pow to clear everything and we had to install Vista. And let’s see if the wireless would work. So cleared both partitions of the hard drive, removed both Windows XP and Ubuntu and installed Windows Vista. It was a long process, so we decided to eat outside while waiting for the completion of the installment process. So we had fried chicken in Tropical Hut Shaw Boulevard. When we returned the process was almost complete. After few minutes I already had the Vista in machine. We re-installed the drivers and some other needed codecs for the whole thing to work perfectly. We immediately tried the wireless and it was not working. There was something wrong with everything. We scoured to internet, using Jay’s laptop, for any available tip or procedure that would fix our problem. We tried everything but still the wireless internet connection wouldn’t function. We gave up and it was already early in the morning. Before I went home to Makati, Pow and I had breakfast in their apartment delivered by Jollibee.
When I got to my aunt’s house in Makati, I proceeded directly on my desktop machine. I had to fix it because it was infected by a certain scandal virus. My cousin is the culprit of this virus. For 5 years my desktop machine was not infected by any virus (even though it doesn’t have any anti-virus) when it was still under my helm. But when I handed it over to my cousin, in two weeks it was infected. Sometimes, people just simply don’t know how to get through their way to new technology. I considered my desktop machine as my partner for years and I always made sure that it would be free of any bugs or virus.
With my Windows XP SP 3 from the office, clean state (after reformatting), I installed the new OS in my desktop machine. After several hours, my desktop machine is working perfectly well again. As a last leg of troubleshooting, I installed the DSL internet connection.
Then, I started to work back on my notebook. I uninstalled the Vista OS and started, on clean state, replacing it XP SP3. I also removed the partition of the hard drive and reinstated the space as one drive (instead of two partitioned drive as it appears in the system). I thought everything would be okay, that would not encounter any issue until I checked the audio. It was not working. I can’t hear any sound from the notebook, not a minute decibel of sound. That was something weird. So I went online again through my desktop machine checking on how to troubleshoot the problem from the internet. Dismayed, I learned that Windows XP SP3 has several issues with the audio. There are missing supports for Realtek HD driver. Kb888111xpsp3 component is missing and it would be difficult for me to fix it.
For almost 24 hours I had been wrestling with these different OS’s. Windows XP SP1, SP3, Ubuntu and Vista. My body could feel the exhaustion already. I guessed it’s better for me to take some rest. So I decided to end my romance with these OS’s. Now, that the desktop machine is working perfectly, I could put off the 100% operability of my notebook for tomorrow. After-all I would be going to the office and would seek the guidance of IT people.
I slept for more than 10 hours.
That’s the romance I had with Windows and Ubuntu.
What’s the fuss with these OS’s? For certain people it doesn’t really matter much. But for me, it was a great experience. At least I got to learn the ins and outs of installing an operating system. As I told Pow, our generation and after us, are actually lucky to have things as user/consumer friendly. You can fix and install things by just clicking the “OK”, “Continue” and “Finish” buttons. We don’t need standard programming routines to install certain program. We don’t need to go through the complicated steps or process before you can have something working, just like they were doing before. We are lucky to have everything by just simply clicking the mouse.
My story doesn’t end here. I have not mentioned yet my thoughts on these OS’s, my perceptions of them, things that we can improve and the future that awaits them.
For now, I have to stop here for I have other work to do.
I still have several thoughts that I need to put in writing and they would be the content of my succeeding write-ups.
Below are the next topics that I am going to write here:
1. My Romance with the Microchips 2: Random Thoughts (Part 3 of My Romance with the 21st Technologies) – I will explore my thoughts on the upcoming OS’s here integrated with the coming of age technologies like Haptic and Nootic.
2. P(f(a)): S --> L; The Mapping of Love to System through French Apple Pie – some of my thoughts during our coffee klatsch in CBTL Tomas Morato.
3. My Romance with Space Propulsions (Part 4 of my Romance with the 21st Technologies) – I will explore my thoughts here on the space age of human beings, and the efforts that are currently invested to come up with new space craft design and propulsion design.
4. Review: Ancestor’s Tales by Richard Dawkins
5. Review: Saga of the Seven Suns by Kevin J Anderson
6. Origin of the First Born (extension of Anderson’s elementals)
7. Of Arrow and Caret (some current thoughts on mathematics)
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