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How One Small Business Switched to Ubuntu
firenurse writes to point out a story in The Inquirer about how one small business switched to Ubuntu. It describes a maddening comedy of errors, a series of circular screw-ups among Microsoft, HP, and a RAID vendor. From the article: "You never quite wrap your head around how anti-consumer Microsoft's policies are until they bite you in the bum. Add in the customer antagonistic policies of its patsies, HP in this case, and vendors like Promise, and you have quite a recipe for pain. Guess what I did today?"
Microsoft lost this chain for sure on the server side. If it doesn't think their brain dead policies are costing them money, I am proof positive that they are
Unless he somehow wrangled a refund out of HP for the copy of XP he didn't use, then Microsoft still got paid, thus their "braindead policy" isn't costing them a nickel. They're just making money on a copy of Windows they don't need to support.
On the one hand this guy describes the branch office as "no big deal, done it a thousand times before", then proceeds to use a desktop machine with a 3rd party RAID as a server running XP and is surprised when it didn't work? That's what I don't really get about this article.
I like music
And the reason we don't see more of that is because of Microsoft's historic tendancy to punish (or at least make life difficult for) vendors that try.
Yes, how foolish of me not to have noticed this! All this time I thought the primary reason was the fact that the vast majority of computer buyers aren't interested in machines that have Linux pre-installed...
I love my sig.
Fuck it, I have karma to burn. Have at you!
Of course I'm the same guy! I mean, it couldn't be possible that two people on the whole planet had trouble getting your operating system to install? While following all the guidelines given on the website and in the installer only to find out later that they're wrong? Not noting, of course, that I didn't bother asking anybody for help, thereby invalidating your "crazy sense of entitlement" crack?
It can't be your installer, because nobody earlier in this very same thread admitted that GRUB installer wasn't what the guy should have used, despite it saying "Highly Recommended" right next to it? And you're still trying to maintain this completely insane point of view that he could have done better research into what he was installing?
You can tell us. You're among friends. Are you on drugs or something?
The only point you answered with something other than "Oh, you're the same guy, I don't have to talk to you" was an exercise in pointlessness that was already proved wrong by another Ubuntu user earlier in this thread, and the rest of your post was an exercise in how ironically you can call someone a sarcastic dick while acting like (you guessed it) a sarcastic dick.
Is it any wonder that people think Linux geeks are elitist assholes when you, as a community, allow this smug prick to speak for you?
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
Not that I doubt your experiences, but 'an ASUS motherboard' isn't very much. You could have noted which one, in order to get it supported.
NICs usually work, even built-in ones. See above: which ?
If you really wanted to get it up, a NIC these days os not more than US$ 5. Sure, a cheapo. But not worse than the built-in ones.
A basic sound card (see: built-in ones) is available for not much more. I happen to have a bunch lying around, and would pass one to you.
In short: for a few bucks you could have had it running.
And good luck to get Vista on the Duron, since you consider your experience hit and miss. You might miss and hit.