Newbie to Linux - disgusted with Windows
Hi all-
I have been a long time Microsoft user (before PC's had hard drives!) but my increasing frustration with Microsoft hit an all time low when I bought an AMD 64 3200 CPU and MSI motherboard, a Maxtor SATA hard drive,half a Gig of PC3200 RAM and XP Pro X64 OS - thinking I was finally going to get the lightning fast speed I always dreamed about -WAS I EVER WRONG! The first thing I noticed is most of the apps I run (nothing esoteric) do not run in 64 bit mode - and apparently do not plan to! Interesting enough Microsoft does have a built in 32 bit emulator - if your lucky and your app happens to work under it - some of mine didn't! But my biggest surprise was finding out that my HP 7550 Photosmart printer (ever heard of that small company called HP?) has decided in its infinite wisdom NOT to write any X64 MS drivers for my printer. I was completely blown away! And their "workaround" to this small problem....install a Deskjet 900 series 32 bit driver! This is coming from the the biggest printer manufacturer in the world!!
I could go on for hours about the incredulous situations I found myself in, discovering the total lack of 64 bit support - both hardware drivers and 64 bit applications that are inexplicably absent - but the bottom line is I finally decided to investigate the "new guy" on the block and check out Linux. To say it was an eye opener would be a gross understatement! What a pleasant surprise! I flipped a coin to see what "Distro" to use and decided on Suse 10.0. It installed flawlessly, detected my network (after I bypassed my router) and surprise of surprises - I now have a printer to print with!
I am still climbing the steep hill called "the learning curve" and have lots to learn about Linux - or maybe just a lot to forget about Microsoft - but I am here to stay.
Thats why I am here. Just a Newbie trying to learn new tricks.
Tom
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