Random Thoughts

Vicki Davis has a heartfelt post about Vista and how it has disrupted her mother’s life. I am sure you’ve read it already, but if you haven’t, please do.

I have been thinking a lot about Vista lately because several people in my family are to the point where they need new computers. My son-in-law, currently running PCLinuxOS, needs a new computer badly, but he doesn’t want to get Vista until they get it working better. I was hoping he would be “converted” to Linux before this old computer died completely, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. And even if he was converted, it’s hard to convince someone they should wipe out everything that comes on a new computer and replace it with something else right away.

I’m also in the market for a new computer — maybe. My Acer seems to have died again — one month after the 90 day warranty on the new motherboard they installed in January expired. For me the decision is a little easier. I am committed to Linux. There is no question of giving Vista a try. But I still have the question of getting a new one and wiping out Vista, buying a used one and installing Linux, or buying a machine with Linux pre-installed.

Buying a computer isn’t as huge a decision as it was 20 years ago, but it is still something that requires thought and planning.

The other day, my daughter who lives in Oakland called and told me her laptop had died. What is it with McKeand family computers? She needs a computer and access to programs for work, so I suppose she will go out and buy a new one, but I don’t know for sure. But it really seems almost impossible that in the space of 6 weeks or so we could have 6 computers go bad.

In the space of 15 days, three computers in my daughter’s house have crashed or suffered some type of serious meltdown. My son-in-law’s machine went down as he was trying to finish his last assignments for the semester. Knoppix saved the day — and his papers. Then the day before I was to return to Louisiana I discovered that my laptop was dead. Well, at least there was nothing other than a light glowing telling me it was plugged in and charged. Knoppix wouldn’t do anything for it. It is on its way back to Acer as I write this.

An hour ago I got a call from my daughter telling me that her desktop had crashed. Fortunately, a Knoppix disk proves that the machine has at least some life in it. Hopefully she will be able to get the data off of it, and then she can decide what she wants to do.

But what are the odds of that happening? They seem astronomical, but maybe I am wrong.