Sorry Bill

I've had a fair few days off lately, so I decided to buckle down and finally sort out Becky's laptop, which has been in dire need of a good kicking since about 2004. To this end I did the sensible thing and tried to reinstall Windows XP on the thing, which went about as well as can be expected from the lil' machine.

However, as with all things computer, I faced a problem the product key thing Microsoft ask you for. I put it in. Apparently, it was wrong. So I tried the one on the bottom of the laptop itself. Also wrong, the blue screen told me, and if Windows could smirk.. it would have been. So, firing up the PC I knew worked fine (Yup, mine :P ), I went off to internetsville to find a solution. Find it I did, and it involved ringing up Microsoft to get a new key.

Now, apparently this is a painless procedure, but knowing what I know about ringing people up to sort out something simple, I know for a FACT that I'll be stuck in 'Hold Please' Hell for 3 hours after pressing all sorts of buttons to tell them what I'm after. When I finally get through, they'll ask me what the problem is, negating the whole button bashing thing I did in the first place. All of this adding up to a £30 phone call I could have done without. Plus, I had a sneaky suspicion that this key was going to cost me. Selling Microsoft stuff at work, I knew that was not going to be cheap either. I pondered my situation. I was stuck either way. What could I do?

So, I did some more research. Then a bit more. I thought about what we use the laptop for, altering my search accordingly. Then it hit me. I'm a rocker. Rockers stick it to The Man. Bill is The Man.

I'm posting this on my rejuvenated, quicker than ever Linux laptop. Yup, this week, which I've nicknamed 'Linux Week' has been all about figuring out the whats whys and wherefores of Linux. It's a bit different to Windows, but then I expected as much. I'm still figuring stuff out on it, but so far I've managed to find all the stuff I was using on Windows anywhoo, such as Open Office and the Gimp.

I'm actually quite geekilly exited about the whole thing too. I reckon it'll be good for my book writing, since I know none of my Windows games will work now, making it a dedicated work machine. It's running rather nicely too, unlike my car, which sits still in a sorry state in front of the flat. That's for another day though. For now, I think I might start writing up some of my book notes...