Woe’s for Windows

So, I’m back in the Service Center for a few days because the regular employee is on vacation.  I use exclusively Ubuntu Linux on my laptop.

All of the computers that come in run some version of Windows or occasionally a Mac.  I have seen them range from Windows 3.1 to Vista with everything inbetween.  Some of the things are hardware related; most things are Windows with spyware/virus/malware causing the oh-so-infamous my-computer-is-running-really-slow syndrome.

Sometimes the fix is data backup with a clean wipe and reload.  Sometimes they don’t have their Office CD or license key or whatever and don’t want it reloaded so you have to scan and try to manually get rid of what they have.

Once you have the OS installed, that’s half the battle.  Next comes drivers.  Chipset, graphics card, audio, video, network, modem, etc.  Now, before you enter the internets (yes, with an s.  Why?  Why not.), you have to make sure they have some sort of antivirus or antispyware that’s installed, running all the time to make sure something doesn’t slip in, and automatically updating or you’re in the same boat as before.   Once those are installed comes Windows Updates.

This particular computer went as follows:

• 2 Updates.
• Restart.
• 1 Update.
• Restart.
• 118 Updates (some of these required babysitting [clicking "Okay" or "I accept" to any license agreements so it didn't finish automatically]).
• …an hour later: Restart.
• Service Pack 3 (again, needed babysitting).
• Restart.
• 2 Updates.
• Restart.
• Yes, Norton, always allow Internet Explorer (shudder) to connect to the internet.

And finally:  restore the customer’s data.

Now, stay off Limewire, adult sites, and MySpace.  You should be okay.  Off you go.

Man, do I appreciate Linux.