not my blog

So I downloaded and installed the new BitDefender Beta on my laptop the other day. Seems like an OK product, but it’s not for me. Even though it is still in Beta the fact that it currently doesn’t support DHCP seems kinda stupid. How many people really run their home networks with Static IPs, especially on a Laptop that they take everywhere and put into all sorts of dirty situations. There were just a bunch of annoying little things, like no option to NOT install the Parental Controls (I like the pr0n on occassion). I’m a grown adult and should be able to do whatever I want on the net without some program saying no. There was also this little graph that pops up whenever you launch the computer.

Overall I’d give the new BitDefender Beta a “C” for now. Seems like a decent enough product, but it’s just not for me. So I’m off to playing with the new Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0 for the next 30 days. Of course, I really want to try the new Nod32 Suite when it arrives, but rumor holds that won’t be till end of summer at best.

Ok, after playing with Vista for an hour or so today I realized that it is the latest evolution in the Microsoft “we’re smarter than you” campaign. The damn OS won’t let you do a damn thing without confirming your actions at least TWICE! My god, all I want to do is use the freaking computer! Yes, I wanted to do what I just told you to do, that’s why I said for you to do it! ARGH…

Oh and did I mention a default install with nothing running uses up almost 400MB of RAM? Ridiculous. Just another reason that Ubuntu is sounding better and better every day.

So I was bored this evening and decided I wanted to finally bother playing with Vista. So I went about setting up a Virtual Server and went to town installing the OS. The installer has to be PE based just from seeing the way it boots (just makes me think of all those Linux LiveCD Installers), and they have performed a miracle (at least for Windows) in the install process of allowing you to load drivers without needing a floppy! Hooray!

Beyond that, it’s interesting to see that the product key is the very first thing that must be input to begin the installation. I guess it is a good thing, I’d rather know the key is bad at the start, rather than having to wait 20+ minutes to find out that it’s a bad key. Initially had some issues with getting the Virtual HD formatted, but I might attribute that to all the work my machine is doing in the Disk I/O department at this moment, and not neccesarily Vista’s fault. The more I interact with this install process the more and more it just feels Linux like, not that it is a bad thing, but as always Microsoft is playing catch up.

A few clicks later and I get the “Windows will finish installing automatically” message and wander off to get a drink. And then take out the trash… and then make some dinner (scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese and salsa). And then I went out to the store to get some more to drink, and then came the Halo session. (Note, this is again most likely because all actions were taking places on a set of mirrored 160GB SATA drives, that contain both the VM Hard Drive, the CD image, and the tunes playing on the system). Finally, after a couple games of CTF, we are ready for more input.

Created my user, and named the PC, selected the “Monkey User” setting, set the clock and I was ready to go! Hit the “Start” button and wait. No, I haven’t really gotten to play with it yet, just installed… maybe tomorrow, in the mean time though I got my cherry popped.

Read a blog post by Michael Righi about how Dell wanted to charge him $49 to remove their pre-installed MyWay Search Assistant. Michael, the solution is simple… C:\format c: /yes

Once the drive has been wiped clean, reinstalled with clean version of OS (notice I said OS… not Windows), not containing said crapware. Configure machine properly with good solid tools and programs. Enjoy.