(At least it sure feels like it.) After several years on using Ubuntu as my go-to operating system at home and on the road I'm recycling a Windows XP box (purchased in 2003) to use as a test web server.
Ooof, what a pain! (I speak in relative terms, of course). It doesn't help that it's been over half a decade since I officially impersonated a system administrator, either. Windows itself installed--albeit slowly due to the older hardware. After installation, I was greeted with an interface that even Playskool would consider "chunky." That's where the handy-dandy Dell driver CD comes in. That thing boots from CD, but because of the monitor resolution--and probably the fact that it leans a little heavily toward "landscape" than it does "portrait"--some of the window is cut off. And by "some" I mean "most," you understand. That included any buttons for installing said drivers--most importantly the video-flavored ones that would let me see the parts of the window that would let me install them.
Sigh.
In the end, it probably took me fifteen minutes to figure out how to even access the video driver files, realize that the driver CD wasn't really "installing" the driver. (Rather, it unzipped a bunch of files--including to the hard drive, where I had to locate the Setup.exe file and run it.) So, once I installed the drivers, rebooted, set the screen resolution to something I could work with, installed the network drivers and rebooted again, spelled out my internet connection information for Windows, it was time to venture out on the internet and grab Service Pack 2 (and hope that no one was prowling my neck of Teh Internets for unpatched systems).
First run at Service Pack 2 didn't go so well--Windows Update basically freaked out on me. At the time of writing, I'm on my second try and it seems to be progressing now. After that, it'll be off to install an Apache Web server, its PHP plugin, the MySQL database server, plus a few amenities for the comfort and convenience of your faithful blogger. If I'm lucky, that'll only chew up the rest of my evening.
Now, I realize that it's not fair at all to compare the 2003 version of Windows XP (customized or no) to the 2010 versions of Ubuntu. I'm too much a Hufflepuff for that. Also, two separate versions of Ubuntu died out somewhere before or during hard-drive reformatting, which basically left me with an oversized patio brick where a PC used to be. (In retrospect, I should have grabbed a Mandrake CD from the same era to see what would happen. Alas, I didn't think of that until just now.) But if there were a comparison to be made between installing a vintage operating system and childbirth--in the sense of forgetting how awful it was until it's too late--this would be an opportune moment.
And thus I find myself down the rabbit-hole, through the looking-glass, or whatever 19th century Brit. Lit. memes my gentle reader cares to resurrect. By which I mean wishing that installing a reasonably secure and usable operating system were a matter of popping a single CD into the drive. Of wistfully thinking of how dropping a web server, PHP support and a database can done by typing one single line of code into a command-prompt. Of having to make a mental note to go into the firewall and punch a hole or two in it for the web server & friends. And--for pity's sake--wishing that this whole process didn't require so darned many iterations and reboots.
Call me spoiled. But whatever you do, don't categorically slag the Linux user experience. At least not when I'm within earshot.
