Linux vs. Windows: It's all relatives

ROSE Blog: Rikki's Open Source Exchange

My 12-year-old daughter, Cleo, received a brand spanking new Flip camera for Christmas. Unfortunately, it was a little anticlimactic for her because nothing happened when she plugged it into the Acer Aspire One she received for her birthday in October.

I was mentally prepared for this hurdle and told Cleo that I'd figure it out while she was off visiting her grandparents in Houston. I hoped that with the growing popularity of both the Flip camera and Linux netbooks, someone would have a quick little fix or workaround for this incompatibility issue.

The day after Christmas, I drove Cleo through an ice storm to the Kansas City airport for her 9:55AM flight, which was delayed by two hours, over and over again. Finally, we decided to drive to my stepfather's house, which is conveniently located 20 minutes from the airport. I had visions of napping in my head, but first I decided to check the airline's website for flight updates. My 21-year-old sister, Kate, offered to share her college-loaner Windows laptop, but she warned me that it was going slow and something wasn't working right.

A couple of hours later, and with the help of Ad-Aware and Clamwin, I'd lassoed 310 "infections" and a virus.

"Have you considered reading our magazine?" I asked Kate. Sheesh. Kids these days.

As I finished lecturing my sister, my stepfather walked into the kitchen with his Windows laptop. "I think something's wrong with mine, too," he told me. Sure enough, pop-up ads started popping up faster than flights were getting grounded at KCI. I told my stepfather that he'd need to call in a professional because we were headed back to the airport... and I suggested that he consider moving to Linux. Sheesh. Parents these days.

On Saturday afternoon, the spouse, dog, and I headed to Tulsa for a night on our way to Austin. I called my friend, Thom, to tell him we were on the road and would arrive in Tulsa by dinner time. When Thom answered the phone, I asked him how things were going in Tulsa. He replied, "Not too good. I just got the blue screen on my wife's laptop and she's going to be mad."

So the Flip doesn't just plug and play on Linux...yet. That's just a minor inconvenience compared to what's going wrong with Windows.

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