LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Andrew Dight <thnkfish@arcom.com.au>
  To  : <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 10:16:23 +0930

Re: system rebuild

Thank you for the entertaining read.

As a fellow newbie, I also find the newer releases of Linux (currently
running Mandrake 7.2) to be better than any offering Master Gates and his
cronies have thus far released.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bordeaux Stan" <stan.bordeaux@dchs.tas.gov.au>
To: <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
Sent: Tuesday, 10 April 2001 9:57
Subject: system rebuild


> Hi folks,
>
> After reading a lot of hype how Linux would never be part of the general
> communities preferred OS and that it was for nerds and geeks etc etc and
> that windoze was so easy to install and use blah blah blah...I thought my
> recent experience with a complete hard drive crash may be of interest to
> some of the other linux newbies, and not so newbies, out there.
>
> The story so far...After years of putting up with the M$hite, our intrepid
> adventurer decides to travel to the land of the penguin to see what all
the
> fuss is about.  After many harrowing episodes, too gruesome to recall, our
> weary traveller finally climbs his way to the top of Steep Learning Curve.
> Yes folks, that dreaded mountain so feared by the M$laves who lament that
> tackling this climb is foolhardy and unnecessary as the great god Gate$
has
> provided ease of use and Plug&Play for all his loyal drones.
>
> There, at the foot of Tux, our battered traveller takes a deep breath and
> rests.  Confident in the thought that Gate$ and M$hite are safely locked
> away in dual boot land our convert decides to explore this new land
> inhabited by the great magician Mandrake.  Ahh, but the Black Prince of
the
> Dark Partition, he who sports the feared Blue Screen of Death as his
emblem,
> hasn't given up easily, no not by a mega byte.  Lurking in the shadows,
near
> the mystical region known as the MBR, where the Keeper of The Gate known
> generally as LiLo or, more amusingly, The Grub, resides the Black Prince,
> aided by his cunning right hand man General Command Failure, wait for
their
> opportunity to strike.
>
> Without warning, during the ceremonial ritual that is the reinstall of a
new
> OS, disaster strikes.  Somehow the Black Prince and his god Gate$ smash
> through the MBR spewing their evil bytes and corrupting all that stand in
> their way.  The Keeper of The Gate, despite his most valiant efforts
cannot
> sustain the fight and his land is over run by their most insidious weapon
> that is the Reformat Monster  (eeekkk and shrieek).
>
> Within minutes, all that was good lay in tatters before our bemused
> traveller.  LiLo, or the Grub, has been defeated, the MBR has mysteriously
> vanished and all was lost.   As news of the visit of the Reformat Monster
> spread, how our poor traveller was castigated and  bludgeoned by his once
> loyal family.  "You lost how much of my work?" and "All my precious
windoze
> work is gone, oh how could you".  Suddenly, the spectre of the Great
Divorce
> descended upon our ever valiant explorer.   Nothing for it he muses, and
> looking down at his feet he sees that his shoes have come undone, time for
a
> complete and proper new boot strapping.
>
> And so it was to be.  Well folks all that to tell you that after a
complete
> disk failure and the need to reinstall absolutely everything, I found that
> the M$hite wasn't as smooth sailing as it is made out to be.  Without
going
> into all the specifics the windoze reinstall was a real pain in the
> proverbial.  I had to search the net for a new set of drivers for my video
> card (while working in a max of 16 colors and 640X480 mode).  Plug&Play
> failed to properly recognise my Sony Monitor and configuring my modem was
> also a pain as I couldn't find the original driver disk.  My printer also
> could not be loaded and another search of the net for appropriate drivers.
> Some programs that had been backed up did not go over properly and I had
to
> beg some software to replace some stuff that was lost and could not be
> recognised by M$hite.  The full restore etc and getting some stuff back
> (bugga all really) took the better part of a week!!! This was totally
> unbelievable.
>
> A reinstall of MDK 7.2 took about 40 minutes, with a further 2 hours
> downloading some programs (via a 56K modem) I was up and running in one
> evening. No drivers to find or replace everything was recognised perfectly
> and my video card magically set at 1028X740.  Only my stoopid printer,
which
> is a dinosaur Lexmark doesn't work (but then again it never has).  Now try
> and tell me that M$hite is for the masses and I'll tell you that is all a
> total load of M$hite.  So hang in there newbie types I think it is well
> worth the effort and the stuff I learnt along the way is truly eye
opening.
>
> Cheers
> your weary traveller.
>
>
> Stan Bordeaux
> Injury Prevention Policy Officer
> Public & Environmental Health Service
> 1/34 Davey St
> Hobart 7000
> ph: (03)6233 3774
> fax: (03)6223 1163
> email: stan.bordeaux@dchs.tas.gov.au
>
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