Let’s see, installation problems (had to unplug everything before installing), didn’t recognize PS2 keyboard (!), hung several times during install, then bluescreened while updating over the innertubes.

Started with a clean install, incidentally. The machine started life as a Dell box running Windows XP. Pentium 4, 4GB RAM, 250GB hard drive. Nvidia 7600GT video card. About as vanilla as they come.

Four hours to install. Please, Microsoft, my time is not free.

Then, after all that settled out, Win7 was constantly yakking about memory problems, even when I swapped out the whole 4GB of DDR2. Finally found a technote that cleared that one up. It was a configuration problem with the older memory controller and the particular memory brand, had to upgrade the BIOS, not strictly MS’s fault, though they could have worked around it - XP did, as did Linux.

Another three hours, gone. Hello, Microsoft? Seven hours into this upgrade, and I’m not happy.

So, after it was installed, and running “properly” it was slower than XP on the same hardware, and significantly slower than OpenSuse 11.1 32-bit (which it had been running prior to the OS change).

Painful to browse with, painful to email with, painful to edit business documents with (using MS Office 2007), and, as expected, MS tech support was worse than useless:

“Yes, I have reinstalled the OS. Yes, I have power cycled the machine. Yes, I have run the vendor diagnostics. Yes, I would like to speak with your supervisor. No, I am not happy with either your product or the support you have provided.”

Said machine, without change, is now quite happily running Intrepid Ibex (Ubuntu), and is a joy to surf with, to edit documents, and to read email. Fifteen minutes to install, after booting off of a liveUSB pen. No licensing fees. No hassle. No qualms about throwing good money after bad.

It is now handling some mundane IT activities on my home business network.

Microsoft, how can you screw this up so badly? Do you really expect people to buy new machines every three years? Do you expect that to fly when Linux runs happily (and snappily) on 5 to 10 year old machines?

Sure, you got your license fee, but you also confirmed my long-running experience with each new generation of MS operating systems. Namely, wait until SP2.

No more. I’ll run all MS operating systems, if I have to, in VMs from now on - your direct access to the hardware is *permanently revoked*, Microsoft!

And I will continue to counsel others to avoid MS products.

It looks like I will be forced into Win7 soon as my current game project has a reported bug that is Win7 specific. I can’t say that I am looking forward to it, yet another Microsoft OS headache.

It looks like I would be much better off just buying a new system instead of repurposing one of the many systems I have laying about Casa Sins. I suppose thats the point though, M$ software always assumes that it will be installed on new systems and the “upgrade path” is given the short end of the stick. I bet the M$ profit margin is higher when sold to OEMs versus the retail box.

Maybe it wont be so bad, I’ll just buy the cheapest Win7 system available and use it ONLY to test stuff. I have an XP system and a Vista System at Casa Sins that is used solely to test stuff (I play Lineage II on the Vista System and compile products on the XP system), so what trouble is yet another system dedicated to Micro$oft’s OS nightmare?

BTW: This was posted from my Mac.

If you like your insurance, you can keep it:

Sec. 202 (p. 91-92) of the bill requires you to enroll in a “qualified plan.” If you get your insurance at work, your employer will have a “grace period” to switch you to a “qualified plan,” meaning a plan designed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. If you buy your own insurance, there’s no grace period. You’ll have to enroll in a qualified plan as soon as any term in your contract changes, such as the co-pay, deductible or benefit.

It isn’t going to cost you more:

An individual earning $44,000 before taxes who purchases his own insurance will have to pay a $5,300 premium and an estimated $2,000 in out-of-pocket expenses, for a total of $7,300 a year, which is 17% of his pre-tax income.

What about those Illegals?

Sec. 59b (pp. 297-299) says that when you file your taxes, you must include proof that you are in a qualified plan. If not, you will be fined thousands of dollars. Illegal immigrants are exempt from this requirement.

Figures, you go to jail the person here Illegally isn’t. The Illegal is probably getting better healthcare than you as well.

Go read the whole thing for more…

NO!

No, it couldn’t be my story and I’ll tell you why.

Because I am an American, and I wouldn’t have anywhere to go. The ONLY reason the Canadian System can exist is because Canadians (like the woman in the video) can escape the system by crossing the border to the south and get care that is denied them in Canada. If we get ObamaCare™, where would we Americans go for the care that will be denied? Where will the current flow of Canadians go?

NOWHERE, THAT’S WHERE!

Well.. that’s not entirely true… We would go to our beds (or Lay-Z-Boys) and wait for our family to get our painkillers until the pain and boredom finally send us to our (early) graves.

I guess that’s the point, isn’t it?

I get the impression that the Windows 7 launch is a lot like seeing an old girlfriend suddenly show up on your doorstep wanting to get back together. She’s had some work done, apparently: stomach stapling to take off some of the weight, breast augmentation, and a radical nosejob to make her look as much like your current girlfriend as medical science will allow.