We are a mostly Mac OS X household.

The only computer running Windows in the house is a old T61 laptop, which I maintain because of certain software (ham radio applications, and geocaching) which I haven’t found replacements for under OS X. That computer is why I am starting this blog.

It is running Windows XP, and for some reason, most likely because I tried to uninstall some of the “productivity” bloatware that Lenovo provides, it has become unstable. The wifi is flaky, at the worst possible moments the keyboard wanders off. Unresponsive. Stone dead. Useless.

But, I know the hardware is okay. A while back I had installed Linux on the machine, with a dual boot setup. In Linux-land the wifi is solid, the keyboard fleet and responsive. Everything works.

Windows XP will be abandoned by Microsoft this coming April, and none of the Macs have working batteries any longer, and besides that hardware is just too expensive for what it is. WIndows 7 maybe okay, but WIndows 8… At work I had to validate some software for operation under Win8, that was quite enough WIn8 for me. So the conclusion I have come to is migrate my personal computing to a Linux machine, and either find replacements for the favorite WIndows based apps. or make them work in a Linux environment. I want to do this by next Spring.

This blog will be a narrative of the adventures along the way to becoming WIndows-free. I have some stories to relate already; starting with a camping trip over the past summer.

Hopefully, reading this will be more engaging than watching Windows install updates, but you never know.

73,

de N2HTT