In Transition

I am entering a transition period again and as usual I am procrastinating. Technically things should be flowing smoothly now but the way events are coming together everything seems to effect everything else.

Right now I am cleaning up my old computer and may even remove the whole Linux partition before I clean up the Windows one. The Linux will be the easy part. I can do more in the Windows so I will.

I have used a dual boot computer for two years and it will be odd using only Windows. I don't plan on adding the Linux unless I have problems or just hate XP. I have had fun learning and it helped me use this computer longer, but I can adapt. I just want a machine that does the jobs I give it to do.

I thought of moving to a Mac and if OS X was truly workable for PCs I might buy it and run that. Operating Systems aside I learned two things while using Linux. The importance of stability and the need for usable software.

Stability is very important - I shouldn't have to reboot my computer every time a program or website misbehaves. I had very few stability problems when using Linux. The biggest pain was viewing a Flash site in Firefox. My browser didn't crash often but it did enough times to be a pain.

Software is also problematic. I could find alternatives to most Windows programs but there were some I had problems with. The worst things were multimedia programs that used newer Windows or Mac codecs. I stopped trying to view some videos because of having bad luck with Quicktime or Windows Media.

The computer changeover is only one aspect of my transition. The other is my coming birthday. Birthdays don't bother me much anymore. June 3rd is just like any other day for me except for the fact that I was born. I do try to have a little celebration but this year my present (the computer) came early. Now I have to decide what I want to do on "my day".

My birthday seems like a deadline. After helping a friend make some changes I have been thinking about what I want to do. At this time I don't have a clear picture of what I want yet. Sometimes I get frustrated.

So I am in transition again. Things will be unsettled for a while but they will balance out in the end. They always do.