Windows life is good

Message ID: 392760

Posted By: deepdistrust

Subject: Windows life is good

I try and avoid storing large amounts of paper, by scanning all the stuff that I think I might need in future. A lot of that is sensitive information, and I used to encrypt it through loopback encryption when I was a Linux user. When I switched from Mandrake to Suse, the encrypted file became unmountable. Apparently, Suse doesn't support AES256 encryption for loopback devices, unless you fiddle with the kernel through outside patches. As anybody that used Linux for any length of time would tell you, applying outside patches to kernel is a really bad idea. You can no longer apply official Suse patches (including security patches, which are quite frequently issued, I might add) after that. 

Is this brain-dead or what? You have this supposedly open system you are using to avoid the Microsoft "lock-in", and you are now a victim of your "distro" maker's lock-in. Linux life is like that. Each "distro" introduces changes, some subtle, some not so subtle, that will keep you chained to the "distro". Vanilla kernel is almost never used. There are few standards, and "distro" makers have a vested interest in not adhering to what little standards there are. It is a mess. Perfect interoperability is a geek dream. Commercial entities always do enough things to distinguish their product from rival product. In the case of Linux, even the geeks engage in unwitting sabotage (for ego reasons?). One look at the plethora of Linux sound subsystems tells you all need to know about how little Linux geeks value interoperability or user convenience. It is mindnumbingly stupid.

Life on Windows is just great. There is this great encryption program called truecrypt. It does everything for you through GUI, and you are not slaving on the command line mounting and unmounting things. The encrypted filesystem appears as just another local drive, and everything works as expected. Apparently, you can use truecrypt on Linux too, but installation is a pain (as most program installation is, on Linux).

Linux is all hype and no substance. Almost any measure you want to apply (other than availability of source code to fiddle with on your own, which you will rarely want to do, anyway), Windows is a *lot* better. Microsoft is a truly great software company, a real rarity.

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