An Exercise in Patience

Friday afternoon I found myself with not a whole lot to do, so I thought I would do something "fun" at work...I installed Windows XP on a laptop at work, without using our LAN. I had an install CD (for use with HP Laptops only) and found an old HP laptop (PIII, 500 mhz 128 meg RAM) and began the install. Now the install only took about an hour, but the SP2 and all the patches (which I had on my USB stick) took about 4 more hours to install. I guess that 500 mhz and 128 of RAM (which are near the minimum needed to run WinXP) is not very a wise choice if you are in a hurry.

Actually, I was giving the laptop a test to see how good the battery was. I have a the same machine (Omnibook 4150) but it is a 633 mhz, 256 meg RAM running Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) and it took not nearly that long to install the linux OS and all the patches. To be fair, I tried to install the same 6.10 on the slower, less powerful machine at work and the install would not even begin to work. Oh well. MS has the advantage on that one.

I have been tracking what my friend Knightmare has been doing with his "30 Days of Linux" blog and it appears he has been busy. I am impressed by his dedication in giving this OS (Ubuntu 6.10) a full workout. Check out his progress by using the link on the right, entitled, "Knightmare". It is a good read.