Why I Love Scott Wells More Than Ever Today

October 19, 2007 on 9:45 am | In Joys and Concerns |

So you know I got a Dell Inspiron 1420 a few months ago and HATED Windows Vista; found it totally unusable. I finally got a techie to replace it with Windows XP again which was costly but worth it.

It looks like there are serious problems. The computer feels a bit like a heart transplant patient — hopeful but not so sturdy. Very vulnerable and needing constant vigilance, like, “I love you, please don’t die.”

Yesterday Dell tried to send me some sort of instant software “update” (more like “screw up”) which interacted badly with my upgraded machine and caused the whole system to go kaflooey. I called tech support just now and they wash their hands of me because I changed the OS. I can understand that. I can also understand why I do not recommend Dell for anyone, ever. How is going back to Windows XP an “upgrade?”
I was a fool not to send that Inspiron back when I got it, but the church year was starting and I was in no position to leisurely shop around.

So I have a huge funeral tomorrow morning for the oldest member of our congregation and here’s why I’m not panicking – Scott Wells recommended to me that I switch to gmail a few months back, and it just so happens that the draft of the memorial service is safely in cyberspace as a Google Document, which means I can access it from this old computer or from my office.

This isn’t how I wanted to spend my day off, but I feel eminently better knowing that at least my most pressing professional obligation is safely in the ether where I can work on it later today, print it out, and not start working an ulcer. As far as everything else goes, I did a back-up on disk just the other day so I’m not feeling much pain except for a massive inconvenience and potential pain in the pocketbook again.

Love ya, butter lamb!! And for the rest of you, you can consider this a little commercial for gmail and Google.

7 Comments »

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  1. I’ve heard nothing but complaints about Vista. Some offices have switched back to XP because of the hit they were taking in productivity. I knew it was bad news when I saw that last year they were hiring for Vista de-buggers, and I saw their debugging rate - something like 3000 bugs per day.

    Comment by h sofia — October 19, 2007 #

  2. I agree.

    I like Scott.

    I hate Vista.

    We hunted around until we found new (unused) but old (manufactured several years ago) laptops that had XP as the OS. Oh, and we use Gmail, too.

    Comment by Louise — October 19, 2007 #

  3. Oh, and now that the new version of Ubuntu Linux is out, there’s more hope for the Microsoft-abandoned.

    Comment by Scott (Boy in the Bands) — October 19, 2007 #

  4. You really might want to think about making the switch to the Mac. It’s not has hard as you imagine (a bit pricey) and the Mac machines just work smoothly. Every day they do exactly what they did yesterday, automated upgrades are seamless and smooth.

    I switched because my ministerial practice is very busy and I need to be able to depend on my equipment. Macs just work. There comes a time when that is WAY more important than the fact that they cost a bit more.

    Best wishes,
    Scot

    Comment by C. Scot Giles — October 19, 2007 #

  5. “… a little commercial for gmail and Google.”

    And a Mac, too, from the sound of it.

    Sorry for your headaches.

    Comment by Peg Schuler-Armstrong — October 19, 2007 #

  6. PB,

    I’ll second Scott Wells’ suggestion to look at Ubuntu Linux. I’ve been using it on my Dell laptop since June 2007. It’s been very stable and very reliable.

    If your Dell laptop has the Intel brand of wireless card, it should work “out of the box” with the latest Linux release (perhaps something that you and Scott could verify with the Ubuntu “live CD”?).

    If your Dell laptop has the more commonly used Broadcom brand of wireless cards, it will take a little more work to get the wireless working on it.

    Good luck with fixing all of this.

    Comment by Steve Caldwell — October 20, 2007 #

  7. YIKES! I read the writing on the wall with Vista and bought myself a Mac.

    So sorry about the Dell. My dad had similar problems.

    Comment by missnell — October 27, 2007 #

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