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Reinstalling Windows and Linux: The Agony and the Ecstasy

Last weekend, instead of doing funky things with my web server and my Linux box, I ended up reinstalling Windows ME out of the fear that a virus had infected it. The signs were palpable enough; programs were not starting, browsers were crashing, strange error messages were appearing everywhere and the monitor started doing strange things. I did a little research and concluded that a total reinstall was called for.

So I backed up my data on my linux file partition and went ahead. Actually, I completed it in record time (I'd reinstalled at least 4 or 5 times before). I'd already learned tricks and shortcuts for installing. And everything went perfect until I installed MS Office, which never seemed to complete. I tried over and over to install it, but it was hanging, and error messages warned not to interrupt the install or face dire consequences.

It's interesting how used we get to a painless install. The CD automatically starting up, the dialogue box warning us to close all programs, the dialogue box at the end happily announcing that everything was done successfully or that we should reboot. There is a tradeoff. For convenience we sacrifice the luxury of being able to view the raw config files or configure one of a million options. Most people would find this to be a very good deal, but in the Linux world, where one needs to compile almost everything from source, one appreciates the ability to do all kinds of tweaks or command switches to it.

I used to complain about Linux's ease of use (and still do), but at least I go on without illusions. In the Windows, one expects everything to work, and if not, that someone will be available by phone to tell you what to do. My version of Windows ME and Office had academic licenses, so that wasn't an option for me. Instead I relied on newsgroups, or google; or if you wish to see examples of my stupidity. Most of the time if you can come up with precise enough search terms, you can find a good list of solutions from people all over the world, but if the problem is vague, or if you can't describe it well, then all you can do is post your problem and wait two days. I've found that the postings that are most likely to receive a response are those with a subject line asking a simple question. Even if I don't find the answer, I often find an answer, or several answers.

For example, I figured out that part of my problem was that I had installed additional memory, and Windows ME maxxes out at 512 MB. But if I changed configuration files, everything would be okay. And things did improve. And then I had to solve a bug related to Norton System Disk (an awful piece of software coupled with terrible tech support). And so MS Office still works erratically, but at least I solved two major problems underlying everything.

I don't mean to bore you with these details, but it is the curse of anybody in the IT field to have to go through this hell. They live in fear of power outages, losing a backup or general system failure. (And I do also, I have to admit). A real IT person can talk enthusiastically about incremental backups or uninterruptible power supplies or boot disks. Stabilility and redundancies are key virtues in that realm. You see, IT people know a secret: it is a miracle that any program does what it's supposed to do without the user messing it up.The best thing a user can do, in that person's mind, is DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!!!