Another windows PC bites the dust

The list of purchased but not used Windows licenses continues to grow....

The kitchen laptop, a DEll D400 with 1gig ram, 40gig hd and 11" screen has now been converted to Ubuntu. It has been used the last few years as a replacement for the daily newspaper. Google News is vastly preferable to the local rag. I get to read the Washington Post, the National Post and the Yarmouth Vanguard while having breakfast. Out of laziness it was running windows xp because that is what came with it. Besides the worry of viruses and malware, windows was old and lacked the stuff i needed and use. While it doesn't have great speakers it would be useful to be able to play some of the many tunes in the media center. I did a test of the xbmc client running on windows and then thought if i was going to do that i might as well go the whole hog.

First task was to backup the important stuff - no not the programs or the OS and any data is on the server anyway but the bookmarks, passwords, cookies, form fill data and all the other stuff in Firefox. I use the excellent FEBE extension which creates backups. I backed up to a USB stick and then away we go...

A hour later it was goodbye XP and hello Ubuntu 9.10 - unfortunately the wireless did not work but getting the updates fixed that problem. Installed the FEBE extension and restored the Firefox data and away we go...The window environment is so much nicer and all my stuff is available. Next to install the xbmc client.

This got me thinking about how much i am forced to spend on windows licenses i don't need and don't want. A lot of people are in the same fix as microsoft forces vendors to include windows on their machines or else it will yank their windows license. Very few allow you to substitute linux for windows. Just looking around the room i see:

• Dell D400 - came with windows xp now running ubuntu
• Dell 1520 - came with Vista, now running ubuntu
• Dell 470 - came with windows 2000, now running ubuntu
• Dell 620 - came with windows xp, now running freenas
• Dell mini9 - came with windows xp, now running ubuntu
• Acer Revo - was supposed to ship with windows xp...now running ubuntu
  
• Mac pro - does not run windows but i'm thinking of vmware...
• Macbook - does not run windows
• G4 Tower - runs apple OS9

There is one machine left running xp and you would not believe the problem i had re-installing xp - their 'genuine advantage' program had some problem and so i had to use the telephone of all things to call a number and get a long code to type in. It was such a pain. Had to do the same thing when i tried vista for a day...

I have a banker's box filled with unused microsoft software. They sell lots for sure, wonder how much sits unused and unloved...