A near-dalliance

Confession time: I almost installed Windows XP on this office computer today. The circumstances were these:

1. I had just installed a new graphics card on this machine. As to why I bought it in the first place, read on.

2. I had just bought a few games from Good Old Games, namely Freespace and Freespace 2. I really wanted to try them out.

3. I had also bought a SpaceNavigator PE, to try with Google Sketchup and Google Earth.

4. I might need to install a webcam on this computer so my Mom can Skype with my Dad.

5. As an instructor of Ateneo de Davao University, I can legally install Windows on my machine for, er, instructional and testing purposes.

Picture now an Angel Me and Devil Me whispering in my ear.

Devil Me: "Go ahead, install Windows. Life will be so much easier. You can play games! Games!"

Angel Me: "No! Stay away! Think of all that you've stood for!"

Devil Me: "Ga-aaames! Ga-aaaaaaaames!"

Sadly, I gave in to the temptation. I wiped out my old Ubuntu partition to make way for my legal copy of Windows XP. I had been planning a reinstall of Ubuntu, anyway, with an upgrade to Jaunty and a downgrade to 32-bit, for application support reasons. My intention was to dual-boot this machine, hoping to heavens I wouldn't fall into the trap of spending more time on Windows.

I needn't have worried, really.

Windows XP wouldn't install.

Heaven knows I tried several times, even repartitioning the disk with Gparted. The installer just kept complaining it couldn't use the disk. Heh. I guess a close-to-ten-year-old operating system just can't hack it on new hardware anymore.

Eventually I gave up. In contrast, installing Jaunty on this machine was a breeze. And I didn't have to feel guilty about it.

Yup, Windows is just too darned difficult.