sholsinger.com

So far, my experience with the Windows 7 Beta is one of several failed attempts. Each and every time I have attempted to install it, the install has failed. The first time, I realized that the DVD drive I was using was faulty. The next time I attempted to install it I discovered later that the blue screen I saw during setup was caused by my video card being faulty. (more on that later) I have yet to attempt an install within a VM, although I recently installed VirtualBox on my Macbook, so perhaps I shall give it a shot. I also have Xen running on a server here in the office, so if I get a chance I'll try that too.

On a related note, due to my hardware issues lately, I decided to make the leap and buy a Macbook. I purchased the base 2.0GHz model, with 2GiB of DDR3. I shall eventually be upgrading it to 4GiB and will likely be installing a larger hard drive. I will be using this PC as my main development device and I'll be using it with dual monitors while in the office. I love how simple the dual monitor configuration is with Leopard. It just works, and it does it so well. When you disconnect a monitor, everything moves to the remaining monitor and reconnecting it puts everything back where you want it in dual monitor mode. This is something that the Linux / x.org community needs to take a look at because "dual head" is a serious problem under every modern linux distro I've used. I ran Ubuntu 8.04 for about 10 months before my video card crapped out.

To me, this just means I need to focus more on maintaining my hardware. I always try to reuse things, unfortunately, sometimes, when people give PC parts away, it is because there is a genuine problem. Other times, they're just fed up with the re-formatting every six months thing. Unfortunately for me, this time it is because there is actually a hardware problem with the PC I set up for the girls downstairs. So when I get my video card issues resolved, they'll be getting a shiny new PC for downstairs. Complete with HDMI with HDCP, and a shiny dual-core 2.53GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 with 4GiB of DDR2 800. Now all we need is a display or TV capable of utilizing the HDMI input.