Windows Vista does not like Linux

The reasons for running a windows operating system are many and varied, of course. The saying that pros should chuck Windows out of the door is fine when you make a point in the company of good friends, but when you want to productive – particularly when you want to share some computer related information – then your need to run Windows becomes apparent.

I mean, have you explained to a client how to set up an Ethernet card without explaining it in Windows-speak? It is an adventure fraught with commercial dangers, I can tell you. So, you use Windows. And so, I want to keep Windows on my machine, in this case the new fangled little toy called Windows Vista.

Being fairly computer literate is a danger, just as it is a danger to be intelligent in most respects. The mistakes of intelligent people tend to be much more hurtful, and have much greater consequences, than for the drooling idiots who do not have the confidence to find their way out of a shoebox.

In some circumstances in computing it is then better to be a perfect noob because perfect noobs have a healthy respect for the computer and the disaster that can happen with it, and they do not paint themselves into such difficult corners. Mostly, they do not let their pride get in the way of resolving a difficult situation by drastic and simple measures.

Pride and prejudice got me into the most well dug hole when I thought that Windows Vista would happily coexist in harmony and love and understanding with a version of Linux called Backtrack as well as Windows XP.

For the techno geeks out there (the rest can skip this part) Backtrack is a slackware distro of Linux that focuses on network security (or, if you’re wearing a black hat at the moment, getting around and ripping up network security). Backtrack is the hackers’ flavor of Linux.

By the time you’re reading this I’ve been busy reinstalling Windows XP, Windows Vista and put Backtrack as a sole OS on an entirely different machine. The simple solution I should have followed, had not my pride got in the way telling me that I must solve this problem, and that this problem was probably simple to solve in the first place.

It was neither simple nor easy to solve this problem, as many of you would know, and as many of you would have been able to tell me if I had googled for information about it. I would have come to the conclusion that Windows Vista does not like to compete for space, and while it may tolerate older versions of Windows, it certainly does not have any patience for other operating systems – particularly the rival Linuxes out there.

I do not know if this is by accident or by design on Microsofts part, but the boot loading system of Windows Vista is a nightmare to work in. It used to be such a simple matter to set up a multi-boot system in older Windows-versions, and it was a breeze to add a Linux version. Now, however, with Windows Vista it is all retro and you have to use the command line system and a program called BCDEDIT.exe.

The program works against a data layer and to do anything with the data layer, you need to set aside a year to study the intricacies of the program and how it works with data. And after that year, you will find that it is not really possible to add a non-windows operating system to the Windows Vista boot loader.

By now, if you’ve read this far, your muttering about LILO or GRUB, which are Linux boot loaders, and a very well made muttering point it is! And this goes to my pride because I had decided that it was Windows that would control the booting because, well, Windows was easier to work in! And the worse it got, the stronger my determination was to crack this problem. We’re into the area where intelligent people tend to paint themselves into most difficult corners, and then refuse to backtrack because of their supposed intelligence.

So, now, finally, I’ve done the thing I should have done from the start. I’ve reinstalled Windows XP and Windows Vista on one machine, and Backtrack on another. And to further paint myself into the corner of stupid intransigence I’m convinced that Microsoft has planned it all along, making it impossible to keep Windows and Linux on the same box.

~ by stingwasp on July 8, 2007.