Earlier today I decided that I would be better off living a Microsoft-free lifestyle and set about purging my computer of Microsoft products.
While not yet entirely finished, the project goes on…
What I thought was going to be the biggest hassle (switching over my e-mail) turned out to be the easiest thing to do. I got the entire thing done over breakfast this morning.
Based on a tip from an Alas reader (thanks, “John from uconn”) I switched my mail over to HotPOP. I don’t remember why I’d ruled it out in the past, so chalk one up to user error. I’ve been receiving mail on my new account all afternoon without a hitch. I just need to let people know that they can’t send me files over 500K. Oh darn, no more people trying to e-mail me huge .WAV files.
I was worried that I would lose all of the e-mail I had archived in Entourage. I’d already lost more e-mail than I cared to lose when I switched Hotmail accounts (almost exactly one year ago, oddly) and didn’t want to lose any more. Thankfully, Apple’s Mail application imported my Entourage database without any problems at all. No fooling around with plug-ins or extensions or anything like that.
I installed AppleWorks, and it’s worked just fine for me so far. I did get irritated that the program wasn’t contained in a .APP folder but was instead a mess of other things. I solved the problem by making an AppleWorks alias in my Applications folder and using the Developer Tools to hide the actual folder with the program and all its necessaries. I’m investigating the possibility of using an Aqua port of LaTeX (ah, the joys of the internet; this word is pronounced “lah-tech” instead of “lay-tex”) because I’m a sucker for things looking nice. That’s why I bought a Mac in the first place.
I haven’t downloaded the much-recommended MPlayerOSX, yet. I’ll get around to that later, but it looks like it does what I need it to do. Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!
My computer is now officially Microsoft-free. I should make myself a logo…
Oddly enough… I was going through the files I imported from Entourage and came across two letters from myself to myself at a HotPOP account. I usually send myself test e-mails when I get a new e-mail account, just to make sure that it receives everything A-OK. One letter’s subject was “Octopi!” and read, “What a fucking stupid looking word: octopi.” The other’s subject was “Rabbit!” and read, “There are rabbits eating off my legs. Help me, please, dear God!” I think I need to get out more. What do you say?.
But what if there were bunnies eating off your legs?
It would be awfully difficult to get out more, then.
Congrats on the MS-freedom, btw. In addition to MPlayer OSX, I recommend VLC for a nice solution for hard-to-read video files.
My weird 9th grade science teacher was very insistent that the plural of “octopus” is actually “octopodes.” I dunno if he was right, but it sure doesn’t look any less stupid.
Of course, there’s the irony of the fact that most of your readers are reading this freedom-from-Microsoft stuff in Georgia, a Microsoft font, since that’s what your stylesheet specifies…
.comments-body {
font-family:georgia, serif;
Not that this is a bad thing, imho. I’m as cranked off over Microsoft’s predatory practices as anybody, but there are whole departments and divisions within Microsoft that are full of smart and talented people doing good work. And their typography division is one.
Still, there are also people there who should be driven through the streets pursued by packs of wild dogs.
I don’t really have a problem with a lot of what Microsoft has produced. Fonts, as you mentioned, and non-proprietary file formats (.RTF, for instance). My main beef is with their programs, which are bloated and difficult to use, and with some of their proprietary file formats (.DOC comes to mind; the file sizes are ridiculously large for the relatively simple information contained therein).
Perhaps I should just say that I’m purging my computer of everything that Microsoft has tried to keep to itself.
It’s not exactly relevant, but close:
j-walkblog
I too am in the process of going MS free (except for the fonts). Likewise, I am a Mac user which I think makes it easier. Once i buy that Appleworks package and get rid of my hotmail account, i’ll be free! free!!
The only MS program on whose behalf I will speak is Mic Word. My new employer uses WordPerfect, and the transition has been painful. WP has been considerably more cumbersome, counter-intuitive, and even actively obstructionist. The simplest tasks take noticeably more effort. I do hope that your purge allows you to find some other alternative to Word.
I did the switch a couple months ago, now running fedora/gnome. Only took about a week to find/set up for all my favorite programs.
A little slower than Win98 on the same hardware, but much faster cablemodem.
Like nike says, Just Do It. ™